The Orion nebula versus Color QuickCam

General

My name is Mats-Olof (Mats for short) Ekberg. Last year I converted a QuickCam camera for astrophotography. There is lot of different Web site's regarding this subject (such as this very nice link page). The QuickCam are not quite suited for astrophotos, but objects like the Moon, brighter planets and deep sky object's like M42 or M45 can be captured. Much depending on the light gathering capability and focal ratio of the telescope.

Equipment

  • Telescope: Celestron 80mm Wide View f/5.
  • Mount: An old German Eq with homemade RA drive (not very accurate).
  • Camera: Modified Connectix Color QuickCam 2.
  • Computer: 486-system, P24T CPU, 32MB, High-speed Bi-directional Par.Port
  • Photo technique:Primary focus (400 mm).
  • Image processing: Paint Shop Pro 5.

    • Technique

    I have tried to follow some of the technique described in Sky & Telescope aug. 98 (p48-54).
    Information can also be found at skyshow.com.
    Since I do not have PhotoShop I had to try some alternatives to adapt for the PSP 5.

    Location and observation

  • Location: Stockholm, Sweden (some light pollution).
  • Date: 98-12-29 21.30-22.00 local time.
  • QCam parameters: man/254/208/aut/138/0/on (top to bottom).
  • Image parameters: Full(640x480)/Million Colors/High (top to bottom).
  • Camera temp: 5-6 deg C.
  • Exp. time: Auto.

    • Image enhancement process

    I took about 30 images for this object, 12 of the best ones where selected. Three of them can be seen here raw image 1, 31kb raw image 2, 42kb raw image 3, 47kb. Then this dark frame, 2kb was subtracted from them and then they where aligned together as different layers in a new single image. By the use of different blend modes two new images where produced blend mode: Screen, 57kb blend mode: Lighten, 45kb. They where combined by the Average metod to this temporary, 51kb. The image brightness and contrast was adjusted and then passed filter sharpen, soften, sharpen and finally the image where rotated 180 deg.

    The Result

    The final image, 18kb

    Many different methods of image processing exists and of course there are better, more advanced and efficient ways than the one I have used above. The image can of course also be made to look totally different. If for instance the number of interactions between the images like s1 and l1 are increased and involving other blend methods and filters then the result may end up like this.

    Another approach, 171kb