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Adam Block (Expert Astro-Imager and Founder of Caelum Observatory)
Virtually all astro-imagers are aware of Adam's incredible body of work, both
from his days at the Kitt Peak Advanced Observer's Program, and from more
recent images as well as his popular (and expanding) line of image-processing
tutorial DVDs.
Due to the popularity of Adam's pre-conference workshop in 2006, he will once
again be conducting a Friday afternoon session covering the basics of image
processing, including image calibration with Dark and Flat Frames, color
combining of RGB frames, adding Luminance to form an LRGB image, applying
Levels and Curves to achieve proper image density and contrast, and various
image cleanup and enhancement techniques, such as Gaussian Blur, Unsharp
Masking, and using Layer Masks and Color Range Tool features to selectively
apply image enhancements.
This optional pre-conference workshop is being offered separately for anyone who
believes they would benefit from it, but there is a separate fee of $50 to cover
the costs of conducting the workshop. Adam
will also be speaking during the regular conference session, sharing with us
some of the many techniques he brings to bear in advanced processing of
astronomical images.
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Richard Crisp (Renowned Astro-Imager and Emission-Line Imaging Pioneer)
As a practicing electrical engineer with over 30 years design experience in
the semiconductor industry, Richard knows a lot about what's inside those CCD cameras we (mostly) take for granted. He is widely known for his firmly
held convictions, and his willingness to engage in vigorous debate about the
foundations, equipment, and techniques of our hobby.
An early practitioner of emission-line (or narrow-band) imaging, Richard will
be presenting some of the history and science behind these techniques, as well
as practical pointers in the capture and processing of these images. Richard
will also be discussing some original research he has been doing in this area,
which may well point the way to new and exciting techniques in the near future.
Not content to just use off-the-shelf equipment, Richard has also fabricated some
of his own optical equipment, and will discuss the goals, design, fabrication and
testing of two different but highly cost-effective optical systems used for
astronomical imaging: a widefield system based on the use of surplus medium format
camera lenses and a long focal length classical cassegrain telescope based on a
low-cost 18" f/12.6 optics set and a home built OTA made from welded aluminum tubing
with carbon fiber trusses.
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Terence Dickinson (Editor of SkyNews Magazine)
Terence was a staff astronomer at planetariums in Toronto
and Rochester, N.Y. in the 1960s and 70s before becoming a full-time
astronomy writer and editor. For the past 13 years has been the
editor of the Canadian magazine SkyNews.
He will share some thoughts on the characteristics of images that
publishers and photo editors tend to find appealing, and how our attendees
might go about maximizing their chances of getting their images placed in
magazines and books, or selected for on-line distinction.
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R Jay GaBany (Remote Astro-Imager and Creative Writer)
Many of us are familiar with the incredible images that Jay produces,
as well as the marvelous prose introductions to them that he provides.
As one of a new but growing cadre of remote astro-imagers, Jay gathers
his raw data from telescopes a thousand (or more) miles from his home.
He will discuss the pros and cons of imaging from his remotely controlled
observatory in New Mexico, describe processes he uses to noiselessly
enrich color information that can be used to tint and to filter hidden
details trapped in pictures and review some recent work he has completed
with a team of professional astronomers who research tidal streams
associated with many galaxies.
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Doug George (Founder/President/CEO of Diffraction Limited)
Doug founded Diffraction Limited in 1992, with a mission to develop high
quality software and hardware tools for scientific imaging applications.
They produce hardware/software solutions in many areas, but most of us
are familiar with their flagship astronomy image processing products MaxIm DL and MaxDSLR.
Doug will be sharing with us many of the insights, tips and techniques
he has developed over the years to make the most of our image capture
and processing efforts.
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Paul Jones (Star Instruments Founder/Owner/Master Optician)
Paul established Star Instruments in 1976, and manufactures
professional-quality custom optics, specializing in Ritchey-Chretien
optical systems. Their customers include manufacturers of quality
tube assemblies and complete telescopes, universities, government agencies
including NASA, aerospace companies and discriminating amateur astronomers
throughout the world. (If you are in the U.S. and have a Ritchey-Chretien
telescope, the odds are overwhelming that Paul is the master optician who
produced those exquisite optics!)
Paul will be sharing with us some of the insights he has gleaned over
the years on the optical design and manufacturing of mirror-based optical
systems. He might even give us some insight into the background and expected
performance of his new line of Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph optics!
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Robert Nemiroff (Astronomy Picture of the Day co-editor)
Robert, an astrophysicist at the Michigan Technological University and NASA Goddard,
is a founding co-editor (along with Jerry Bonnell) of the Astronomy Picture of the
Day site (APOD).
Once again he will be sharing with our attendees some of the characteristics of
images that he looks for when selecting an image to become an APOD. To demonstrate
the points he makes in his talk, Robert presents a truly awe-inspiring series of
former APODs that is sure to elicit more than a few "ooh's and aah's" from the
attendees.
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"Dr. Clay" Sherrod (Arkansas Sky Observatory Founder)
Dr. Clay has a long history in research and educational astronomy, having devoted
over three decades to the advancement of public knowledge and appreciation of the
pure and applied sciences.
He will be taking us well beyond the capture and processing of "pretty pictures,"
and showing us how to do real science with those instruments many of us already possess.
Several of the specific topics he will cover include 1) astrometry of NEOs and comets;
2) photometry of asteroids to determine multiplicity or shape; 3) photometry of
cataclysmic variable stars, novae and supernovae; and, 4) patrol monitoring of the
atmospheres of Jupiter and Mars for transient meteorological changes.
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Andrea Tamanti (European Astro-Imager)
Andrea is an accomplished imager who lives under the Rome, Italy light dome, and yet
produces exquisite astro-images on a regular basis.
He will be discussing with us the techniques he uses to image
in this highly light-polluted environment, and special processing
routines he uses to overcome the inherent challenges of this
type of imaging. He will also be sharing with us his design
and construction notes on his 12" Ritchey-Chretien OTA, a
carbon-fiber and aluminum assembly that he created in his own
workshop, yet looks like it came from a high-end manufacturer.
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