| CCD Imaging has several advantages over conventional astrophotography. CCD (or Charged Coupling Device) uses a silicon chip which is extremely sensitive to light to create a digital image. The typical CCD has about an ISO of 20,000 verses 100 to 1600 for film. Also CCD's do not suffer from reciprocity failure like film. The signal to noise ratio of a CCD makes it possible to image in light polluted areas, and while the moon is out. This makes CCD's very attractive for astro-imaging. The disadvantage of CCD is that the imaging area is much smaller than film, and creating color images takes 3 separate exposures taken through filters. I don't plan on doing color CCD work any time soon, since I believe that film still has an advantage over CCD for this type of work. I have 2 CCD cameras now. An SBIG ST-7 and a SBIG ST-4. The ST-4 I got primarily as an autoguider while I do astrophotography, but the ST-7 is exclusively for imaging. |
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 Object: M16 The Eagle Nebula Date and place: June 11th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/3.3 Exposure time: 1200 seconds Processing: Dark frame, flat field, adjust levels Notes: |
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Object: M17 The Swan Nebula Date and place: June 11th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/3.3 Exposure time: 1200 seconds Processing: Dark frame, flat field, adjust levels Notes: |
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Object: M64 The Black Eye Spiral galaxy. Date and place: June 11th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/6.3 Exposure time: 1000 seconds Processing: Dark frame, flat field, adjust levels Notes: Focus drifted during this 1200 second exposure causing the guider to cutting the exposure short. |
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Object: M13 Great Globular cluster in Hercules Date and place: June 9th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/3.3 Exposure time: 600 seconds Processing: Dark frame, remove hot pixels, remove cold pixels.. Notes: |
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Object: M88 Date and place: June 6th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/6.3 Exposure time: 1200 seconds Processing: Dark frame. Notes: Supernova 1999cl is just to the right of the center of the galaxy. |
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Object: M101 Date and place: June 8th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/3.3 Exposure time: 600 seconds Processing: Dark frame. Notes: This was taken when M101 was very near the zenith. |
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Object: M20 the Trifled Nebula Date and place: June 8th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/3.3 Exposure time: 600 seconds Processing: Dark frame, flat field, adjust levels. Notes: This was about 25 degrees above the horizon. |
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Object: M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy Date and place: June 8th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/3.3 Exposure time: 600 seconds Processing: Dark frame. Notes: This was taken when M51 was very near the zenith. |
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Object: M8 the Lagoon Nebula Date and place: June 8th 1999, Vedeler Observatory Camera: ST7 high resolution. Telescope: Meade 10" LX200 f/10 reduced to f/3.3 Exposure time: 600 seconds Processing: Dark frame. Notes: This was taken about 22 degrees above the horizon. |
 M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy |
Object: M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy Date and place: June 20th 1998, Steward Observatory's 61" f/13.5 Cassegrain Reflector Camera: 1k x 1k (binned to 512 x 512) professional CCD camera cooled to 70K Telescope: Steward Observatory 61" f/13.5 Cassegrain. Exposure time: 30 seconds Processing: None, this is a raw image! Notes: The field of view is about 3.5 arc minutes square and the resolution is about 2.5 pixels per arc second. |
Last modified: June 12th, 1999
Copyright ©1998 Chris Vedeler
Comments: ckvedeler@access4less.net
