Astronomy and Astrophotography

Filters list	Astro cameras list	My astrophotos

Solar system astrophotography

• Saturn imaging tips - How to catch best Saturn images with webcams or dedicated planetary cameras.
• Tips for imaging planets with DMK21 - How to squeeze everything from the DMK21 when imaging planets, moon or the sun
• Industry filters in planetary astrophotography - Checking some low cost Schott, Hoya and Silicon filters in planetary/lunary astrophotography
• Optimizing UV Venus imaging - How to improve ultraviolet imaging of cloud structures on Venus
• Planetary imaging with atmospheric dispersion corrector - A quick run with atmospheric dispersion corrector and Meade TeleXtenders on Saturn. The corrector allowed to get superb luminance images and true LRGB images.
• Catching Jupiter inner and outer mini moons - How to catch small and exotic Jupiter moons on photographs
• Lunar petrographic imaging - showing minerals and age in colors - How to determine Moon surface composition and age using narrowband filters and some processing tricks
• My filters and first results of lunar petrographic imaging - Imaging Moon in false colors to reveal maturation and composition details
• Filters for white ligh solar imaging with a Herschel wedge
• Solar H-alpha imaging and observing with a 35 mm Lunt - A review of a small 35 mm Lunt Delux scope for solar imaging and observing
• Testing Baader professional and amateur LRGB filters - How two RGB filter sets perform in planetary imaging?

Processing planetary images

• Features of FireCapture 2.2 - Going through features available in planetary imaging application - FireCapture 2.2
• Processing planetary images - Wavelets, deconvolution and unsharp masks in processing of monochrome planetary images
• Planetary, Lunar and Solar image stacking in Autostakkert2 - Stacking planetary, Solar and Lunar AVIs in Autostakkert
• Castrator and Autostakkert tutorial - Videotutorial showing how to use Castrator and AutoStakkert for planetary avi stacking
• Planetary maps and de-rotation with WinJUPOS - Create planetary maps and remove planet rotation for LRGB, RGB images from monochrome cameras
• Creating LRGB images from color cameras - Splitting channels of color images to make Ir-RGB or other LRGB compositions

Planetary cameras

• New Solar System imaging cameras for 2013 - New and planned cameras useful for solar, lunar and planetary imaging
• Laptops with ExpressCard slots for use with fast planetary cameras - Choosing laptops and other computers that can handle Firewite 800, GigE or USB3 cameras
• Powerful modern imaging sets for planetary, lunar and solar imaging - The best Solar System imaging sets with TIS DMK/DBK/DFK and Point Grey Chameleon cameras... and more
• Flea 3 with ICX618 CCD - the best thing for planetary imaging - Testing fast and popular machine vision camer in planetary imaging
• Point Grey Chameleon - lunar and solar camera - A quick review of PGR Chameleon USB camera for lunar, solar and planetary imaging
• Testing Point Grey Firefly MV cameras - Testing cheap Firefly cameras for planetary and lunar imaging
• Small, cheap and good cameras for planetary and lunary imaging - A quick look through new machine vision cameras that could be usable for planetary or lunary imaging
• Testing IDS Imaging UI-1245LE-M-GL camera in planetary, lunar and solar astrophotography - Testing e2v EV76C560 CMOS based camera in Solar System astrophotography
• Testing fast USB3 camera - Ximea xiQ MQ013MG-E2 - Testing Ximea xiQ MQ013MG-E2 in planetary, lunar and solar imaging
• Testing Tucsen Discovery M15 sCMOS camera - Solar System astrophotography test for Discovery M15 Scientific CMOS camera
• Testing webcams in planetary astrophotography - Checking if modern CMOS webcams can be used in planetary, lunary astrophotography
• MS LifeCams in planetary and lunar astrophotography - Modifying and using HD LifeCams in low cost astrophotography
• MS Lifecam Studio conversion for Solar System photography - Converting the webcam for planetary, lunar and solar imaging
• Cheap USB 2.0 webcams are quite disappointing - Cheap USB 2.0 HD webcams turned to be noticeably worse than their better-branded counterparts
• First tests of Basler Ace acA640-100gm for planetary imaging - Testing new Basler camera with sensitive ICX618 CCD as a camera for planetary imaging.
• Testing Basler Scout scA640-120gm - Testing Basler Scout camera with new sensitive CCD sensor ICX618 for use in planetary imaging

