Animation

[Doug]

Hi all,
I have spent some time putting together an animation of TV Libra.
TV Libra is a rr Lyrae type variable star with a period of about 6hours 28mins.
This means that it should be observable for 1 full cycle on any one night around May/June. It varies in magnitude from around 11.2 to 12.5.
Very interesting star, but with four seasons in one day or so, I'd hate to live there:scared:
The animations consist of 8 frames but 5 images :: 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2 repeating to give a rise and fall instead of a 'sawtooth'. The small field animation is running at 0.2sec/frame whereas the main one is at 0.1sec/frame.
If anyone is interested in visually obseving this interesting star, you can use the image to locate it, and it is at RA 15:18:22, Dec -08:27:43
There is a wider field version at:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~applejuice/tv-lib-Animation.gif

Edit: there is a problem with my website: the file was there but now gone.
Edit: the link should now work.

enjoy,
Doug

[Ric]

That's a great animation Doug, It will be interesting to watch it's cycle one evening.

Cheers

[Doug]

Thanks Rick. I forgot to add that each frame was a combo of 3x3min each hour.
The web link has been fixed: it helps to give the '.gif' extension.:doh:
Looking carefully at the animations the colour change along with brightness can be observed.

[Garyh]

thats very cool Doug....well done!!!

[jjjnettie]

Amazing.

[Astroman]

Very cool, what equipment was used to make the animation?

[allan gould]

Yes, I would also be interested to know what software you used
Regards, Allan

[Dr Nick]

Wow! Nice! ;)
Well done!

[sheeny]

Nice work Doug!

Al.

[Doug]

Thanks peoples.
Allan, not sure what you would like to know exactly, so I'll give you the lot;)

The Imaging started at a fairly low altitude, about 20d under light polluted light pollution. The imaging finished at about 80d altitude. The resulting light pollution gradients were therefore not uniform across the session, requiring somewhat different treatment of each frame.
Images were captured using MaxDslr running a sequence routine of 3x 3min at ISO 400 each hour, so I have only captured 4hours of the 6 odd hours of the true cycle.
The sub frames were calibrated and colour extracted (G2V balanced), aligned/combined (by group) using MaxDslr
Black points and white points were adjusted/equalised also in MaxDslr.
Gradients were then removed in PS2 using Russel Cronin's gradient exterminator.
Back to MaxDslr, an attempt to get the stars all the same intensity from one frame to the next using pixel math, achieved reasonable success, though due to the imaging conditions, this was not perfect, hence the slight pulsing noticeable in varying degrees with other stars there. Once this was not too bad, back to PS2 where locked curves were used to balance up the background using the info display.
The frames were then taken back to MaxDslr for a quick animation inspection (this animation can not be saved). Once I was satisfied that I had a reasonable result, the images were again taken into PS2 and assembled there as a gif animation. whether there was a better way or not I don't know, but this was the only solution I could find to combat the varying light pollution effects accross the set of frames.