the 2010 advanced imaging conference!

Advanced Imaging Conference October 22-24, 2010 Santa Clara, California http://www.aicccd.com

http://www.astrophotoinsight.com

Advanced Imaging Conference October 22-24, 2010 Santa Clara, California http://www.aicccd.com Page 1

Welcome to the 2010 Advanced Imaging Conference! I'd like to personally thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to join us at the 2010 AIC! For some, attend-ance is a short drive from home, for many others it can involve long tedious flights from as far as half-way around the world. We promise to make your trip worth the effort and your experience a memorable one! This year's meeting is being held for the first time at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara. I believe you'll find our new venue more upscale with improvements in the food we serve, your accommodations, and the venue's atmosphere. We're ex-cited to be here and we want to help make sure that your experience is superb. So, don't hesitate to ask any of the AIC staff should you need assistance. We've also had the good fortune of being able to gather an unsurpassed group of the world's leading experts on data acquisition and image processing to share their techniques and recommendations. Particularly noteworthy is the ap-pearance of Russ Croman, this year's Hubble Award Recipient, who will be giving the Hubble Lecture on Saturday. Along with each of the other speakers and work shop leaders, this is the kind of expertise and practical help you will find no-where else but here! I would like to personally thank our Sponsors and Vendors whose financial support makes this wonderful conference possible. It's also important for me to recognize the AIC Board of Directors and our support staff- their selfless hard work over the past year significantly contributed to the success of this year's gathering. In closing, please remember that the Advanced Imaging Conference is a non-profit organization of unpaid, all volunteer enthusiasts, like you. As a result, we cannot take responsibility for the damage or loss of your personal belongings- so please keep them within arm's reach whenever you are in the meeting venue, the Technology Showcase, during breaks or at meals. Ken Crawford AIC President



R Jay Gabany Webmaster & Marketing

Jay GaBany has a thirty-year career background in the travel industry man-aging large travel agencies handling travel expense management for cor-porations and, since 1997, designing on-line reservation systems for busi-

ness and vacation travelers. The adult expression of his boyhood space age fascination is evident in his writing, deep space imagery and research collaboration into galac-tic evolution. Jay's observatory is in the south-central mountains of New Mexico. www.cosmotography.com

Ken Crawford

President

Ken Crawford is one of the founding members of the Advanced Imaging Conference and is the current presi-dent. Ken lives in Camino, Califor-nia, with his lovely wife, Lisa, and is an avid astro-imager. He loves to

share and talk image processing methods; and enjoys all the friends he has made through this wonderful hobby. You can see his images and tutorials at www.imagingdeepsky.com.

Board of Directors

Bob Fera Registrar

Bob, an Information Technology Manager for a small computer services company in Los Angeles, spent ten years photo-graphing galaxies and nebulae with a 35mm SLR camera and color negative film until he entered the digital age in

2003. Many of his images, both film and digital, appear reg-ularly in magazines as well as in other print and electronic media. Bob currently takes his images from his home ob-servatory under the dark skies of Foresthill, California. www.feraphotography.com

Keith Allred Secretary & Legal Counsel

Keith Allred has been an active ama-teur astronomer since 1994. He just finished construction of a remote ob-servatory in the Sacramento Moun-tains (next door to New Mexico Skies). He is a partner with Davis Wright Tremaine, a law firm with ten

offices in the U.S. and China. He serves as a board mem-ber and secretary of AIC, and is its legal counsel. www.orionobservatory.com

Frank S Barnes,III Treasurer

Frank Barnes earned his BS in Elec-trical Engineering in 1977. After working 30 years in the communica-tions industry, he retired from Com-porium Communications where he held the position of Executive VP

Business Development. Frank started imaging in 2000, and currently uses various SBIG cameras with his 16-inch RCOS, FSQ-106N, Takahashi E-180 and AP180EDT. His other hobbies include fishing, pyrotechnics and RVing.

www.skyimager.com

Al Degutis Publisher

When Al Degutis is not addressing technology issues as the IT Manag-er for a software development com-pany, he wears the hat of Editor-in-Chief of AstroPhoto Insight Maga-zine, a digital publication devoted to

the pursuit of astrophotography. AstroPhoto Insight is dedicated to exploring and sharing the latest innovations and techniques in the field of cutting-edge amateur astro-photography. www.astrophotoinsight.com

We extend a special thanks to The Van Vleet

Foundation for their many years of donations and support of The Advanced Imaging Conference.



Adobe Systems

Astrodon Imaging

Astro Haven Enterprises

Astro Hutech

ATIK Cameras

Canon

CCDWare

Celestron

ChronosMount, Inc.

Finger Lakes Instrumentation

Fishcamp Engineering

SponsorsSponsors

Hotech

Mount Lemmon SkyCenter

New Mexico Skies Astronomy Enclave

Oceanside Photo & Telescope

Officina Stellare

Optec Inc.

Orion Telescopes & Binoculars

Quantum Scientific Imaging

Starlight Xpress Ltd.

