General Notes on my Pictures etc.

Introduction Although I have been interested in Astronomy for as long as I can remember, the 'astrophotography bug' only took off in the early nineties. All of the pictures on this site were taken from my back garden in the heart of the 'light polluted' City of Oxford, England. Like most astrophotographers I am self taught. I suggest reading widely, not only to learn about basic techniques, but also to learn where the objects worth photographing are to be found in the sky. One of the best books currently available is shown in the "Links" section, below. Trial & error is the name of the game at the end of the day. I dread to think how much money I have 'wasted' over the years on buying film & having it processed only NOT to see the object I had spent an hour photographing, or the stars appearing as squiggles etc. Dark adaptation is essential for me. Not so much for seeing the objects through the telescope but to stop me tripping over my jet black cat who has a nasty habit of sneaking up and stopping at my feet without warning! So far, luckily, neither of us has sustained any injury. Once her feeding dish is refilled, I am usually then left in peace! So what is the appeal of going out in freezing cold temperatures in winter to photograph something that is, more often than not, invisible? When I think of a suitable answer, I'll let you know! I am lucky insofar that I have a secret weapon to combat the cold - blubber! Nevertheless, warm clothing is essential as you are not going to get that (hopefully) perfect picture if you are feeling cold, miserable & are shivering. Plump for a nice warm anorak. The style is not important. Some may think that a sad one would be appropriate for a masochistic hobby like astrophotography. However, I would have to disagree.

Equipment There is no one 'ideal' telescope for astrophotographers. Stunning pictures in the Astronomy magazines have been taken with refractors, reflectors & catadioptric systems, alike. At the end of the day, it is a matter of personal taste (and budget). My telescope is an 11" Celestron Ultima SCT. I chose it over the rival Meade for technical reasons. I prefer black to blue! For objects requiring a larger field of view I use a cheap & cheerful 500mm f/8 lens, piggybacked on the SCT. A LPR filter is essential. In any case I have no option but to leave it on permanently as it has been stuck fast to the scope for several years!

Observatory I soon realised that hauling the "gut buster" out on every clear night, assembling it in the dark & going through the tedious polar alignment routine was making my hobby far less enjoyable. A permanent observatory was required. This I constructed from a tin shed (bought from B&Q), modified with a wooden hinged roof. The two panels flip open and I have not had the need to polar align the telescope (or go for a hernia operation) since I set it up in 1992. It faces North/South (whereas my garden points North East/South West) and looks like it just dropped on the lawn at a funny angle from outer space. I therefore nick-named it 'The Tardis!'

Guiding Back in 1990 , after reading the available literature, I decided that guiding was for masochistic morons! I tossed my Zenith on the 4" Bresser refractor, quickly polar aligned it on Polaris and twiddled the focus knob until M42 appeared less "blurry" through the SLR viewfinder. I started the exposure & popped back indoors to watch something on TV, leaving the cat to watch over the telescope! With equal care, the film was later sent off to a well known mail order company who promised a free film with every order processed. The resulting picture still gives me a good laugh! When I subsequently upgraded to the 11" SCT I also purchased an off axis guider & had a few attempts at manual guiding. Sometimes the level of concentration almost seemed to cause my contact lens to pop out! I decided a further financial outlay was required or I might as well give up.I turned up at Broadhurst Clarkson & Fuller minutes before they were due to close on a Saturday afternoon in July 1992. Despite this, I received a very friendly greeting and was given a detailed guided tour of the wonderful ST4 autoguider. I returned to Oxford with a model of same and can honestly say that, next to the telescope, this ranks as my best investment in pursuing astrophotography. I use a baby monitor to listen to the ST4, either elsewhere in the garden if observing or indoors if feeling lazy. If the unit bleeps or starts clicking "oddly" I am immediately alerted to dash out to stop the exposure. This is very useful in Britain where cloud and rain can sometimes move in at alarming speed! I only wonder whether baby monitors all broadcast on the same frequency as I am often prone to muttering obscenities to myself if I can't get the ST4 to find the guide star, or if cloud arrives just as I am about to start an exposure. I would hate for any nearby neighbours with similar units picking up such outbursts & thinking that baby's first ever words were four-letter in nature!

