New Member Intro: And an image

[Itchy]

Hi Everyone

Why wasn't I told!!:confuse3: This Forum is one year old and I only stumbled on it by accident last night!!

My name is Tony Hitchcock. I'm from the Hunter Valley in NSW. I've been a keen amatuer for nearly 20 years and have recently got involved in astrophotography. I am keen to share with others of a similar ilk. My equipment consists of a Meade LXD55 10" Schmidt Newtonian and a Canon 300D. I originally used a Canon G2 for my astro work, but its been relgated since I've had my DSLR.

To those that know me from other forums, :gday:

To get things started, here is a recent image of M16.
114x30sec unguided exposures at ISO1600, Prime focus of the SN10.
http://users.bigpond.net.au/itchysastro/M16_114x30sec-finalwebThumb.jpg (http://users.bigpond.net.au/itchysastro/M16_114x30sec-finalweb.jpg)


Comments most welcome.

Please feel free to visit my website and perhaps sign the guestbook.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/itchysastro/index.htm

I look forward to lots of discussion!

Cheers

[Rodstar]

Welcome Tony, and thanks for the beautiful image. You'll spend many an hour on this site!

The Hunter isn't too far from the Central Coast...you should join us at Kulnura for the next new moon viewing night on 3 October. You'll be welcomed by a nice bunch of people who share the same passion as you.

I'd be interested to see your Newtonian scope.....all of the regulars have dobs / SCs, with the odd refractor. I've never tried a Newt!

[asimov]

G'day mate! Welcome to the forum...Better late than never, that you found us hey?

[RB]

I'm speechless,

All I can say is - that's stunning.

Welcome Tony to the forum.
Your going to have fun here.


:cool:

RB

[Mick]

Hello and welcome Itchy:)

[Greg Bryant]

Tony,

Good to see you here. I've enjoyed the pics you've posted on the ASNSW's list.

[janoskiss]

Welcome Itchy!

WOW! I checked out your astrophotos! :eyepop:
Love M83 but that comet passing by 47 Tucanae is unreal! Orion Neb is extraordinary too!

Everyone! Go check them out! Go to Itchy's website and follow the links to the Galleries!
:jump2: :jump2: :jump2: :jump2: :jump2: :jump2:

[acropolite]

Nice image Itchy, is the 300D unmodified??

[tornado33]

Howdy Itchy, bummer, I didnt realise you didnt know about Ice In Space, if I did I would have let u know.
great image by the way too :)

[Itchy]

Yes, it is stock standard. I bought an extended warranty with it and there is no way I'm touching it until that expires (another year). Even then I am very reluctant.:scared3:

cheers

[atalas]

Welcome Tony and all I can say about your M16 shot is :jawdrop:



Louie :thumbsup:

[davidpretorius]

welcome, boy this site got some great astro photographers already and it has just got one more. woo hoo

[avandonk]

Very very nice pictures.Are you living in a dark sky zone?I would assume the Hunter Valley would qualify.

And welcome,only just got here myself.

[Robby]

Love your work Itchy...! Stunning :D
It just goes to show it's not the length of the exposure, but the total time of exposure!! This has been discussed on a few threads here. Some of us 300D/10D/20D users go for long long exposure and just do a couple, while some of us go for short few minute exposures. But I've never seem someone do so many 30s shots!! All methods produce great images for a similar amount of exposure time. Thanks for your (unwittingly) contribution to this discussion!
Cheers

[Greg Bryant]

Itchy,

I know your comet-47 Tucanae image was taken at this year's South Pacific Star Party (and thanks for responding to my request at that time). Have the rest of the gallery images been taken from the Hunter?

I spent a weekend in the Hunter this time last year (in the midst of the wineries...) and the night sky was delightful.

[Itchy]

No Problem Scott. It's amazing that I haven't heard about it from others. Anyhow, I'm here now.

[robin]

Corker of an image Itchy.Love it.Welcome aboard.

[Itchy]

I'm on the outskirts of the Maitland area. The front of my house is in suburbia, but my backyard is more like semi rural and not too bad (at least to the North anyway). I wouldn't call it a dark site, but it is much better than most.

cheers

[seeker372011]

welcome Itchy, as I said over at Cloudy Nights as well , love your work :)

looks like Ice in Space has been below the radar screen of many ASNSW folk

[Greg Bryant]

Seeker,

I know of several ASNSW members who view this site as a "guest". I've e-mailed some highlighting this facility as a great example of active participation. No doubt more will take the plunge and sign on in time.

[Itchy]

Oh dear, Here we go again! This image actually sparked a massive "discussion" on yahoo's digital_astro. There has been a swag of evidence presented to back up the "longer is better" discussion. And I must say that I generally agree. The only problem is that to be able to get those 10-15min exposures, you have to spend a small fortune on the mount and an autoguiding system. Frankly, I just can't afford it! Even my best manual guiding efforts over three minutes created bloated and mishapen stars. If I can get my mount well polar aligned, it is capable of around a minute, unguided. 30 secs works really well.

The reason I went this way on this shot was that my DEC drive was busted and guiding was totally out of the question. I have also concluded that image greed doesn't work, so I now spend one session on only one object. So I put the time into 30 sec exposures and took as many as I could.

