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By Ken Hudson, Monday August 30, 2010 at 03:48 PM | 0 Comments
Up until recently my amateur astronomy activities were focused primarily on visual observing. However, I have decided to learn astro-imaging. This is bound to be an interesting and challenging endeavor. First, you need equipment and software (perhaps a surprising amount of each). Second, you need to learn to use that equipment and software. Once you are reasonably competent with everything, you can focus on becoming a quality imager. This process can take years or perhaps a lifetime - there's always something new to learn.
This blog post is the first in an occasional series of blog posts that will detail my experiences with astro-imaging. I imagine, like all good stories, there will be comedy (laughing) and drama (crying). Let's hope there's more comedy than drama! For those of you who aren't interested in astrophotography, no worries - my interviews and other blog posts will continue just like now. For those of you who are intermediate or advanced astro imagers and not really interested in the exploits of someone new to the hobby, don't worry. Share Astronomy will be enhanced soon with a new Articles Section featuring in-depth articles of interest to everyone including intermediate and advanced imagers. (I'm looking for more authors - if you're interested please email me at Ken <dot> Hudson <@> nealstreetdesign <dot> com. I'd love to talk with you.)
People wanting to learn astro-imaging have many possible options. Their choices will depend on several factors including what type of images they want to take, what equipment they already have, how much money they are willing to spend, what kind of a support system they have, how comfortable they are with technology, what their goals are, etc. Some people may want to take scenic photos of constellations or star trails with a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera on a fixed tripod. Others may be interested in planetary imaging and attach a new webcam to a telescope they already own. Still others are interested in imaging DSOs (deep sky objects) with a DSLR or a CCD camera. There are many possibilities and I would highly recommend doing your homework. Talk to people in your local astronomy club, spend a lot of time on astronomy forums like Cloudy Nights or IceInSpace, and read imaging books like Jerry Lodriguss's excellent books on CD titled A Beginner's Guide to DSLR Astrophotography and A Guide to Astrophotography with DSLR Cameras. Some types of astro-imaging are easier to learn than others and there's a strong case to be made for starting out simple and moving on to more complex activities as your skills progress. However, some people just jump into the deep end of the pool.
As I said above, in order to do astrophotography you need equipment and you need software. I have made most of my equipment and software decisions. However, I'm going to keep them a secret for right now. In my next blog post in this series, I'll tell you which telescope I'll be using and why.
By Ken Hudson, Friday August 13, 2010 at 05:01 PM | 0 Comments
Are you interested in astro-imaging? If you answered "yes" then you've probably heard of the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC). It's probably fair to say that the Advanced Imaging Conference brings together more astrophotographers than any other imaging conference in the world. This year the AIC 2010 will be held from October 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara in Santa Clara, California. Recently, I had the pleasure to interview R. Jay GaBany who is the Webmaster and Marketing & Communications person for AIC 2010. We had a very interesting discussion that covered a lot of ground. My interview with Jay is included below:
You are advertising a new and improved venue for this year's conference. What we can expect from The Hyatt Regency Santa Clara?
The Hyatt Regency Santa Clara is a luxury, AAA Four Diamond hotel that just went through $12 million renovation and it looks brand new inside. The rooms are quiet and all have been upgraded with new carpeting, new furniture and 32- inch LCD HDTV's, for example. There are three specialty restaurants (Sushi, Mediterranean and American cuisines) on site and we've negotiated discounts for our attendees. In short, this year's AIC hotel is in a different class from the one we've used in the past. Significantly, the conference room rate has not changed in over four years- it's only $99 per night- but rooms at this rate are limited.
Let's talk numbers. How many attendees are you expecting this year? Speakers? Sessions? Vendors?
This year we are anticipating about 300 attendees in total. We have space for up to 37 exhibitors and have scheduled 22 world class speakers. Our agenda features 19 Friday workshops and 11 presentations during the weekend General Session.
I believe the Advanced Imaging Conference is the largest imaging conference held in the U.S. and maybe the world. Why does the AIC draw so many people?
There are several great astronomical gatherings held each year across the country but most of them are focused on the exhibition and sale of equipment and software. Some, to their credit, have also attached an astro-imaging event but retail sales to the general public are their core purpose. The AIC, conversely, is primarily focused on the dissemination of astro-imaging information, skills and techniques with an exhibition tacked on the side to help offset the cost of registration for everyone else. The hard core hobbyists recognize and appreciate this difference.
But beyond that, astrophotography is a very challenging pastime. The first year is a supreme struggle and even folks with five or more years of experience are still on the lookout for processing techniques that will save time or improve the quality of their final image. Each year, the AIC attracts most of the community's leading experts and that draws everyone else.
By Ken Hudson, Friday August 06, 2010 at 08:35 PM | 4 Comments
At Share Astronomy we are very interested in citizen science. In my opinion, one of the most influential people involved in promoting professional / amateur collaboration in astronomy is Olivier Thizy. Mr. Thizy is one of the co-owners of Shelyak Instruments headquartered in Revel, France. Shelyak Instruments produces a wide range of spectroscopy products (e.g., Lhires Lite, Lhires III, eShel, etc.) designed to promote scientific astronomy within the amateur community. Recently, I was fortunate enough to interview Mr. Thizy. The interview is included below:
You are a co-owner of Shelyak Instruments. How did you get started in spectroscopy and what motivated you to start a company that manufactures spectroscopes, spectrographs and related equipment for amateur astronomers?