Woodland Hills Camera and Telescopes

ExhibitorsExhibitors

AIC Founding SponsorsAIC Founding Sponsors

Editorial SponsorsEditorial Sponsors



Hyatt Regency Santa Clara



2010 Meeting Agenda

Friday, October 22

SCHEDULE / SPEAKER EVENT LOCATION

7:00AM- 8:30AM Friday Workshop Registration

Continental Breakfast (included with registration fee)

8:30AM- 10:00AM Workshop Track 1

Neil Fleming The ABC's of Narrowband Image Processing Stevens Creek

Stephen Bisque TheSkyX Professional Winchester

Doug George Image Processing with MaximDL Napa 1 & 2

Bob Denny Image Planning and Automation using ACP Napa 3

Stan Moore Image Processing with CCDStack2 Lafayette/San Tomas/Lawrence

10:15AM- 11:45AM Workshop Track 2

Zolt Levay & Lisa Frattare Processing Hubble Archive Images Stevens Creek

Tony Hallas Advanced Image Processing Lafayette/San Tomas/Lawrence

Brad Moore Optimizing your Image Train Napa 1 & 2

Don Goldman The ABC's of Image Processing Winchester

John Smith &

Steve Walters

Image Planning and Automation using

CCDNavigator and CCDAutopilot Napa 3

11:45AM- 1:30PM Lunch (included with registration fee)

Technology Showcase is open

1:45PM- 3:15PM Workshop Track 3


Neil Fleming The ABC's of Narrowband Image Processing Stevens Creek

Tony Hallas Advanced Image Processing Lafayette/San Tomas/Lawrence

Doug George Image Processing with MaximDL Napa 1 & 2

Don Goldman The ABC's of Image Processing Winchester

Bob Denny Image Planning and Automation using ACP Napa 3

3:30PM- 5:00PM Workshop Track 4


Stephen Bisque TheSkyX Professional Stevens Creek

Brad Moore Optimizing your Image Train Napa 1 & 2

Stan Moore Image Processing with CCDStack2 Lafayette/San Tomas/Lawrence

John Smith &

Steve Walters

Image Planning and Automation using CCDNavigator

and CCDAutopilot Napa 3

5:00PM- 6:00PM General Session Registration


6:00PM- 7:30PM Dinner (included with registration fee)

7:00PM- 8:00PM Technology Showcase is open

8:00PM- 10:00PM Conference General Session Opener & Sponsor Updates

Technology Showcase is closed



Saturday, October 23

SCHEDULE EVENT SPEAKER

7:00AM- 8:45AM General Session Registration Full Breakfast (included with registration fee)

8:45AM- 9:45AM 2010 Hubble Award Lecture Russell Croman

9:45AM- 10:30AM Wide Field Astrophotograpy Rogelio Bernal Andreo

10:30AM- 11:00AM Break Technology Showcase is open

11:00AM- 11:45AM From the Backyard to Space- Data Acquisition and Processing Parallels between the Kepler Mission and Astrophotography

Todd Klaus

11:45AM- 1:00PM Lunch (included with registration fee) Technology Showcase is open

1:00PM- 1:30PM Founding Sponsors Brad Erhorn, RCOS Michael Barber, SBIG Stephen Bisque, Software Bisque

1:30PM- 2:30PM Adding Depth to Hubble Images for Hubble 3D IMAX Zolt Levay & Lisa Frattare

2:30PM- 3:00PM Break Technology Showcase is open

3:00PM- 4:00PM The Frequency Domain and Future of CCD Technol-ogy for Astrophotography

Kevin Nelson

4:00PM- 5:00PM AIC Spotlight Presentations Michael Joner Bob Fera John Smith


6:00PM- 7:30PM Dinner (included with registration fee)


Sunday, October 24

7:00AM- 8:20AM Full Breakfast (included with registration fee) Technology Showcase is open but closes at the end of this event.

8:30AM- 9:15AM Obtaining Correct Star Color with G2V Al Kelly

9:15AM- 10:30AM High Resolution Image Processing Martin Pugh

10:30AM- 11:00AM Door prize drawing (you must be present to win) Conference adjourns at conclusion of this event.



2010 Hubble Award Russell Croman

Russ lives in suburban Austin, Texas with his wife and three daughters. Professionally, Russ is a chip design manager for a local Austin company named Silicon Laboratories. His success as one of the world's leading astrophotographers can be traced to experiences from his past and the requirements of his ca-reer.

For example, while Russ was earning his Master's at Washing-ton State University, he volunteered to take news and sports photographs for the student newspaper. During this period, he learned about image composition and other important concepts that work in combination to produce better photographs.

The field of chip design requires a thorough understanding of physics and electronics. Modern IC's often have well over a hundred thousand parts and require constant attention to detail

during their development. Leveraging the skills used to de-bug chip layout issues and keep mission critical projects on schedule also helped Russ diagnose and solve unexpected situations during a night's photo-graphic session or when an image was being processed.

Russ was one of the original AIC Board members, serving from 2004 through 2006 as its Registrar. Much of AIC’s continuing success rests upon the hard work he selflessly contributed. He was also one of the first to recognize the value and overcome the challenges of operating a remote observatory located far from city light pollution. His Dimension Point Observatory, situated high in the south central Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico, is equipped with a half meter telescope. It was one of the first private fully-remote installations in that area and it helped lead a small stampede that has made Mayhill, New Mexico, one of the world's leading astrophotography capitals.

