Anyone using Curvemeister for astrophotos with mostly near black background with predominate colors blue, pinkish, brownish/red for galaxies, and are there any tips on setting background, highlight, etc.?
Thanks,
Tom
Astrophoto Images
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mikemeister_admin
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I see that Tom has only made one post and never came back. I know this is an old thread, but I just came across it and wanted to mention something to anyone who might be interested.
I would think that a simple levels adjustment would be all you'd need to do to an astrophoto. The best way to get a decent picture with your telescope's camera and computer, is to stack many pictures instead of taking one long exposure.(use something like registax). That reduces distortion that you get from heat inversions when you take one long exposure.
Second, any color that you get with a telescope camera is a false color, because the atmosphere diffracts the light coming to Earth, so whatever color you think you see is wrong. The only way to get an accurate color picture is to take it from outside our atmosphere....like with the Hubble.
So, I would think that if you are trying to adjust colors in an astrophoto, use any tool you want, since the final picture wouldn't be accurate anyway. Most telescope cameras like mine, take only black and white pictures, and if you want to add color to it, you use a color wheel placed in front of the camera. Since you are adding color to a B/W image, just make the color any shade or brightness you want.
I would be curious to see what CM could do with an astrophoto. I don't have any pictures taken with my telescope camera, but even if I did, they'd be in B/W, so it wouldn't matter.
I would think that a simple levels adjustment would be all you'd need to do to an astrophoto. The best way to get a decent picture with your telescope's camera and computer, is to stack many pictures instead of taking one long exposure.(use something like registax). That reduces distortion that you get from heat inversions when you take one long exposure.
Second, any color that you get with a telescope camera is a false color, because the atmosphere diffracts the light coming to Earth, so whatever color you think you see is wrong. The only way to get an accurate color picture is to take it from outside our atmosphere....like with the Hubble.
So, I would think that if you are trying to adjust colors in an astrophoto, use any tool you want, since the final picture wouldn't be accurate anyway. Most telescope cameras like mine, take only black and white pictures, and if you want to add color to it, you use a color wheel placed in front of the camera. Since you are adding color to a B/W image, just make the color any shade or brightness you want.
I would be curious to see what CM could do with an astrophoto. I don't have any pictures taken with my telescope camera, but even if I did, they'd be in B/W, so it wouldn't matter.
There is 1 guy that works with Curves and Astro-Photography. Here is the website..
http://astrosurf.com/avastro/
Greg
http://astrosurf.com/avastro/
Greg
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mikemeister_admin
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Thanks for the link Greg. His pictures are excellent!
I haven't used my telescope much in the past few years. It takes a while to set it up, and when you just want to take pictures, the setup process gets to be a chore. It takes about 90 minutes to set it up and let the optics cool down to the ambient temperature before I can use it. Then there is the time needed to break it down and put it away.
Here's what it looks like.
I haven't used my telescope much in the past few years. It takes a while to set it up, and when you just want to take pictures, the setup process gets to be a chore. It takes about 90 minutes to set it up and let the optics cool down to the ambient temperature before I can use it. Then there is the time needed to break it down and put it away.
Here's what it looks like.
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mikemeister_admin
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No, unfortunately, I don't have any images. Some years ago, I had a neighbor move in next door to me, and on his property, directly between his driveway and mine, he had a telephone pole with a mercury vapor light. The light was extremely bright, and I never thought about stargazing, since I could barely see the stars. Two weeks after he moved in, he turned the light off.(or so I thought.)
Coming home every night, it was pitch black and the stars looked so close, it felt like I could reach out and touch them. After a few years of this, I decided to buy that telescope. When I got it, I set it up and used it a few times, then the computer that's in it's base wouldn't boot up properly, so the manufacturer had me send it back. When I got it back, it worked perfectly. Two weeks after I got it back, my neighbor turned the mercury vapor light back on.
It seems that he didn't turn it off, it burned out, and it took him several years before he decided to fix it. I talked to him about it, and he agreed to put an on/off switch on the pole so that I could turn it off when I used the telescope. That took another year before he installed it. Meanwhile I had ordered the camera for the telescope, as well as some other accessories.
I tried taking some pictures of the moon, but they always came out blurry, even though the telescope's computer accurately tracked the moon. I discovered that I needed to buy either a wedge or a de-rotator to take pictures.
What I had forgotten was that the earth is rotating, so any object you look at in space will appear to slowly rotate. Trying to take a picture of the object will result in a blur, unless the camera rotates in the opposite direction and at the same speed. I ordered a custom wedge.....that took another two months.
When I finally had everything I needed, the skies were never clear. That year was the wettest year in history here. It was either raining or the sky was cloudy. There wasn't one clear day that whole summer. That was the year the Mississippi River overflowed.
The next year, I got moved to first shift, and I had to be in bed by 9pm, so I was always in bed during the best times to stargaze.
Years later, I just lost interest due to my bad back getting worse, so the telescope just sits there in my garage, covered over with a sheet. I can't stand on my feet for more than a few minutes before my back hurts, and you need to be able to stand for long periods of time when using a telescope.
I keep thinking about it, and I might try to set it up again and see how it goes. I still like stargazing, and I have the time for it now, so I'd like to see how my back holds up to it....maybe have a chair nearby to sit on every few minutes. The only other problem is that the neighbor with the light also has 5 yappy little dogs that bark at anything, and when I walk outside, they make so much noise barking at me, that I feel self conscious. The neighborhood won't take too kindly to dogs barking all night long because of me. :)
Coming home every night, it was pitch black and the stars looked so close, it felt like I could reach out and touch them. After a few years of this, I decided to buy that telescope. When I got it, I set it up and used it a few times, then the computer that's in it's base wouldn't boot up properly, so the manufacturer had me send it back. When I got it back, it worked perfectly. Two weeks after I got it back, my neighbor turned the mercury vapor light back on.
It seems that he didn't turn it off, it burned out, and it took him several years before he decided to fix it. I talked to him about it, and he agreed to put an on/off switch on the pole so that I could turn it off when I used the telescope. That took another year before he installed it. Meanwhile I had ordered the camera for the telescope, as well as some other accessories.
I tried taking some pictures of the moon, but they always came out blurry, even though the telescope's computer accurately tracked the moon. I discovered that I needed to buy either a wedge or a de-rotator to take pictures.
What I had forgotten was that the earth is rotating, so any object you look at in space will appear to slowly rotate. Trying to take a picture of the object will result in a blur, unless the camera rotates in the opposite direction and at the same speed. I ordered a custom wedge.....that took another two months.
When I finally had everything I needed, the skies were never clear. That year was the wettest year in history here. It was either raining or the sky was cloudy. There wasn't one clear day that whole summer. That was the year the Mississippi River overflowed.
The next year, I got moved to first shift, and I had to be in bed by 9pm, so I was always in bed during the best times to stargaze.
Years later, I just lost interest due to my bad back getting worse, so the telescope just sits there in my garage, covered over with a sheet. I can't stand on my feet for more than a few minutes before my back hurts, and you need to be able to stand for long periods of time when using a telescope.
I keep thinking about it, and I might try to set it up again and see how it goes. I still like stargazing, and I have the time for it now, so I'd like to see how my back holds up to it....maybe have a chair nearby to sit on every few minutes. The only other problem is that the neighbor with the light also has 5 yappy little dogs that bark at anything, and when I walk outside, they make so much noise barking at me, that I feel self conscious. The neighborhood won't take too kindly to dogs barking all night long because of me. :)
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