Star Party 27-29 Sept., 2019

Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta (OAVdA)
Lignan Planetarium

An introduction

The next images to be uploaded are part of an event that basically marked our beginnings in astrophotography. Thanks to the suggestion of Eng. Lorenzo Comolli, we decided to participate in this Star Party to try to learn as much as we could, as well as seek answers to the many concerns we had. Just two months before we had received the IOptron mount and the Sky Watcher Quattro Pro Newton 200-800mm f 4 telescope, as well as other necessary parts of the equipment and had everything ready to formally start doing astrophotography.

We were welcomed to this event by the Astronomers of the Observatory and many volunteers. They personally transferred us in their vehicles to another place outside the town of Saint-Barthélemy (1600 meters above sea level) since by the time we arrived all the available places to place the telescope were full. The other place was located about 300 m higher.  It was very pleasant to see that it was a beautiful place, with a spectacular view of the valley, in addition to having a house-restaurant, facilities, a well-made parking lot and a terrace.  A very wide flat with grass, perfect for placing the telescope.

We were really excited when we got to mount the telescope there. That same day in the afternoon, we participated in a short conference and tour carried out by several astronomers from the Observatory, where they explained to us the work they are developing there, the instruments they use, the complexity of their studies, their research areas, etc. For more informationHome - Osservatorio Astronomico della Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta

The night of the 27th-28th was our first formal astrophotography session. We were extremely lucky to have Luigi, a passionate astrophotographer with more than 25 years of experience, as our telescope neighbor. In addition to being a very charming and affable person, he helped us at all times during those days to observe many DSOs 'live' for the first time, such as the Dumbbell, Veil Nebula, Hercules star cluster, Horsehead, Andromeda, etc. I have to confess that when I first saw the blue filaments through the camera panel, I had a few tears.

That same night we tried to use the PH2 but without success, as had happened to us on two previous occasions. We decided then to focus on taking pictures of various DSOs to see how our gear was behaving and hoping to see something good. We were taking pictures until 5:30 am at 2C, we were frozen !! At that time Mauri used an intervalometer to give the exposure time and it was not until after resting for a bit at the end of the morning that we were able to verify how the images had come out once the sim card was downloaded from the camera to the computer. A total catastrophe.

After showing several of our new astrophotographer friends our images, they all came to the conclusion that our Newton had a collimation problem. Maurizio brought the collimator and they showed us how to use it and thus we were able to solve one of the main problems and other minor problems of our gear. On the other hand, apparently some of the participants of the event who were located in the town below knew about the visual quality that our place had and in the afternoon we received an avalanche of astrophotographers placing their equipment around us, but one in particular a gigantic Dobsonian was the 'star' of that day. It was all very exciting.

The night between the 28th-29th was much better. The astronomers informed us that they rarely have a Seening as good as the one that was predicted for that night. And it was. In addition, the friendly owner of the gigantic Dobsonian invited us at every moment to observe the various DSOs that he pointed out and where we could see, for example, the Orion Nebula almost in 3D, with a unique clarity and depth. That night we did several imaging sessions with various targets and some DSOs from the night before. We were working until dawn, getting colder than the night before due to a very slight but constant breeze.

After resting, we were able to verify that although many of the images were blurred, the quality was much higher than the previous day, without artefacts or ghost veils, etc. The blurred images were mostly the product of not having the PH2 for the guide, in addition to the breeze in a large OTA etc. However, the few 'good' images will help us make a first process and see them appear on our monitors for the first time!

The Star Party was an extraordinary experience, where the Astronomers, Astrophotographers and Observation Astrophiles were very kind and attentive and willing at all times to help and offer their advice and experiences. The images posted on the Revision place reflect different moments of those days.

Since the Star Party, it has been the slow learning curve that mi one inevitably goes through in order to give those photons a fair light. We made many mistakes in these two years, and there were moments of great frustration and helplessness when it was difficult to find answers to doubts despite looking for them everywhere. However, we had the ability to react and insist and learn little by little from those mistakes to improve our performance in both aspects, Maurizio in capturing photons and me in processing his data.

The four images that follow up reflect those first attempts and we wanted to share them with you because it is part of this learning process in this exciting hobby.

I call it the most technologically sophisticated hobby of Art and Science put together!


The Horsehead Nebula

One of Maurizio's wishes was to have this iconic nebula on his desktop. And he did it with just two images (to my surprise). The day after returning from the Star Party, September 30, he began to process the session immediately, finding that of the 14 images without filter made, only one was 'good', and of the 11 with filter, also one was saved. First he worked with just one image, converting it from Raw 32 bit to Tiff 16 bit in Photoshop and then he processed it in ACDSee program that is familiar to him while Ps is not.

Then he decided to stack both raw images in DSS, did the conversion in Ps and worked it in ACDSee.

If the conditions had not been as sharp as the one we had on 28-29, it would hardly have reached some of the details seen in this image. Maurizio did a special session in an area of ​​Bortle 2 of this nebula in 2020 but it was a windy night and the wind played a bad joke since all the frames were also moved[b].[/b]

This nebula is not only spectacular but unique in its shape and composition, and I hope that in December or the first months of 2022 we can do sessions for it to finally be able to address its spectacular colors, shapes and details.

Process Sept. 30th, 2019
https://twitter.com/AstroOtus/status/1438998118918508547