Russ also helped popularize the use of mapped color im-agery. His techniques are presented in Ron Wodaski's 'The NewAstro Zone System for Astro Imaging', which Russ co-authored.

Pursuing his career as a professional integrated circuit de-signer, Russ nonetheless exhibits the aesthetic heart of a gifted artist- just a brief glance at Russ' images can evoke strong reactions from even the most jaded viewer. Many consider Russ to be the finest astrophotographer on the planet!

Cover Photo: NGC 2170 by Russell Croman - APOD February 28, 2007

This LRGB image of NGC 2170 was taken by Russell Croman with a SBIG STL-11000XM using a 20" f/8 RCOS Ritchey-Chrétien Cassegrain w/ RCOS Field Corrector. Exposure times, in minutes, were LRGB = L=360, R=240, G=120, B=240 using SBIG Standard LRGB filters.

The Hubble Award is presented to those indi-viduals who have demonstrated significant and sustained contributions to the astro-photography community over a period of years. Production of fine images is only one criteria but certainly not the most important factor that is considered. Popularization through public outreach, technical innovation, scientific contributions and selfless direct support to other imagers also represent key criteria that justify designation as a Hubble Award recipient. Final selection is made by a unanimous vote of the AIC Board of Directors.



Rogelio Bernal Andreo

Astrophotographer blog.deepskycolors.com Wide field and Multi-Scale Processing

This presentation will discuss:

framing and capturing original skyscapes,

color techniques that include gradual saturation, chromatic

noise reduction and color sharpening,

several unique processing techniques and multi-scale pro-

cessing which involves star masking, making faint details visible and enhancing details in bright structures.

Rogelio was born in Spain but has been living in the United States for over 20 years. He commenced producing astronomical photographs only two years ago. However, during the last 12 months, his work has been featured on APOD 8 times, published in several astronomy publications, used in planetari-ums, astronomy exhibits at museums, and appeared in the IMAX/Warner Bros. motion picture production Hub-ble 3D (http://www.imax.com/hubble). Rather than simply trying to obtain the best image, he constantly challenges himself to ensure the final picture connects with the viewer by focusing on composition and experimenting with new processing techniques. In-terestingly, Rogelio does not have a permanent observatory so his imaging requires extensive traveling to dark sites.

From the Trunk to the Bubble / APOD 2010 September 9 / Rogelio Bernal Andreo 3x4 mosaic (12 frames) captured during a visit to Spain the summer of 2010, over 4 nights. FSQ 106 EDX w/Reducer; SBIG STL11k; StarShoot Autoguider; Takahashi EM-400


http://www.imax.com/hubble/

http://www.imax.com/hubble/


Steve Bisque

Founder & President, Software Bisque www.bisque.com

Using TheSkyX Professional Edition

This presentation will demonstrate the latest version of theSky- TheSkyX Professional Edition. Retooled from the ground up, Software Bisque has added a host of exciting features the world's favorite desktop/ telescope control astronomy software. Virtually every feature has been redesigned to emphasize ease of use:

Mac or Window operating system support

Screen refreshes as fast as your graphics hardware will allow.

Improved telescope control- features native telescope drivers with extensive driver support.

Full T-Point integration.

Stephen Bisque is president and founder of Software Bisque. Stephen is currently one of the lead programmers working on TheSkyX, and is closely involved in the design of robotic telescope mounts. For over 25 years he has enjoyed marrying the latest computer and telescope technolo-gies with TheSky family of software products.



Bob Denny

Founder- DC3 Dreams Principal Developer- ACP Observatory Control www.dc3.com Using ACP to Plan and Acquire Imaging Data

Both the quantity and the quality of raw image data are the foundations of successful art astronomy. Automated image acquisition is essential to getting the most out of your observatory. When that's still not enough, you can move your observatory to a remote location which provides both better image quality and more usable imaging time. Re-mote imaging clearly requires automation.

First introduced in 1999, adding web-based automation in 2002, ACP Observatory Control Software has evolved towards ease of use as well as flexibility. This presentation will begin by discussing the reasons for combining automation and web control, who is using ACP, and a bit about how it works and how to use it. After this, a new approach to scheduling image acquisition will be covered. This will be an informal talk, with plenty of question and answer time throughout.

