StudioC Astro Imaging

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All of the Deep Space Object (DSO) images below were taken with my SBig ST7 CCD camera (see the Equipment pages). Except for one of the lunar images, the other images were taken with a Meade Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI) or using a Nikon CoolPix 5000 digital camera thru Eyepiece Projection.

The DSO images are created by combining multiple exposures of the same object together in a process called "stacking". Stacking reduces the noise in the final image. My ST7 is a "grayscale" camera (Black & White). So, to create color images, I take multiple exposures through Red (R), Green (G) & Blue (B) filters and then stack the images from each filter seperately. I also take multiple images through a clear filter and "stack" them to get a grayscale or "luminance" (L) image. Then the individual staked images from each color channel are combined to create the full color image (LRGB) of the object.

A point of clarification is needed here: A clear filter image is correctly designated as "C" . An "L" image would technically be made through an infra red (IR) / near infra red (NIR) filter. often the clear images are referred to (wrongly) as "L" as I have done here. It is common to simply refer to these images as LRGB instead of CRGB.

Most of my exposures are between 45 & 60 seconds and I am combining approximately 10_15 images for B&W or 10_15 images each for LRGB color composites. Once combined, the images are still not completed. They more often than not require processing through an image editing program to bring out the details in the object and to clean up the image to make it look "pretty".

All images were taken and/or processed using a combination of the following software: MaxIM DL CCD, CCDSoft, PhotoShop CS2, Neat Image, RegiStar

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