When I started astronomy in a club in 1980, I loved watching for the stars at night and deep sky observing with a small refractor that my parents offered me at Christmas. But I quickly wanted to go beyond simply watching or imaging celestial objects and looked for scientific projects to conduct. I started with photometry first with jupiter moon mutual phenomena (I remember putting a motor on a SLR so the film was slowly moving while capturing the flux of a satellite as a trail; analyzing the trail later on gave indication on exact event timing). I then studied asteroids and their light curves providing interesting data on their shape. I started to be interested in spectroscopy in general in 2000. In 2003, I participated in a professional/amateur symposium organized by the French research organization CNRS. It became obvious that amateurs did not have the proper equipment, lacking resolution to detail absorption line profiles in stellar spectra. François Cochard, co-owner of Shelyak Instruments, Christian Buil, Yvon Rieugné and I worked that year to design a high resolution spectrograph - Lhires. We industrialized the Lhires and made it available at cost as a one-time offer within the French AUDE non profit association whose goal is to promote science in astronomy. This one-time offer was so successful that François and I decided to start a company to continue to make the Lhires III available and promote spectroscopy among amateur astronomy. We then extended our product range including the first commercial echelle fiber fed spectrograph to astronomy.
Why is spectroscopy so suitable for collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers?
Spectroscopy transformed during the 20th century into astrophysics, revealing the nature of the stars, nebulae or galaxies. If you look at professional astronomer time requests on large telescopes, you will notice than more than 80% of the observing time is in spectroscopy. It is natural for amateur spectroscopists to help the professional community on some bright targets - I believe this is a new field for pro/am collaboration!
By Ken Hudson, Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 08:43 PM | 0 Comments
I just returned from the Midwest Astro-Imaging Conference and Mac Astronomy Workshop (MWAIC) held in Hoffman Estates, IL (near Chicago). What a great conference! I'll tell you all about it, but first I'd like to draw your attention to two up-coming astro-imaging events.
The first event is a PixInsight Workshop by Vicent Peris at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago from September 10-12, 2010. PixInsight is an advanced image processing program designed specifically for astrophotography and "other technical imaging fields". Vicent Peris is an astrophotographer at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Valencia in Spain and he's also a principal member of the PixInsight Development Team. If you are unfamiliar with this product I would highly recommend that you visit the PixInsight web site and learn more. I will have additional blog posts about PixInsight in the future.
The second up-coming astro-imaging event is the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) in Santa Clara, CA from October 22-24. The AIC 2010 is expected to draw together 250 imagers along with approximately 20 speakers and over 30 exhibitors from around the world. Friday, October 22 will be devoted to a series of workshops and Saturday and Sunday will feature general sessions on a wide variety of imaging topics. I have many friends who have attended the AIC in the past and every one of them has had nothing but positive comments.
Now, back to the Midwest Astro-Imaging Conference (MWAIC). This was my first conference devoted to astro photography and I was very impressed. Al Degutis, Editor-in-Chief of AstroPhoto Insight Magazine, and a very dedicated group of volunteers did an outstanding job organizing this event. I never did hear an "official" count on the number of attendees but I would estimate that approximately 75 people were there. I thought the small size was good. I made a lot of friends and had some really interesting conversations with imagers from all over the U.S. The networking opportunities were one of my favorite things about this conference.
Adam Block from the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter conducted a Pre-Conference Workshop titled "Making Every Pixel Count" on Thursday, July 22, 2010. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Pre-Conference Workshop due to other commitments but I talked to several participants and they were all very enthusiastic about Adam's workshop. The next two days were filled with hour-long presentations by a wide-range of very knowledgeable presenters. Sessions included:
I know it sounds a little unbelievable, but every one of the sessions was well done. How often can you say that at a conference?
MWAIC 2010 also had a small but interesting group of vendors that included: Adobe Systems, ATIK USA, Canon USA, DC-3 Dreams, Fishcamp Engineering, ImagesPlus, Mt Lemmon SkyCenter, Optec Inc., Quantum Scientific Imaging (QSI), Starlight Xpress and Telescope Support Systems.
If you're interested in astro-imaging and you'd like to attend a conference where you can learn a lot and make many new friends you should definitely consider MWAIC in 2011.
By Ken Hudson, Friday July 02, 2010 at 05:15 PM | 0 Comments
Last week I published an interview with Sarah Maddison of Swinburne Astronomy Online (SAO). This week I am happy to publish interviews with four alumni of SAO. If you have ever thought about getting a postgraduate degree in astronomy I am sure you will find these interviews fascinating and inspirational. Each of the people interviewed has a unique and interesting story. The interviews are listed below in alphabetical order by last name.
Emil Lenc is a former engineer who is now a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) Astronomy and Space Science. (CSIRO is Australia's national science agency.)
What was your educational and professional background prior to attending Swinburne Astronomy Online (SAO)?
I had a Bachelor degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Master degree in Engineering (by research).
What was your astronomy background prior to attending SAO?
I'd have to admit to being a bit of a closet astronomer at the time. I was quite interested in all things related to astronomy and space science (rockets, probes, etc.) and was immediately drawn to these topics in newspapers and magazines but did not have a great deal of practical experience with a telescope. I did have a small telescope that my father and brothers helped me put together when I was a child (in preparation for Comet Halley) but never really had an opportunity to use it much as I went through university and eventually a full-time working career.
What were your goals when you decided to apply to SAO?
My main goals were to keep my mind active to have fun ... and perhaps even find out a bit more about astronomy and what astronomers do.
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