I am relatively new to astrophotography.  I have found it very challenging,  turning the nearly invisible smudges my camera captures during my imaging sessions into full color photos.  A typical astronomical object will look like the following image before it has been processed.

M1 “Crab Nebula” RAW

Weak Signal

As you can see, it doesn’t look anything like the beautiful images one is used to seeing. This occurs because signal is very weak.  Therefore most of the pixel data are congregated into the lower part of the photos histogram.

The object in the image can be made visible by a process called “stretching”.  Stretching can be done in Photoshop, but astrophotographers typically use software designed to specifically process astronomical images.  There are many special purpose astrophotography programs available.  Some are free, others are nominally priced while the more sophisticated programs are  priced similar to Photoshop.

After trying some of the free and low priced programs with mixed results I decided to download a trial version of the very popular PixInsight program.  PixInsight is like the Swiss Army Knife of Astronomical processing software.  It has hundreds of special functions, each designed for a specific processing task.

Trying out PixInsight

After I downloaded the PixInsight trial  version,  I watched a number of video tutorials trying to learn the basics of the software.  While the online videos were very good at explaining the use of specific tools in the PixInsight toolbox, none of them did a good job of showing the basic steps needed to process an image. After watching several videos, I still did not have a clear understanding of how to use the program.  However, I should point out that now that I have learned the basics of PixInsight, the videos have been very helpful in improving my skills.

An Excellent Book on PixInsight

Warren Keller’s Book on PixInsight

Just as I was about to give up on PixInsight, Warren Keller (no relation) brought out an outstanding book on PixInsight.  Warren’s book turned out to be just what I needed to learn the basics of PixInsight.    The first six chapters of his book walk the reader through the essential steps needed to process an astronomical image.  After the completing those steps I was able to produce  presentable images.  The rest of the book walks the reader through many of the advanced features of the program.  These advanced topics can be used to make your images really pop (assuming you have enough good data).

I won’t attempt to explain each of the steps that I used to process the “data” I collected on M1.  However, I only used the techniques taught in the first 6 chapters of the book.  I am still experimenting with some of the more advanced features found later in the book.

Astrophotographers refer to the group of images (sub-exposures) they collect on a specific astronomical object as data rather than photos.  I think the reason they use this terminology is that until all of the sub-exposures are combined and processed they really don’t resemble a  normal photograph.

My Processed M1 Image

For M1, I collected twenty 3 minute sub-exposures;   one hour of total exposure time. Most of the premier astrophotographers will collect 6 to 30 hours of data on a given target.  Therefore, I didn’t expect my image to be as awe inspiring as the images of these highly skilled amateurs.

You can check out the work of some of the worlds best astrophotographers on NASA’s Astronomical Photo of the Day site.

M1 Crab Nebula

Here is my finished photo. It is a significant improvement over photos I have processed by simpler means.  I highly recommend PixInsight software along with Warren Keller’s excellent book “Inside PixInsight”.  His book gave me the set of training wheels I needed to get started with this incredible program.

Fred

The next step in the construction of our Roll-off-Roof was the construction of the building.  We chose a design from Back Yard Observatories, BYO.

Scott Horstman contacted me a few days prior to the planned start date, to let me know that a local building supply house would be making a delivery the following day.  Here is a photo of the large pile of material that was delivered.

Building Materials Arrive

With the help of the delivery crew, I was able to identify and count all of the different items before I signed off on the delivery.  This was harder than I thought it would be because there were many types of materials with names that were new to me.  I know things like 2×4, 2×8 etc, but names like OSB and five quarter were new to me.

When Scott and his crew arrived the next day, they inventoried all of the materials before starting construction.   Next, they measured the size and squareness of the concrete pad. Apparently, he has run into pads which were several inches from square.  Scott quipped that it is still possible to build a square building on a trapezoidal foundation, but not ideal!  Our foundation was square to within 1/8″ thanks to our excellent concrete contractor.

Sorting Material and Checking the Pad

Once the pad had been checked, they began framing the walls.  They were able to use the observatory’s concrete floor to assemble the walls.  Since I already had power to the observatory pad, they were able to install a temporary outlet to run their saws and compressors.  It was amazing for me was to not see Scott or any of his crew refer to a single drawing during the construction.  He and his expert crew build so many of these observatories (although they are all different sizes) they automatically know the dimensions for every part!

Assembling One of the Walls

Once each wall was completed it was leveled and anchored in place.

First Wall Up, 3 to Go

Here you can see that three walls have been completed.  In the above photo you can see that the south wall is shorter.  The gap in the top of the wall will be filled once the hinged drop- down south wall has been installed.  Also, you can see the beefed up header on the right (West) wall.  The additional header is needed to support the weight of the roll-off-roof.  Below is photo looking from the South.

South Wall Showing Cutout for Drop Down Section

Once all four walls were in place, the framing for the roll-off-roof support structure was added. In addition, they are starting to frame the deck we had them add under the roll-off-roof supports.  The deck turned out to be a very nice addition to the observatory.  It makes a very nice place to sit and relax when we are waiting for it to get dark prior to a summer observing session.

