June Presentation – From Radio Waves to the Stars – An Evening of Astrophotography

Lets move further up the Electromagnetic Spectrum to light and Astrophotography! 00:01:00 - Overview and warnings about deep sky and planetary astrophotography 00:03:10 - What actually is astrophotography - art & science & challenge 00:05:20 - What is unique about Deep sky photography elements and equipment 00:09:00 - Multiple exposures to build up richer image and increase signal to noise 00:15:30 - Calibration frames - lights, darks, bias and flats 00:18:30 - How it all started - Lisa's equipment evolution - year 1 & 2! 00:22:00 - Light pollution mitigation 00:22:30 - Guiding scopes to make small adjustments 00:26:30 - The equipment evolution continues - year 3 & 4 00:30:00 - How the observatory operates 00:32:40 - Planning the observation 00:34:40 - False colour filtering/application - colour sensors / mono vs colour 00:38:00 - 3nm filters for sulphur, hydrogen alpha and oxygen wavelengths (Hubble colours) 00:44:45 - 65 hour image - the Kraken 00:48:20 - Planetary Imaging - short exposures - small cameras - video high frame rate - staking 00:53:10 - Saturn - video and image files - moon shots 00:55:20 - But wait- there's more - astoroids, supernova, solar eclipse, AI images/videos 00:57:55 - Challenges - focus, collimation, etc 01:00:30 - Software used - planning, capture, processing and post-processing 01:03:05 - Why you should try it 01:04:20 - Automated - SeeStar - the future of astrophotography - examples 01:15:20 - Questions and Answers Huge thank you to Lisa VK7SGZ for the "out-of-this-world" presentation!