Tentatively, we’re hoping to hold this on 23 May from 10:00-1:00, in a meeting room at the Loudoun County Public Library on Hay Road in Ashburn, VA. This is of course the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, but given availability of meeting space, it was the first option we’ve been able to find for a while that doesn’t conflict with Astronomy Day on the 16th, so we’re going to go ahead and scheduling it.
There’s not typically a really structured agenda; an important part of this is informal discussion. As a starting point for this session, however, Beth will be talking about solar imaging and processing techniques that she’s used for images she has sent out over the past few weeks to this list. Kevin Quin also may do an imaging processing walkthrough with PixInsight, unless another member has some imaging data they’d like to try and do a processing walkthrough with.
We’ve had a few of our past attendees indicate that they can make it, but newcomers are always welcome as well. This is really a low-intensity group; our aim is to make it really painless to join or contribute. If you have some astrophotography data you want some help processing, or something you’d like to show, or an imaging question you’d like to discuss, feel free to bring it up at the meeting–that’s what this is all about.
Clouds, rain & lightning predictions for today do not bode well for stargazing tonight, so I’m surrendering early and canceling the public night.
Please read the C.M. Crockett Page for park details and check NOVAC front page for day of event for updates in case of cancellations.
Observing at Great Meadows tonight (6-19) has been cancelled due to cloudy weather.
See front page of NOVAC Site for changes to event. More information about Great Meadow including directions and parking visit the Great Meadow Site page.
This event is cancelled due to forecast of poor weather conditions.
Please read the C.M. Crockett Page for park details and check NOVAC front page for day of event for updates in case of cancellations.
Please read the C.M. Crockett Page for park details and check NOVAC front page for day of event for updates in case of cancellations.
See front page of NOVAC Site for changes to event. More information about Great Meadow including directions and parking visit the Great Meadow Site page.
Note that this is a change from a date (Aug 29) some of us had discussed a while back. Apologies to anyone who wasn’t included in the rescheduling discussion. I was still posting to the listserv from my Yahoo address then, and most things weren’t getting through.
For the same reasons, I’m reposting a message below about a few galaxy images I processed recently:
I finally starting to get a stable processing routine in PixInsight for my LRGB images, and have managed to get through a bunch of galaxies that I shot since last fall. These were all taken from my little backyard dog-servatory in Dunn Loring, between Tysons Corner and the Mosaic District, so you know there’s plenty of light pollution. The springtime galaxy images really suffered from this, as transparency was lower then and the soggy air reflected more light back down into the scope. Seeing was also much better for the one image shot in the fall (NGC 891), so details are sharper in that image. FWHM (a measure of sharpness of the stars in the image) was 1.95 arcsecs for that one, vs. 2.7 for the three shot in the spring.
See front page of NOVAC Site for changes to event. More information about Great Meadow including directions and parking visit the Great Meadow Site page.
Please read the C.M. Crockett Page for park details and check NOVAC front page for day of event for updates in case of cancellations.
See front page of NOVAC Site for changes to event. More information about Great Meadow including directions and parking visit the Great Meadow Site page.