DS imaging

• Fighting light pollution with Astronomik CLS and CLS-CCD filters - A quick look at CLS / CLS-CCD filters made by Astronomik for light pollution cut-out
• Helium, argon, neutral oxygen and other bands in narrowband imaging - Quick look through exotic bands for narrowband imaging of planetary nebulae with amateur equipment.
• Choosing Edmund Optics filters for helium, oxygen and argon narrowband imaging - Matching AO filters for He-I, He-II, O-I and Ar-III bands
• How to guide a mount with PHD? - Overview of guide cameras, various mounts and guiding settings
• Astrophotography acquisition and processing in Nebulosity - Quck tutorial for the Nebulosity 2 application
• Making HDR images of deep space objects in IRIS - Fixing the overburned areas on DS images by HDR image algorithms
• Wide field imaging with DMK/DBK/DFK cameras and CS lens - Using industry CS lenses with The Imaging Source planetary cameras to catch constellations, milky way or big nebulae

DS imaging hardware

• Brightstar Mammut Lyuba L429-M - new entry level camera - Testing new entry level Brightstar camera
• QHY5 and Atik Titan guide star finding comparison - How well two different guide cams can find guide stars?
• Atik Titan - a handy guider and imaging camera - Testing Atik Titan at guiding and imaging
• Celestron Radial Guider and Brightstar Advanced Off Axis Guider - A guick review of the Celestrion and Brightstar / Orion off axis guiders
• TS 1,25" and 2" filter drawer review - Short review of Teleskop Service filter drawers
• Cooling solutions for QHY5 - How to reduce noise and fixed pattern noise of QHY5 cameras
• Quick test of a Optec NextGen 0.5 SCT reducer - Description and few tests of a SCT reducer corrector from Optec
• TSFlip - Flip Mirror and Off Axis Guiding System in one device - A review of new TS device combining an OAG and a Flip Mirror in one slim body

Spectroscopy

• Prism spectroscope and some astronomy fun - Using simple prism spectroscope mounted on a telescope to observe spectrums of light bulbs, street lights, and Fraunhofer lines in solar spectrum.
• Capturing and processing spectrums with Star Analyser - Using simple diffraction grating in a filter thread (Star Analyser) we can capture spectrum of many astronomical objects and analyze their chemical composition.
• Sirius spectrum - Analysis of absorption bands in Sirius spectrum recorded with Star Analyser and processed in VSPEC
• Saturn absorption bands recorded with Star Analyser - Recording and analyzing spectrum of Saturn and it rings using Star Analyser.

Other

• Stability of heavy scopes on popular mounts - How to make heavy scopes stable on HEQ5 or NEQ6
• A quick look at Baader Hyperion Zoom Barlow - Evaluating Baader Hyperion Zoom Barlow in planetary astrophotography
• Comparing photography to astrophotography - Scale comparison of photography and astrophotography
• Polar re-alignment on stars in new SkyWatcher SynScan firmware - Using a bright star to correct polar alignment of SkyWatcher equatorial mounts
• Home made SCT cooler - Making a cheap fan based cooler for SCT/Mak telescopes to improve cooldown times
• Small fan assembly for cooling SCT during use - Putting a small fan on the OTA to blow air through the OTA
• Cooling cams with USB powered Peltier devices - How to re-use USB drinks coolers for camera cooling
• ASCOM for end user application developers - How to use ASCOM API to control astronomical hardware

Latest news

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My Telescope

• SkyWatcher 11" SCT
• DMK21AU618, Atik 314L+, QHY5
• Baader 1,25" UHC-S and Methane Filter, Baader LRGB + Narrowband, Astronomik Pro Planet 742, 804, Schott Hoya and Omega Optical filters
• Star Analyser
• A lot of TS and Baader accessories ;)
• and more ;)