SIERRA COLLEGE OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY

LABORATORY EXERCISE

NUMBER II.E. TITLE: MaxIm DL Image processing

DATE- PRINT NAME/S AND INITIAL BELOW: GROUP

DAY-

LOCATION

OBJECTIVE:

· To understand the basics of MaxIm DL.

· To combine several images to make another image which can reveal a fainter object

· To combine images take with three color filters to make a color image.

· To make a blink movie to spot a moving object.

· To process the image in MaxIm DL (and perhaps in CCDSoft and Registax).

DESCRIPTION:

MaxIm DL has several uses including running a CCD camera on a telescope and a descent assortment of tool to post-process images. We will be exploring latter use of MaxIm DL by opening and processing several images taken either from an ordinary digital camera or the CCD camera from the NCC Robotic Observatory. These include enhancing contrast, aligning and combining images, and color combining images. Answer all questions posed in this lab in the Blue Book.

PROCEDURE:

1. Open up MaxIm DL. Open the C:/Maxim Images directory (or one specified by the instructor). There you will find several images taken with the Nevada County Campus (NCC) robotic telescope. Go to the directory labeled M51. Your instructor will show how to open and display and orient the picture, as well as using the Screen Stretch to enhance brightness and contrast. Your instructor will also show you the techniques of combining and color combining (including color weighting) and how to obtain information about each picture by examining the image’s “header.”

2. Close all images and explore the other directories. Please attempt the following. Remember to keep the Screen Stretch window up as it can be handy to quickly enhance your image. Answer all questions in the Blue Book:

a. Combine at least 5 Luminance (Clear Filter) images of M57 (m57-00*L). With the combined image, enhance the contrast by using the Screen Stretch. It is probably best to also reverse the contrast (as demonstrated in Step 1), so that the stars are black against a grey background. Now look for a “star” that appears to have two little wispy “tails” coming out it. This is not a star, but some other celestial object. Using TheSky, identify it by name. Close all of these images when you are done.

b. Now make a color image of one of the M57 sets of images (note the capital M here). Start with just one set (e.g. M57D-001L, M57D-001R, M57D-001G, M57D-001B). Notice that the blue images tend to be worse than the others. The blue color can be weighted more when the images are actually combined as discussed by the instructor in Step 1. You should close all the images when you are done.

c. Do the same thing (step b) with at least two of the three objects M16, M27, and M33. Show the instructor the completed image. (For first day, stop here).

d. Now explore the Pluto folder. Open one Luminance picture of Pluto (Pluto-007L). Now open another image of Pluto that was taken on different date (Pluto2A-001L). Use View>Blink to show the motion of Pluto. When the Select File dialogue box is up, select all images and make sure to Align the images first. Once that is done, select OK on the Select File dialogue box and the Blinking dialog box appears. The rate should be set to 0.5 sec. After pressing the play button, Pluto should blink from middle of the image to one side of the image. How many arcminutes did Pluto move between the photos (Hint: each pixel is about one arcsec, use the coordinates display at the bottom of the MaxImDL window)? If the instructor asks for it, print out the first picture (the one with the earlier date), and circle where Pluto was.

e. Now go to the Eris folder. To see Eris clearly, we will have to Combine images which are on the same day. There are 20 on one day (ErisB) and 20 on another (ErisC). Combine each set and then Blink the combined image (you’ll need to Align the images first before blinking). Can you spot Eris? Eris should be somewhere near the middle of the image. It may be best to reverse the contrast on each of the combined images to see Eris the clearest and change the contrast until the grey background becomes somewhat grainy. Don’t be fooled by specks which appear in one image and are nowhere to found in the other image. Optional: How far in arcminutes did Eris move? (Hint: each pixel is about one arcsec large. Use the coordinates display at the bottom of the MaxImDL window)

f. Now go to the Moon Folder. Load all the Moon images in one set (i.e. Moon-*). Look at one of them and use the Screen Stretch (the Moon setting). Now Combine at least 10 of the images with any one of the methods described by the teacher in Step 1. Which method gives you the best image? The Instructor my introduce RegiStax4 as another method to add your moon images.

g. Now go to the Saturn and Moon Folder and go to the Saturn subfolder. Select one of the Saturn pictures and use the Screen Stretch (the Planet Setting). Now Combine ten of the images with any one of the methods described by the professor in step 1. Which method worked the best?

h. Finally, go to the M11 folder. This is a star cluster. Notice that images were taken in Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, and Infrared. Determine which stars are especially red and which are especially blue (or yellow), by making a color image of the cluster (under the menu items find Process>Color Combine and then when dialogue box comes up, select the LRGB option – the infrared image is not involved). Make sure that most of the stars appear whitish. This requires weighting the blue image by a factor of 2 to 4. Show your completed image to the Instructor. Which weighting did you use for the blue image?

Remember to answer all questions posed in this lab in the Blue Book.

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