Interestingly I have seen a paper recently that discusses the use of shorter exposures. This paper concludes that you need to take many more exposures to achieve the same S/N ratio. eg, my 114 30 sec exposure (57 min) is probably equivalent to about 40 min of 5 minute exposures. Also, my scope is f4, and this speed definitely helps.

My conclusion: In a tracking limited system (like mine) it is preferable to use many short exposures, not just some. For most objects around 100 is probably enough.

Who knows, I might start a revolution.

Cheers

[Itchy]

Hi Greg

Most of the shots have been taken from my backyard (described in a previous post). Others have been taken at Ken Charlwood's property North of Singleton (very nice). But even there the mines are starting to encroach on his Southern horizon. I think there are four that were taken a Wiruna: the comet, the wide field crux, the coalsack and wide field Eta Carina.

And I must admit that there is nothing quite like a night under the stars with a bottle of the Hunter's "Observer's Red". :drink:

Cheers

[acropolite]

Itchy, just took a peek at your gallery, you're obviously the master of the 30 second exposure, am I right in assuming the shots were all unguided...

[Itchy]

Thanks.

The 30 sec shots were all unguided. I have experimented with manually guiding, but I am still not happy with my guiding setup. I'll keep working on it.

Cheers

[RB]

Tony,

What did you use to stack the frames and was there any other special processing done?

I'm still speechless.

:P

Andrew

[Itchy]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for your comments

The basic conversion, flat dark and bias calibration, aligning and addaptive add stacking was done in ImagesPlus. I then used IP's digital development routine to do the initial stretch. The image was then transfered to Photoshop for levels and curves adjustments. Final noise reduction was done with Noiseware.


cheers

[RB]

Thanks Tony,

Just visited your web site and saw all your work and read the details.
Awesome dude.
I think you've already started a revolution. :cool: :jump2: :clap:

Thanks again for sharing.

Cheers

Andrew

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Itchy :welcome: Been admiring your work for a long time over on D_A :painting: but as John D. once asked you - have you tried camomile lotion? :poke: :rofl: :D had to say it sorry! :lol:
Kearn

[Itchy]

I must say people, I am impressed. :cool2:
Firstly, thank you for the very warm welcome you have given me to this forum, and thank you to all that have commented on my images. It is most appreciated.

Secondly, I am astounded at the response. I have never seen this much response to anything I have posted on other forums. Thank you for your enthusiasm.

This is going to be fun!

Cheers

[Itchy]

Kearn,

Thanks, and guess what, I've heard it before :rofl: .

Being an Aussie with a name like Hitchcock, I couldn't ever get away without a nickname. Itchy is probably the kindest.

At least you didn't try the scratchy line.

:rofl: :rofl:

cheers

[fringe_dweller]

Whatever do you mean mate? :confused: :whistle: :doh: :scared2: ;) :lol2:

I think Itchy's a great nickname! - :) especially considering the alternatives as you say!

Kearn

[janoskiss]

Well, I was going to say how Iceinspace was going to be the scratch for your I....
:doh:

[iceman]

Hi Tony!

:welcome: to the forum!

There were a group of us from IIS at the SPSP this year, there's a couple of reports from Rod and I here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?event_reports).

There'll hopefully be a bigger IIS contingent at the 2006 SPSP.. we might even have a small army :)

As Rod said, it would be great if you could come down to our regular new moon meets at Kulnura. There's a group of 6-12 of us who meet up every month at "the paintball place" for some dark sky osberving and general socialising. The skies won't be as dark as your home, but it's worth it for the company. We get some guys from Sydney, Central Coast and Newcastle area attending.

We're also in the early planning stages of a central coast star party, to be held in late January next year. Check out the star parties forum for the gossip so far.

It's a shame you only just discovered the site, but better late than never! How did you hear about us?

Whatever you can do to spread the word to other aussies, would be most appreciated. :)

BTW, that's a beautiful widefield image of M16, really really nice.
I look forward to seeing more of your work posted here!

[Itchy]

Thanks for the welcome. That's a great report from the SPSP. Brings back memories.



Thanks for the invite. I'll certainly consider it. Just have to work around my schedules. I think I'm due in Melbourne on the 4th, so the October night might not work.



Sounds cool



I saw a post of yours on Cloudy Nights (another forum that I have recently joined). I saw something about the Central Coast, so I decided to check out your website. I was expecting a site similar to my own. I had no idea that it would be this huge! I will certainly spread the word.



Thank you
cheers :cheers:

[ErwinvdVelden]

Hi Tony,

Sorry Tony, I'm quite good at keeping secrets as you by now might have noticed :D

(For people who don't know, Tony and I have a regular exchange of images on the Yahoo Digital Astro group).

I'm myself aren't very active on this forum because of time related issues, usually I drop in to show my pixel brews or put a comment onto someone elses. :drink:

Anyway, welcome, you will find a great bunch here.

Cheers,

[josh]

Awesome shots itchy, youre a magician.
I just took my first few shots last night, but compared to those they look like crap.
Bugger! And i thought i was doing so well.. back to the camera for me then.