Bob Denny has been involved full time for over ten years developing new- generation astronomy software, focusing on astronomy automation as well as remote observatory operation through a web browser (for which automation is a pre-requisite). He is also the originator and still a primary evangelist for the ASCOM Initiative, which has freed astronomy software developers from having to write low-level control code for the myriad of computer-controllable astronomy instruments and devices that have ap-peared in recent years. Bob is quick to say that he is not an astronomer; he is an engineer and software designer. However he has a thorough knowledge of the needs of both science and art astronomers and their technologies. Software has been his real love for most of his life, having written his first program in 1963. Since then he has worked on a wide range of machines using a wide variety of lan-guages. In addition, he is an expert with the latest web technologies and browser-based scripting in Java script. In the past, Bob has worked as a broadcast television engineer (while attending University), ten years in aer-ospace engineering and flight test, consulting for EMM and Xerox on special projects, then founding and op-erating a medium sized software business as CEO for fourteen years. Following that, he developed the first web server on Windows, made Visual Basic a web back-end programming language, and created the first Java based web server back-end. Bob holds a BSEE from the University of Arizona, an FAA pilot's license with multi-engine and instrument ratings, and numerous certifications related to his vol-unteer law enforcement work with the Maricopa Coun-ty (AZ) Sheriff's Office. Bob is enthusiastic about al-most everything!



Neil Fleming

Astrophotographer www.flemingastrophotography.com The ABC's of Narrow Band Imaging- The Tough Parts and What to do About Them

This "how-to" talk is designed for the imager who is familar with white light imaging through LRGB filters but wants to try some narrowband work. The theme is how to deal with the challenges that are inherent to narrowband imaging and processing:

What's different about narrowband imaging versus

RGB/LRGB imaging?

Approaches to autoguiding

How to handle noisy data

Color adjustments and how to handle the overwhelming green (Ha) data

Adding in natural color RGB stars to your narrowband images

Neil Fleming specializes in the capture of high-quality images from very light polluted locations such as those in the Boston area. As such, the majority of his work is in the area of narrowband imaging, using Ha, OIII, and SII filters. His images have been published in both Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines, and featured on the popular Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site. Additionally, his imagery was included in Timothy Ferris PBS docu-mentary Seeing in the Dark.

His past speak-ing engage-ments have in-cluded such popular confer-ences as the Advanced Imag-ing Conference, the Midwest Astro-Imaging Conference, and the North-East Astro-Imaging Confer-ence each an annual event oriented to-wards astropho-tographers wanting to learn more about the techniques used for advanced image pro-cessing.

IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula / APOD 2010 March 5 / Neil Fleming, David Plesko 14.5" RCOS, SBIG STL11000M, Astrodon CRGB filters



Lisa Frattare

Image Processor Hubble Heritage Team http://heritage.stsci.edu

Workshop: Mining Images from the Hubble Legacy Archive

A convergence of technologies now makes it more convenient to pro-duce color photographs from Hubble Space Telescope data. The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA) provides a navigation system into the extensive archive of Hubble data and the Adobe Photoshop plugin, FITS Liberator, provides the tools to transform files from the archive into color images. We will describe relevant features of Hubble's cam-eras and the resulting data that may be suitable for constructing color composite images, and take a tour of the Hubble Data Archive and the HLA interface to highlight the most useful capabilities for image processors. We will demonstrate FITS Liberator, using Photoshop to construct Hubble photos.

General Conference Session: Visualizing Hubble Images in the Third Dimension

The IMAX film Hubble 3D provides a front-row seat to the dramatic final Space Shuttle mission to service the Hub-ble Space Telescope. Exciting, in-your-face, as-it-happened footage from the mission is complemented by unprec-edented views of astronomical landscapes in the spectacular format of the large IMAX screen in full stereo. The film helps us appreciate not only what it takes to keep Hubble at peak performance but also why we spend the ef-fort to do so: unparalleled science observations and spectacular views of the universe. Of course, Hubble does not image in stereo, but through a few specialized techniques we can visualize a 3D landscape, much of it informed by detailed analysis of the Hubble data. Get an inside look at how these scenes were produced and rendered for the IMAX screen. We will discuss the different techniques we used to permit our audience to fly through the Orion Nebula, see Saturn suspended in the middle of the movie theater, be inside a globular cluster, and much more.

Lisa Frattare is a native of Rochester, NY. She received her undergraduate degrees in Clinical Psychology (cum laude) at SUNY Oswego and Physics/Astronomy at Arizona State University. She earned an M.A. in Astronomy from Wesleyan University in 1996. She has been at STScI (research institute for the Hubble Space Tele-scope) since 1996, first as a data analyst and later as an image processor for the Hubble Heritage Team and the Office of Public Outreach News Team. She has been with the Heritage Project since a year before its public debut in 1998. Over the course of her tenure, the Heritage Project has produced nearly 150 image releases. Lisa loves telescope observing, whether with Hub-ble or ground-based telescopes. In addition to logging in approximately 300 hours at the Van Vleck Observatory 24-inch Perkin Reflector at Wesleyan University in CT, she has had the pleasure of using the Lowell Observatory 42-inch telescope in Flagstaff and the Kitt Peak 42-inch, 0.9m, and 0.6m Burrell Schmidt telescopes in Arizona; the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory 4m and 0.9 m telescopes in Chile; and the KECK II NIRSPEC in Waimea, HI. Lisa has also observed remotely with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE). The Hubble Space Telescope has produced fantastic images for scientific discovery and public outreach. Lisa has facilitated observations for nearly 70 Hubble targets. She shares common goals with her STScI and Hubble Herit-age families in a desire to make each new observation a rewarding experience for the public. Her imaging work from Hubble has been published in a myriad of books and magazines and has been used in the 2010 IMAX 3D movie, Hubble 3D (www.imax.com/hubble).