Film If there is one factor in this hobby which is constantly changing, then it has to be the choice of film. Major manufacturers such as Kodak & Fuji are constantly 'improving' their emulsions and the current choice of film on the market must appear absolutely daunting to the newcomer to this hobby! Films which were particularly useful for astrophotography up until a couple of years ago, such as Kodak PJM 640 & Pro Gold 400, have now been discontinued. As I write this this update (March 2001) I think that the general consensus amongst the astrophotography community would be as follows: Colour Print Film Kodak Supra 400 appears to be a good replacement for the discontinued emulsions listed above. There is also a film called LE400 (also made by Kodak) which is extremely difficult to obtain (LE stands for 'Law Enforcement'). Indeed, I am not aware of any supplier of this film in the UK, although it appears to be obtainable from suppliers in the US. A final film which I have seen some excellent results from is Agfa Optima 400. Colour Slide Film Kodal Elitechrome 200 appears to be the current champion. It has an excellent red response, very good reciprocity characteristics & very fine grain. Another film that currently gets rave reviews is Fuji's Provia RDP III. Although this film is not as red sensitive as Elitechrome 200, it has virtually no reciprocity failure and hence keeps on soaking up the photons from that deep sky object long after other films have pegged out! Black & White film Kodak's Technical Pan film remains the leader here. However, for deep sky work it must be hypered. This increases the apparent speed of the film and also improves its reciprocity characteristics. When used in conjunction with a red filter, it is excellent at recording emission nebulae. The resolution of this film is also unsurpassed. When using hypered film (essential for Tech Pan & desirable for other makes) I have, for the past eight years, used the services of a UK based company called Astrofilms of 36 Queen Street, Cubbington, LEAMINGTON SPA, Warks CV32 7LU (proprietor Mr Neville Fox B.Sc). The service is fast and reasonably priced, with your hypered film being returned in a sealed canister with a sachet of silica gel & backfilled with dry nitrogen. This preserves the hypering qualities of the film for longer when stored in your freezer. Another reason I use this service is for the fact that you are dealing with a fellow astrophotographer who takes an interest in, and welcomes feedback on, any new films that you may be experimenting with. If anyone reading this has come across a new film which they consider to be above average for astrophotography and in particular for recording red nebulosity, then I would love to hear from them (see below for my e-mail address).

Processing This is the area which almost caused me to give up my hobby a few years back! After all the effort which goes in to producing an astronomical picture no amount of conventional processing (including by some custom labs) produced the kind of result which I was after. My experiments with slide duplication or aligning two negatives/slides to make composite pictures (as done successfully by many of our top amateurs), were flops. The star images usually ended up looking far too bloated & grain was often very intrusive. The nebulae would appear more vivid with the improved contrast but, to my taste, lost its 'natural' look when compared to the original slide/negative. In 1997 I saw an ad for Digital processing. I sent off my two Pro Gold 400 negatives of the North America Nebula, plus a copy of a photo in Astronomy magazine of NGC7000 by George Greaney. "Make mine as much like that as possible" was the instruction. The resultant print was, ofcourse, inferior to Mr Greaney's - but the quality was good enough to re-inspire me not to give up just yet! Early in 1999, having seen many excellent pictures in various astronomy magazines processed digitally, I finally took the plunge and bought a computer. I have spent many enjoyable hours since then scanning old negatives & slides and 'breathing new life' into them. The results are certainly superior to any obtained previously and there is the added satisfaction of having total control over how the final image will look and also in the knowledge that it is 'your work' from start to finish. I use Picture Window to combine negatives or slides. Its 'clone' tool is also very useful for removing dust marks, scratches and any unwanted 'blemishes' such as satellite trails. For additional processing such as contrast enhancement, unsharp masking & colour correction, I use a combination of Photoshop, PhotoDeluxe, Picture Window, Paint Shop Pro & PhotoImpact SE. I like to dabble with all of these programmes as I do not want any of them to feel left out! The final results also look far better on my computer monitor than they ever did on a print or even, in my view, by slide projection.

Acknowledgement My grateful thanks to Chris Martin for his invaluable help in setting up this website.

Links Ulrich Beinert - this is a great source of information as well as astrophotography! Ulrich has managed to achieve a hell of a lot in a relatively short period of time. A must site to visit! Richard Bell's Amateur Astrophotography & CCD Image Links - this is by far one of the largest sites I have found with links to other astrophotographers from around the world, including all of the top names. This site will provide many nights of enjoyable surfing when it is too cloudy to be taking pictures, yourself! Federation of Astronomical Societies View the Websites of British Astronomical Societies, many of which have a Gallery section. - join this GREAT discussion forum on all matters concerned with Space. This site covers far more than just astrophotography and is a great place to learn, offer advice, or just to exchange ideas with others on ANY matter related to Space. Check it out! - join this new discussion forum and subcribe to the newest UK-based astronomy magazine on the market; both affiliated to the long-running BBC TV series of the same name, hosted, of course, by Sir Patrick Moore. This discussion forum is a very friendly place where there is always help on hand to answer any astronomy-related questions you may have. - join this friendly astronomy community to discuss matters astronomy-wise as well as general photography Catch up on the weekly adventures of Robby the Astrodude, too! - another new but friendly forum to discuss things astronomical. Check it out soon! Ron Berard -Check out some excellent astrophotography from this good cyberfriend! N.E. Lincs Stargazers Check out this excellent astroimaging site from a good astrobuddy, DAVID ELMES, from the Sky at Night forums. Some very impressive images taken with the digital SLR, Nikon D50. Digital Portfolio A site by James Dyson with lots of useful information, plus a great selection of photography and Astro Art.

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