While On Cameras
While I'm on the topic of cameras, a friend of mine recently showed me some neat software I'm hoping to use in the near future. My friend is an amateur astronomer. What this boils down to for him is that he is willing to spend his own time and money to produce some fantastic astrophotos, both with film and electronic detectors. Naturally photo software comes into play.
Without getting into the distinction between professional and amateur astronomers (which has more to do with being paid, being published, and getting tenure than it does skill level), both tend to use similar software for similar ends. IRAF, used for well over a decade by both professionals and amateurs, has been bolstered by other additions to the software toolbox. One of these is IRIS. It duplicates some of the functionality of IRAF, and adds additional functionality that an amateur astronomer might make use of but that a professional astronomer, in the course of their work, would not.
Luckily, the authors of IRIS have several tutorials on their web site, so you can get a good idea of what the software can do before you download and install it. (Yes, it's free.) One tutorial in particular shows how to take a digital camera on a fixed tripod, take a series of images of the night sky while pointing in the same direction, and then use IRIS to align them so they can be co-added. The alignment process takes out all of the rotation and translation that happens because of the earth's rotation. The end result is that without a tracking equatorial mount, you can do a long duration wide-field image of the night sky. The resulting image from the tutorial is stunning.
I have the good fortune to live where there are almost no city lights. The stars at night truly are big and bright, even if I am not deep in the heart of Texas. I can't wait to try this trick out for myself, and see what kinds of images I can produce. At the very least I'm hoping to get a nice stacked image of the Milky Way. But I'd like to try my hand at Andromeda and Orion.
Too bad it's overcast. Maybe later this week. Ah well.
-- Pencil
Without getting into the distinction between professional and amateur astronomers (which has more to do with being paid, being published, and getting tenure than it does skill level), both tend to use similar software for similar ends. IRAF, used for well over a decade by both professionals and amateurs, has been bolstered by other additions to the software toolbox. One of these is IRIS. It duplicates some of the functionality of IRAF, and adds additional functionality that an amateur astronomer might make use of but that a professional astronomer, in the course of their work, would not.
Luckily, the authors of IRIS have several tutorials on their web site, so you can get a good idea of what the software can do before you download and install it. (Yes, it's free.) One tutorial in particular shows how to take a digital camera on a fixed tripod, take a series of images of the night sky while pointing in the same direction, and then use IRIS to align them so they can be co-added. The alignment process takes out all of the rotation and translation that happens because of the earth's rotation. The end result is that without a tracking equatorial mount, you can do a long duration wide-field image of the night sky. The resulting image from the tutorial is stunning.
I have the good fortune to live where there are almost no city lights. The stars at night truly are big and bright, even if I am not deep in the heart of Texas. I can't wait to try this trick out for myself, and see what kinds of images I can produce. At the very least I'm hoping to get a nice stacked image of the Milky Way. But I'd like to try my hand at Andromeda and Orion.
Too bad it's overcast. Maybe later this week. Ah well.
-- Pencil
posted by pencil at 4:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home