Doug George

President, Diffraction Limited www.cyanogen.com Using Maxim DL

One of the most popular software applications used by astro-photographers in the production of images is MaxIm DL. Doug's work-shop will focus on many of the most frequently used Maxim tools includ-ing:

Screen stretch, bit depth, file formats

Calibration including an explanation of calibration groups

Stacking including selection, quality check, alignment, stack, color

combine DDP, curves, color enhancement

Doug George is a professional engineer with 24 years experience in the design of electronics, embedded systems, and application software. He is President of Diffraction Limited, which produces imaging products including MaxIm DL imag-ing software, MaxPoint telescope pointing software, the MaxDome observatory dome automation system, and the Bolt-wood Cloud Sensor.

Doug's observing interests include astrophotography, occultations, and patrol programs. He co-discovered Comet Skorichenko-George visually, and has co-discovered 12 supernovae as part of the Pucket Supernova Search program. Doug is a Life Member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Past President of both the RASC nationally and the RASC Ottawa Centre. and a member of the Professional Engineers. His honors and awards include The 2001 Engineer-ing Medal for Engineering Excellence from the Professional Engineers Ontario and he has been awarded the RASC Ken Chilton Prize on three separate occasions.

Total Solar Eclipse 2006 / Doug George Image of the diamond ring; 0.003 second exposure using Canon 20Da, Takahashi FSQ-106, Losmandy GM8 mount. Image auto-sequenced and processed using MaxIm DL to reveal details in the inner corona (custom radial gradient mask plug-in, Curves).


http://www.cyanogen.com/dome_main.php


Don Goldman

Astrophotographer President, Astrodon Filters www.astrodon.com Processing Workflow and Image Enhancement for Vibrant Images

This workshop will provide an overview of basic processing from cali-bration, registration, data rejection, and combining. Different images generally require different fixes and enhancements. The session will cover many of these using Photoshop, such as gradient removal, star elongation, color saturation, noise removal, contrast enhancement, star size reduction and localized sharpening.

Don is the founder and president of Astrodon Filters and the founder and past president of Optical-Solutions, a designer- manufacturer of sold fiber-optic chemical analyzers for on-line, real-time chemical moni-toring of manufacturing processes. He holds both a B.S. in geology and an MBA from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in analytical spectroscopy from CalTech. Don has been awarded 14 U.S. patents (including several that are classified), has published over 25 peer-reviewed papers regarding mineralogy and glass research, is a regular speaker at popular national astronomy conferences, has published two articles in Sky and Telescope, received the 2009 Clyde Tombaugh award from Riverside Tele-scope Makers Conference and is a member of AAVSO and SAS.

Northern and Southern Owls / APOD 2010 May 6 / Don Goldman On the left is M97 in the constellation Ursa Major, also known in the northern hemisphere as the Owl Nebula. On the right is its visual counterpart, the southern Owl Nebula in the constellation Hydra, cataloged as PLN 283+25.1 RC Optical 16" f/8.9 Ritchey-Chretien; Apogee U16M; Software Bisque Paramount ME Exposure Time: 10.3 hours Total of 3nm H-a, NII, OIII


http://www.astrodon.com


Tony Hallas

Renowned Astrophotographer 2009 Hubble Award Recipient www.astrophoto.com Advanced Image Processing Techniques

Tony's astrophotographic career can be summarized as a series of firsts. For example, starting out over 25 years ago, he was one of the first to produce film-emulsion images using an autoguider. Tony was also one of the first to champion the use of stacked astronomi-cal images as a method that improved the final picture's signal to noise.

Particularly during the early years of digital astrophotography, To-ny's pictures were the reference to which digital imagers compared their images. Finally, to many in the community, Tony's images re-main the first among equals in their aesthetic quality, composition and color! Tony's pictures have been pub-lished in countless magazines, television productions and books. He is a highly regarded speaker and the re-cipient of numerous, prestigious awards including the 2009 AIC Hubble Trophy.

Pelican Nebula Close-up Tony Hallas APOD 2010 August 19 Plane Wave CDK 17 f/6.8 Apogee 16803 Astrodon Gen II filters; A/P 1200 GTO L (Ha)(OIII) R (Ha) G (OIII) B (OIII) L = 900 x 9 each RGB = 900 x 7, 2 x 2 Ha = 2700 x 10 O III 2700 x 6 1



Al Kelly

Astrophotographer www.kellysky.net Obtaining G2V Star Color

Al's presentation will discuss the necessity of obtaining accurate white balance, the significance of G2V star color in the reproduction of accu-rate hues, correcting for extinction and the importance of equalized non-linear stretching.

Al is one of the most highly experienced astrophotographers in the community, producing astronomical images since the early 1960's us-ing film emulsion technology.

He began working with CCD's in the late 1980's with a Photometrics Star 1 camera. During the opening years of the next decade, Al turned to the SBIG ST4 and ST6 cameras.

He built a Cookbook 245 camera in 1993 then pressed it into service until 2001 when he acquired a StarlightXpress SX MX916, which he uses to this day.

