Astrophotography with the new IS-series

[JBurnell]

Hi Folks,

I have been using each of the Tele Vue IS-series scopes for astrophography
for the past year and a half. I have been fortunate enough to be the first
astrophotographer to use each of the new scopes, and they perform
magnificently. Some sample images are available at http://www.jburnell.com/STL1stLight.html

Enjoy!

Jim

[budguinn]

Jim,

some very nice shots. I have the older NP101 and was going to get the NP127is because of the sag in the imaging train of the older scope...but, ended up getting the E180ED.....by the time all of the goodies were added up for the 127 it seemed a tad expensive.

I enjoyed the tour of images.

[budguinn]

Jim,

Also a note on some of the images. I notice that many of the images are straight HaRGB images. This is a pretty good method in combining, but it does have some inherent flaws. The biggest of these is that with a big emission area, such as the rosette...you'll find that the HA will show so much more of the outer neublous areas than the straight RGB..(I notice this in many of the shots). The problem arises when you make a straight combine, in that there is no color information available for the outer nebula, so you end up getting very little to no color at all in the outer area.
In cases like this, I blend the ha into the red channel in RGB mode. Then blend the ha into the Luminance channel using the LAB mode. This will now have complete color throughout the nebula areas....from the Rchannel blend, and the great detail from the Lchannel blend.

If you'd like an example I could redo one of the shots...maybe the rosette...if you can give access to some .jpg's of the ha and the rgb.

BTW, I love the big book....just wished I was smart enough to figure everything out.

bud

[BT Technologies]

Hello Jim and thank you for posting the link to your site. The images that you have taken are superb and show what the TV IS series scopes with the SBIG STL series are capable of.

Originally Posted by JBurnell

Hi Folks,

I have been using each of the Tele Vue IS-series scopes for astrophography
for the past year and a half. I have been fortunate enough to be the first
astrophotographer to use each of the new scopes, and they perform
magnificently. Some sample images are available at http://www.jburnell.com/STL1stLight.html

Enjoy!

Jim