[ATMoB-discuss] 2 Questions

[valleli at rcn.com]

Steve, 
ITEM 1:
While I agree with Mario and John that AIP4Win is an excellent book on astrophotography
it is peppered with equations and explanations of why things work, it distracts from the 
process of learn by doing. As such, it is an extensive handbook and follows in the footsteps
of CCD Astronomy by Christian Buil.

Be forewarned that digital imaging is not for the impatient, flight of fancy, instant results 
with little effort, personality. Most amateur astronomers do have what it takes,however, especially 
if they have been observing Variable stars, asteroid search,drawing lunar and planetary details 
or performing extragalactic novae searches.   

Last year I was teaching using Photoshop for Astrophotographers by Jerry Lodriguss. It comes as 
a CD for about $29 with all tutorials and images on the disk. Jerry uses mouse rollovers to 
illustrate before and after processing and it helps visualize sometime subtle effects.

My favorite was just released by Willman-Bell a few weeks ago. It is Photoshop Astronomy by Scott 
Ireland for $39. Scott and I began our long journey into digital photography in 1997. In 2003, he 
began offering a day-long class at the Winter Star Party, the first year I attended. His teaching 
was supplimented with talks by Don Parker, Tim Kahn, Jack Newton, Tippy D'Auria and other experts 
of SCAS - the Southern Cross Astronomical Society, sponsor of the WSP. This spring, Scott added 
another course at the NEAF convention. At the end of the course he gave out the course notes and 
these became the skeleton of his book, with lots of prodding from editor/publisher Perry Remaklus.
This book is laden with illustrations and covers all stages of digital imaging for basic, 
intermediate, and expert users. 

You mention GIMP but I fear you will be left in the boonies with little sophisticated support. 

In 1997, I picked up a discounted Light Edition (LE) of Photoshop and was totally stumped on using 
it for all but basic editing of my photos. I also bought a low-end Epson Digital Camera with 
only a 1/2 megapixel resolution (340 X 280) and fixed lens for general photography.I had no plan 
to use it for astrophotography because it had poor light-sensitivity. Now, P'Shop Elemeents 2.0 is available for under $100. Frequently it is bundled with the purchase of a digital camera.
I decided to take a Digital Imaging Course at Middlesex Community College ( MCC) for $125/semester.
Boy! was that worth the money for the hand-holding we received. 
The course was based on Adobe's Photoshop version 3.0 and ran on Mac's. I have always despised Apple as 
overly expensive and lack of flexibility compared to Windows PC's. This used to be true 
for the majority of Scientists and Engineers that were weening off of mainframes. 
Well, my instructor put me in my place by illustrating the Mac user-friendly power applications of 
Adobe PrintShop, Graphic Arts,Illustrator, P'Shop, and Video Editing.
The class was told to put away the P'Shop manual but to purchase Adobe's PhotoShop Classroom 
in a Book (CIB).Following chapter by chapter, I became very comfortable with all the basic 
operations in 3 months, creating composites, stacking, embossed lettering, cropping, enhancing contrast, 
and maximizing dynamic range with levels and curves. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could 
download my files to a Zip Drive, bring the 100MB disk home, and load the file onto my PC for further 
processing. A CIB series is available in the computer section of large booksellers such as B&N or Borders'.  
My instructor, although quite brilliant, made one mistake - she claimed that there was only 
so much information that could be extracted from a digital photo. I knew she was very wrong from 
my experiences with the work photo interpreters did to coax and extract incredible information 
from individual silver grains. Now we have 8,12, 16,and 24 bit digital data depth per pixel.
By combining that data with that from multiple exposures,the result is magical, almost spooky.

As the course wound down, I took a deep breath, emptied the wallet of $600, and bought full version 3.5 
at CompUSA. The next year, I took the MCC advanced imaging course and found that I could have purchased 
a full-featured student copy for much less. Two years later I upgraded to V.4.5, then V5.5, and just 
recently paid $149 for CS2 ( V.9).   
   
With a limited budget, I would recommend that you get a Logitech webcam ($50) or Phillips TouCam Pro ($140).
This assumes you have a PC or Laptop with USB 2.0 interface. You already have Registax, and many functions
are quite similar to P'Shop. Of course, you will be limited to bright planetary objects but even the Moon 
will keep you busy learning. 
          
I have been dis-illusioned with the complexity of CCD imaging with an SBIG camera. Preparing flats, darks,
and LRGB separations can be daunting when combined with the normal tasks of telescope operations and looking
for rare times of low turbulence.
I am having more success with the Canon 20D DSLR and I can use many of my old lenses.
The Porter Turret at Stellafane operates at F/17, the Schupmann at F/10 as does the C-14 at Haystack-Westford. 
For the planets, we frequently use a Barlow or PowerMate to get F/34 to F/60. The limit is tracking 
accuracy and camera sensitivity. Getting good lunar and planetary details involves taking hundreds, or 
preferably several thousand frames at rates of 15 FPS to 100. You teach Registax to drop out all the 
blurry frames which depends on seeing conditions that night. The few good exposures are then stacked to
extract every bit of detail from the sum. Fainter objects may require a 0.33X tele-compressor to register
but will be tiny, perhaps only a few pixels. Yet features on Jupiter's Moons have been recorded with just 
a C-11.       
             
ITEM 2
It may take a long time to find a used set of finder rings at a swap event. Next is Skyscrapers in RI. 
Orion Telescopes has a complete 8 X 30 with mounting adapter and crosshair for $39.


This should help you make some critical decisions.
Just jump in!
Paul