Abell 2218: A Galaxy Cluster Lens / APOD 2010 June 20 / Andrew Fruchter (STScI) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA Digitally reprocessed: Al Kelly



Todd Klaus

Lead Engineer Kepler Science Operations Center, NASA Ames From the Backyard to Space - Parallels Between the Kepler Mission and the Backyard Astrophotographer

Recently launched in March 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope is on a mission to search for Earth-size exo-planets in the habitable zone of distant stars using the photometric transit method. Kepler contains the largest camera to ever fly in space, consisting of 42 CCDs for a total of nearly 95 mega-pixels!

Despite the complexity of Kepler, there are many similarities between how Kepler collects and processes data and the work flow of the backyard astro-photographer.

Todd will discuss how data are collected on board the spacecraft and how the-se data are processed on the ground, including pixel-level calibration and pho-tometry and how these processes compare to ground-based imaging. He will also touch on the great science and unprecedented precision coming from the Kepler Mission.

Todd will discuss how data are collected on board the spacecraft and how the-se data are processed on the ground, including pixel-level calibration and pho-tometry and how these processes compare to ground-based imaging. He will also touch on the great science and unprecedented precision coming from the Kepler Mission.

Todd Klaus is the lead engineer for the Kepler Science Operations Center at NASA Ames Research Center. Todd has been with the Kepler mission since 2005, where he designed the pipeline infrastructure software used for the ground processing of the Kepler data. When his two small children allow it, he also likes to spend time in his backyard observatory where he dabbles in pho-tometry using an 12.5" RCOS and an SBIG ST-10XME.

Kepler Spacecraft and Photometer



Zolt Levay

Imaging Group Lead Space Telescope Science Institute

Workshop: Mining Images from the Hubble Legacy Archive

A convergence of technologies now makes it more convenient to produce color photographs from Hubble Space Telescope data. The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA) provides a navigation system into the extensive archive of Hubble data and the Adobe Photoshop plugin, FITS Liberator, provides the tools to transform files from the archive into color images. We will describe relevant features of Hubble's cameras and the resulting data that may be suitable for constructing color composite images, and take a tour of the Hubble Data Archive and the HLA interface to highlight the most useful ca-pabilities for image processors. We will demonstrate FITS Liberator, using Photoshop to construct Hubble photos.

General Conference Session: Visualizing Hubble Images in the Third Dimension

The IMAX film Hubble 3D provides a front-row seat to the dramatic final Space Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Exciting, in-your-face, as-it-happened footage from the mission is complemented by unprecedented views of astronomical landscapes in the spectacular format of the large IMAX screen in full stereo. The film helps us ap-preciate not only what it takes to keep Hubble at peak performance but also why we spend the effort to do so: unparal-leled science observations and spectacular views of the universe. Of course, Hubble does not image in stereo, but through a few specialized techniques we can visualize a 3D landscape, much of it informed by detailed analysis of the Hubble data. Get an inside look at how these scenes were produced and rendered for the IMAX screen. We will discuss the different techniques we used to permit our audience to fly through the Orion Nebula, see Saturn suspended in the middle of the movie theater, be inside a globular cluster, and much more.

Zolt is Imaging Group Lead in the Office of Public Outreach at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Mary-land. Since 1993 he has primarily been responsible for producing publicly accessible images from Hubble Space Tele-scope data to illustrate Hubble's science discoveries. He is a member of the Hubble Heritage Team, which strives to establish a repository of the visually finest Hubble imagery. Mr. Levay obtained a B.S. in astrophysics in 1975 from Indiana University, Bloom-ington, Indiana and M.S. in astronomy in 1978 from Case Western Reserve Univer-sity, Cleveland, Ohio. He was employed by Computer Sciences Corp. as an ana-lyst and programmer with various space science missions at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. He joined STScI in 1983 developing sci-ence analysis software, and joined the Office of Public Outreach in 1993 as an image-processing specialist. Mr. Levay was awarded an Excellence in Outreach award from Goddard Space Flight Center in 1999, a Space Telescope Science Institute Individual Achievement Award in November 1997, and the Associ-ation of Universities for Research in As-tronomy (AURA) 1997 Service Award. SN 1006 Supernova Remnant / APOD 2009 August 1 / Zolt Levay

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Zolt Levay (STScI)



Brad Moore

Managing Director Global Rent-A-Scope. Optimizing Your Imaging Train

This workshop will present key practical ideas on pushing your hard-ware to obtain the best results. We'll look at how to optimize your mount,telescope optics and CCD; learn practical solutions that over-come common challenges and review real life case studies. We'll also discuss:

Optimizing PEC, improving tracking & polar alignment, improving your auto-guiding

Troubleshooting common problems

Tpoint & Advanced Modeling

Understanding light reflections and how to deal with them

Understanding your optics and collimation

How optimize your observatory to minimize local seeing

Matching the CCD to your telescope

How to use software tools that measure and help you improve your system

Understanding the basics of noise and how to minimize it

Brad Moore is Managing Director of Global Rent-a-Scope, a world leading company in online telescope rentals. Since being appointed to the position in 2006, Brad has brought a wealth of business experience and technical expertise to the company. He has been instrumental in pioneering remote CCD imaging over the Internet, and has delivered 28,500 imaging hours to over 3000 people, in 78 countries.

