Presenters: Carole Pope and Roberto Botero (OAS members and imagers)
Carole and Roberto gave a joint talk on Astrophotography, what sort of equipment is needed, how to set it up and what is involved in polar alignment, guiding, capture, calibration and post-processing.
Types of Mount: They spoke about the types of Mount needed (a tracking and guiding equatorial mount) for long exposure for deep sky imaging.
Types of telescope: They mentioned the types of telescopes (Apochromatic refractors or imaging Newtonians were recommended for beginners). The focal ratio was also discussed and the importance of “speed”.
Types of cameras: They compared the types of cameras required and the advantages of each type – Mono cameras, CMOS and CCD cameras and the use of filters.
Setting up: Methods and importance of balancing the equipment, polar alignment, methods of getting focus.
Guiding: was explained and the importance of it.
Exposures and Calibration: How many exposures needed were explained and why, and the use of calibration images in the way of Dark, Flat field, and Bias frames were also explained plus the importance of using them. Some examples were shown of images done with 2,4,8 and 16 in a stack showing how it reduces noise. Examples were shown with and without the use of Flat Field frames.
Post-processing: A simple demonstration of processing a DSLR image was shown.
Narrowband and the use of filters: Were explained.
Planetary images: Finally Roberto gave a brief introduction into planetary and solar imaging.