Exploring Night Sky » astrophotography

Feb 22

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Deep Sky 0 comments tags: astrophotography, AT65EDQ, Deep Sky, Eta Carina, photoshop, processing, ZEQ25

The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme

Carina Nebula is a region in the sky much brighter and larger (at least 4 times larger) than the famous Orion Nebula (M42), yet is not as famous. This is probably because of the location of the object which is circumpolar south of latitude 30°S, but is never visible north of latitude 30°N. It is a treat for people in the south and especially for astrophotographers. During the summer, we have Orion up in the sky and as the winter comes, it’s time for Carina to be up nice and high. This not so famous Carina Nebula is an extreme stellar nursery, a home to one of the youngest known star clusters (Trumpler 14), Trumpler 16 which is home to of WR 25, currently the most luminous star known in our Milky Way galaxy together with the less luminous but more massive and famous Eta Carinae star system, and HD 93129A (another luminous star). The nebula lies at an estimated distance between 6,500 and 10,000 light years from Earth. It appears in the constellation of Carina, and is located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm. I Bought a new AT65EDQ and iOptron ZEQ25 mount but never used it due to bad weather around […]

Feb 08

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography 0 comments tags: astrophotography, Deep Sky, Lagoon Nebula, photoshop, processing, Trifid Nebula

Lagoon and Trifid Nebula Processing Workflow using Photoshop CC HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjMMyVvSz1s?html5=1 Members of the facebook group “Indian Amateur Astrophotographer ” upload one RAW image to be processed by other members. This helps everyone learn and share the art of processing astro images. This is my small contribution to the group on how i processed this particular image of the Lagoon and Trifid nebula using Photoshop CC. The above image was taken by Subhankar Saha, Renganathan Venketesan and Dr. Suresh Mohan on a hot summer night from Yelagiri. The night temp was 29c on may 30th and they forgot finder scope, after some gimmicks they got a star centred and did the GOTO. This is 2 hr exposure from yelagiri at ISO 800x 10 minutes. The image was shot using Canon 500D modified, Takahashi FSQ85 at f 5.3. I’ve used basic curves and level adjustment along with some masking techniques, colour balance and camera raw filter. Click here for a full res image Here is a before and after comparison. Before is the RAW stacked image and later is the processed version. This shows that when you stack images and end up with a dark dull image, do not be disappointed. The image data is all there it’s a matter of […]

Dec 30

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography 0 comments tags: Astronomik CLS Filter, astrophotography, C/2014 Q2, Comet Lovejoy, Light Polluted Location

Capturing comet “Lovejoy” from a light polluted location

December 2014 has been a lucky month for all astrophotographers, as the comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) brightens up and makes a visit in the night sky. I recently purchased a new AT65ED Scope and an iOptron ZEQ25 so that I could spend my holiday in India capturing all the Northern Objects, but unfortunately had to leave them at airport due to baggage restrictions. I was disappointed when I saw all the amazing images from all over the world of the comet. I really wanted to take a shot of the same, as it would be my first ever comet capture. I looked up at my gear and realized i don’t really need fancy gear to capture the comet, i can try with the gear i have. So, finally on 29th December 2014, I headed out to the terrace of my apartment in Nagpur City and set up my gear. Pointed out my camera towards South at around 12:30 AM. At start it was really disappointed as i did not see anything apart from the stars i saw everyday. I was using Canon 50mm f/1.8 on Canon 6D and Tamron 70 – 300 on my Nikon D5100. It was probably because […]

Dec 01

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Nightscapes 3 comments tags: astrophotography, lightroom, photoshop, processing

Processing Nightscapes

Processing nightscapes is a challenge that every nightscape photographer faces. Nightscape photographers spend hours under the dark sky capturing the beautiful night sky and spend more hours processing it. Unlike most landscape photos which are shot at faster shutter speeds and do not have noise and darker foregrounds, nightscape images are polluted with noise, dark foregrounds and so many other artifacts that are caused by long exposures. Recently, I attended an astrophotography camp organized by Horowhenua Astronomical Society with Jonathan Green as volunteers for AstroNZ, where i gave a presentation / talk on processing nightscapes. My talk included topics on: 1) Gear required 2) How to capture 3) Post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop. As, this talk was focused on nightscape processing, I also included panorama stitching and processing. Here is the presentation that was a part of my talk at the astrophotogtaphy astrophotography camp.

Nov 30

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Deep Sky 2 comments tags: astrophotography, Deep Sky, LMC, SMC, ZEQ25

Our galactic neighbours

After attending the astrophotography camp at Foxton, organized by the Horowhenua Astronomical Society. Jonathan and i decided to stop at Opotaka, which is an historic maori site in New Zealand in the Tongariro national park, also called the land of two dwellings. Last time we were here, we had amazing clear sky and was hoping for the same. We got our camera and other gear setup and were waiting for sundown. As, the sun went down the clouds started rolling in and we thought we might have to call it a night, but luckily the clouds cleared up and we were back in business. I recently bought an iOptron ZEQ25 mount from AstroNZ and was eagerly waiting to use it. After a while and bit of challenge to get the balance right, the mount was ready to track. I looked around and the only patch of clear sky was overhead around the LMC and SMC (Large and Small Magellan Clouds). so, i pointed my camera overhead and started shooting, but unfortunately before i could get enough shots the clouds rolled in and we had to call it a night. I ended up getting 5 amazing 2 minute exposures of that […]