As the owner of Southern-Astro Hosting, Brad is also responsible for establishing Australia largest telescope hosting facility. Southern-Astro now has over 22 active systems under his direct management.

Brad is an avid Astro-photographer and has pro-duced award-winning images of the southern hemisphere. His work has featured on NASA's APOD, books, maga-zine covers and on the Hubble web site.

Prior to joining Global Rent-a-Scope, Brad worked in the IT&T industry and was the State Manager for one of Aus-tralia leading business Telco and Internet services provid-ers. He has a strong back-ground in software, Internet communications, programming and computing.

Brad lives in Melbourne, Aus-tralia with his wife and their two young children. When Brad isn't working, he enjoys flying light aircraft and spend-ing time with his young family.

Eta and Keyhole in the Carina Nebula / APOD 16th March 2006 / Brad Moore RCOS 12.5" Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain, Paramount ME, SBIG 2000XM Exposure Total Time: 28 hours OIII: 6 hours Ha: 16 hours SII: 6 hour



Stan Moore

Principal Developer CCDStack www.stanmooreastro.com Unleashing CCDStack2

CCDStack is a software tool that allows the user to visualize and control sophisticated processing of Deep Space images. This workshops will explore astronomical digital image processing topics from a theoretical perspective with practical demonstrations using CCDStack2. Topics include:

Slope and Intercept: the dynamics of flat fielding, normalization, and color correction.

Signal To Noise: basic theory of pixel and object S/N.

Stack size: acquisition practices; operational considerations; appropriate registration, data rejection and combine methods.

Deconvolution and image sharpening.

Stan Moore is a professional programmer and long time astro-imager. His interest and investigations into the mathematics of astronomical signal processing combined with insight from statistical analysis programming in-spired the creation of CCDStack. The growing community of users and the increasing sophistication of that com-munity continue to drive the evolution of the software.

NGC6543 Cat Eye / Stan Moore 14.5" f/8 RCOS, Astro-Physics QMD 900,SBIG ST-10e with CFW-8 and AO-L



Kevin Nelson

Founder Quantum Scientific Imaging, Inc. www.qsimaging.com The Frequency Domain and Future of CCD Technology for As-trophotography

Fourier Transforms form the basis of digital signal processing, and provide a unique and powerful method of analyzing 2D images. Fourier Transforms (FFTs) convert an image from the spatial do-main, rows and columns in a digital picture, into its "Frequency Domain," which represents the original image using a grid of sine waves of varying frequency and amplitude. Understanding Fourier Transforms will enhance your processing skills by giving you a richer understanding of what's going on "under the hood" and po-tentially open up new tools and techniques you can use in pro-cessing your astronomical images.

Kevin will also discuss what can be expected in the future with digital image sensors for scientific cameras.

Kevin Nelson is co-founder of Quantum Scientific Imaging, a manufacturer of cooled CCD cameras designed by and for astrophotographers. Kevin is an avid sailor and history buff whose interest in stargazing began with studying the Age of Exploration and celestial navigation, and was reignited by the power of modern CCD cam-eras. Today, Kevin shares the joys and challenges of imaging the night sky from his backyard with his two sons.


http://www.qsimaging.com


Martin Pugh

Astrophotographer www.martinpughastrophotography.id.au High Resolution Imaging

Martin will discuss key procedural aspects in data acquisition such as the mount, scope and camera. This will be followed by a discussion on the checks and balances necessary at every stage of image prepara-tion. The talk will also present a brief overview of tools, guiding and dith-ering, image alignment and image combining.

Martin will also offer some solutions to common irritations experienced by all astrophotographers at one time or another such as image arti-

facts, preparation of the master luminance channel, blending narrowband data with LRGB exposures, fixing light pollu-tion nasties, correcting for red star halos, using the Photoshop minimum filter and correcting the artifacts it creates and giving images impact without introducing or exaggerating noise.

At 16 years of age, Martin Pugh left his home town of Dudley in the West Midlands (UK) to join the Royal Navy as a Junior Radio Operator. While he spent many nights staring into pitch-black mid-ocean skies using a pair of binoculars, his Naval career simply did not allow for any further pursuit in astronomy. For 20 years, he moved between ships and establishments and in the late 90 s, together with the overwhelming appearance of Comet Hale Bopp in 1997, he be-came increasingly interested in the idea of observing and imaging. Then in 1999, he spent his first evening looking through a dusty old 3-inch refractor recovered from his brother-in-law's loft, and instantly became fixated with the idea of owning his own telescope, with the possible addition of a CCD camera.