Construction of Deck and Roll-off_Roof Supports

With the framing for the deck completed it was time to start adding the decking.
We chose treated five-quarter decking, but in retrospect I would have probably gone with the more costly composite material to reduce future maintenance.

Deck Framing Complete

All of the decking was nailed down it was cut to length in a single cut.  That is a pretty neat trick to make sure that all of the boards are exactly flush at the visible end of the deck.  The other thing I realized is that doing it this way saves considerable time that would be required to measure and individually cut each board.   Being the weekend hacker that I am, I don’t think I would have thought to do it this way.

Deck Planking

Once the walls and roll-off-roof support structure were completed, fabrication of the two rolling beams that support the roof trusses were assembled.  There are four heavy duty steel “V” rollers used on each beam.  The beam is also strengthened with a treated 2 x 8.  The 2 x 8 also covers the gap between the top of the wall and the bottom of the roof.

Construction of Roof Rollers

The following photo shows the roof support beams sitting on the angle iron rail which supports the roof and guides the rollers.

Roof Support and Rollers Installed on Wall and Roof Rail

Finally the roof was completed and ready to be rolled back if the rain would stop!  We were lucky we were only getting sprinkles instead of a “hoosier” downpour, which would have stopped the work.  Once the roof was on, the roof and walls were covered with felt paper before the metal roofing and cedar siding were installed.

Roof Completed

In this photo the cedar siding has been installed and the metal roof is being completed.

Metal Roofing and Cedar Siding Being Installed

The final photo shows what the observatory looks like with the roof rolled back!  Our friends and family are always amazed when they seen the roof rolled back for the first time.

Observatory with Roof Rolled Back

In the next installment, I’ll move inside the observatory to show some of the interior details.

Indiana weather does not offer an abundance of clear nights for observing or astrophotography.  However, last winter we had a lot of clear nights, but the time to setup and teardown my astrophotography setup kept my wife and I from taking advantage of most of them. We found it really hard to get motivated to setup and teardown our gear with snow on the ground and frigid temperatures.

As our frustration grew, we decided we should build a “simple” observatory.  Our initial plan was to construct a small concrete pad with a permanent pier; which could be covered with a small garden shed which could be rolled over the pier to protect the telescope and mount.  Of course, as our planning progressed, the scale of our  “simple” observatory began to expand! After nearly 9 months of planning we decided to build a medium sized roll-off-roof observatory.

We settled on a 15′ x 15′ Roll-off-Roof design with two piers and an area to setup a third telescope inside the observatory.  One of the piers will be dedicated to astrophotography and the other will be used for visual astronomy.  The advantage of an observatory is that anytime there are clear night skies it is easy to open the observatory and begin observing; eliminating most of the long setup time.  The elimination of 3 hours of setup and teardown will substantially increase our motivation to take advantage of the clear and cold winter skies.

Framing of Observatory Pad

Construction started in early November. The pad forms were constructed the day before the concrete pour.  The pad included two cutouts where the piers will be installed.

Completed Forms Showing Pier Locations and Power and Data Conduits

Conduit was added to handle the electrical and data cables that will be needed at each pier.

The Concrete Pour Ballet

On the following day It was time to pour the concrete.  After watching this expert crew work I was relieved that I hadn’t tried to do this myself.  Watching their choreographed ballet I was impressed with their skill and organization. Things were happening so fast that there was no time to stop and decide who was to do each job or discuss how something was to be done.

Completed Observatory Foundation

Here is a photo of my wife admiring the completed pad.

Check back in soon to see the observatory construction begin.

Fred

Saturn

On Tuesday night the skies were clear so my wife and I got with some others from the Indiana Astronomical Society to do some observing.  I took our Meade LX80 mount and 6 inch Astro Tech refractor to give it a run.  During the winter I added a StarGPS to the LX80 to make the setup a bit easier.  I highly recommend the StarGPS system.  It eliminates many of the potential errors that can lead to poor scope alignment.  If the scope is carefully leveled and set to its home position, the GPS will enable you to get a near perfect alignment every time.

After I assembled  and leveled the LX80 I installed the Astro Tech scope and turned on the power.  In about 2 minutes the StarGPS found our location.  It loaded the correct time and location into the handset and then put the hand controller into the “Easy” align mode.  I did a two star alignment and was pleased to see a “Alignment Successful” message on the hand controller.

The first thing I did was slew to Jupiter to catch it before it dropped below the trees.  I was rewarded with a nice view of Jupiter and four moons. Jupiter’s bands were visible but the Great Red Spot was not visible.

My wife and I spent the rest of the night viewing a number of deep space objects.  One of the nicest DSOs we saw was when my wife got M81 and M82 in the eyepiece at the same time.  We also had a nice view the Sombrero Galaxy (M104).  Later in the evening I tried out Meade’s “What’s Up Tonight” feature to take  a guided tour of the nights best objects.  The hand-controller selected a few objects that were new to me;  so it was time well spent.

We finished up the evening by getting our first view of Saturn this year.  I always enjoy looking at Saturn because it has such a striking appearance.

Fred,  KC9QQ