In Dec 1999, he was appointed to a NATO position in central Belgium where the consistently poor air quality frustrated him as he attempted to take images with a modest 8-inch telescope and small digital camera. In 2002, he moved to light polluted Lisbon, upgraded his equipment and concentrated on planetary-lunar imaging for the next two years. A navel career leads to a semi-nomadic lifestyle, so by 2005 Martin found himself in Australia under dark skies that enabled him to begin producing deep astrophotographic images from his backyard observatory. Martin has racked up a prodi-gious number of noteworthy achievements including ten APOD's, the 2008 David Malin Award, a three stamp collectors set from the Australian Post Of-fice and the Royal Greenwich Observatory's Astronomy Pho-tographer of the Year for 2009.

NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe / APOD 2010 August 20 / Martin Pugh 12.5" Ritchey Chretien by RC Optical Systems, Paramount ME, SBIG STL11000M CCD Camera with AO-L Exposure: Luminosity 12 hours, RGB 210:210:210



John Smith

Founder CCDWare, Ltd. www.ccdware.com Image Planning and Automation using CCDNavigator and CCDAutopilot

The sky is crystal clear and the Sun is setting. But when darkness falls, imagers everywhere are in a race against time! Because clear skies are precious, we don't want to waste a second. And even on a mediocre night, we still want rapid and precise acquisition. In this talk, John Smith and Steve Walters, authors of CCDAutopilot and CCDNavigator, will discuss and demonstrate your best weapons in the race against time, complete planning and automated execution.

Born in Philadelphia, John Smith spent most of his career in the north-eastern US. With degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering, John worked in many aspects of science and technolo-gy, eventually ending as a senior executive in a high technology compa-ny. Moving to a comforta-ble Arizona retirement, his time soon became filled with hobbies like astronomy, computers and photography. So, becoming involved in as-trophotography became somewhat inevitable. John has published many papers on his web site, Hiddenloft.com, regarding image acquisition and noise considerations. Many of his images have been reproduced in both US and international pub-lications. He consults on observatory design and has installed more than twenty systems through-out the United States for both private and academ-ic customers.

John is the co-founder of CCDWare and author of CCDAuto Pilot.

NGC7635, The Bubble Nebula in Cassiopeia / John Smith 0.4m Ritchey-Chretien @ F/9 w/FFC, Apogee Alta U16M/D9F CCD camera/FW50-7S filter wheel, AstroDon Gen 2 filters, Paramount ME Exposure Data: HaRGB: 12x20m, 4x20m, 4x20m, 4x20m,all 1x1. -50°C, 0.50 arc-sec./pixel. 8 hours total exposure.



Steve Walters

Author CCDNavigator www.ccdware.com/products/ccdnavigator Image Planning and Automation using CCDNavigator and CCDAutopilot

The sky is crystal clear and the Sun is setting. But when darkness falls, imagers everywhere are in a race against time! Because clear skies are precious, we don't want to waste a second. And even on a mediocre night, we still want rapid and precise acquisition. In this talk, John Smith and Steve Walters, authors of CCDAutopilot and CCDNavigator, will dis-cuss and demonstrate your best weapons in the race against time, com-plete planning and automated execution.

Steve Walters, author of CCDNavigator, has been imaging the night sky since 1980. He concluded a successful career in telecommunications research during 2002 and has devoted his time and technical abilities to astronomical imaging ever since. Steve ’s images have appeared in Astronomy magazine, Keystone Outdoors magazine, Anacortes Image of the Day and various web portals. He is a member of the Cherry Springs State Park (CSSP) Dark Sky Advisory Commit-tee and can normally be found at CSSP during new Moon. He currently operates three systems: a 14-inch Meade SCT housed in a dome used for visual observing, an Epsilon 180 wide-field astrograph with an STL11000 camera and Astro Physics 1200 mount, and a 16-inch RCOS Ritchey-Chretien with an STL6303E plus Adaptive Optics (AO-L) on a Para-mount ME. The 16-inch system is housed in an Astrohaven 12 clamshell and can be operated remotely through the In-ternet. Steve taught Astronomy at Brookdale Community College in NJ. Steve is the author of CCDNavigator, a session planning tool for imagers, which is marketed by CCDWare. He repre-sents CCDWare software products at the Advanced Imaging Conference in San Jose CA, the North East Astronomical Imaging Conference (NEAIC) and the North East Astronomy Forum (NEAF). He has given many presentations on ses-sion planning for imagers and CCDNavigator at astronomy clubs and other events across the United States including the 2009 ALCON Convention.

Steve holds PhD, MSEE and BEE degrees in Electrical En-gineering and worked for Bell Labs and Telcordia for 25 years as a researcher and manager. He was named a Telcordia Fellow in 1993 and was also elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has published numerous technical papers, holds eleven patents and has received many awards for technical innovation and leadership. His book, The New Telephony, chronicles the impact of the Internet on telecommunica-tions. Since retirement in 2002, Steve works occasion-ally as an expert witness in telecom patent litigations. Be-fore attending college, he served for six years in the United States Air Force, re-ceived the Air Force Com-mendation Medal and is a Vi-etnam Veteran.

Helix Nebula, NGC7293 / Steve Walters STL11000XM, RCOS 12" f/9, and AP1200GTO LRGB= 180:60:60:60 minutes taken from Cherry Springs, PA


the 2010 advanced imaging conference!

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