The Kaibab Lodge star party

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The Kaibab Lodge star party

#1

Post by SkyHiker »


I just returned from the Kaibab Lodge star party where I stayed from Sat Jun 5 through Friday Jun 11. It is normally part of a triple star party on the North Rim, South Rim and at the Kaibab Lodge. This year the park service banned the North and South rim ones because of Covid.

The Kaibab Plateau is known as an "Island in the Sky" pushed up by tectonic plate movements with an elevation between 7000 and 9000 feet. It is an island of life with large pastures, forests (albeit a bit burned at some places from last year) and easy access to the Grand Canyon. The bison were not in sight though they were supposedly present. There are too many and the park has started issuing hunting permits to control the size of the herd. Nearby are the Vermillion Cliffs, Marble Canyon, Glenn Canyon Dam, the Kaibab trail that crosses the Colorado River, and many forest roads and vista points. Nice things to explore during the daytime.

The organizer, Gene Fioretti, had brought his brand new 22" UC Obsession with encoders and motors that he got working during this week. The group of astronomers included two people from San Diego, three from Arizona (including Gene), a person from Missouri, and me. Before dinner we would do one presentation for 4 nights in a row. I gave one too. The audience was counted on the fingers of one hand, maybe it will catch on next year.

Each day after dinner we went out to set up. I found out quickly how cold it can get. I had good clothes to keep my body warm but no long-johns to keep my legs warm. I tried using two pairs of jeans, this helped quite a bit but it's not ideal. The worst part is that I needed my fingers to use the Galaxy tab to control the gear, and the touch screen does not work with gloves on. This limits the observation time quite a bit, and the enjoyment too.

The visual observers got tens of visitors each night especially for the 22" Dob. It provided magnificent views. On clear nights the Milky Way formed a bright band across the sky. I estimate this location to be Bortle 2.

Let me describe my astrophotography achievements and mishaps day by day. Keep in mind it's never easy to figure things out in the dark at a new location without power and laptop while also socializing with others. Two nights were cut short because of clouds. I spent night 1 recovering from the drive.

On night 2 I tried the 12" Newt on the G11S with the ASI2600MC. At first I could not get the focuser working, possibly due to my own doing. I had unscrewed the setting screws of the flex coupler in order to make space for a sleeping bag and other goods sliding down the Newt to save space. After a while I figured it out, re-tightened the screws and it was working. Then I had to set the date and location manually, something that I had never done before (and was hoping it was a snap, normally Ekos sets it when I am on the internet). The location was not in the data base and the closest I could find was Las Vegas. I tried entering the latitude and longitude but Ekos did not seem to accept it. Of course this was my fault, I had to press the + to add a new location but in the dark and cold everything is hard to figure out. After this trouble I skipped setting the time (Ekos had nothing for it - it retrieves it from Linux). The next day I figured out how to use the date command in UTC time. As a result the plate solving failed so polar alignment and goto alignment was impossible by computer control.

On night 3 I switched back to the Mak-Newt with the Fuji X-a1 DSLR where I did a manual PA and used the SSAG guide scope for plate solving. I got some unguided M51 images with elongated stars, not worth including here.

On night 4 I tried the 12" again. I used the auto-focus and plate solving, which seemed to work, then I noticed umbrella-like deformations. Dang it, this was because we had been driving on very bumpy dirt roads to get a cell phone signal and it had rocked the scope out of collimation. After getting my Howie Glatter out and collimating the scope the weather got worse and I packed it up.

On night 5 I collimated first, did an autofocus and some plate solving for polar alignment. Then I took a 1 second image from the camera tab, and another one of 10 seconds to check the tracking. The latter did not work. I spent an hour trying all kinds of things to get an image and nothing works except closing Ekos and restarting for each one. So I gave up. The next day I found out that you must have the cooler connected or else this will happen. I had disconnected it to save battery power, and at first it seemed to work fine.

On night 6 I finally got my act together. I set the time, collimated the scope, took flats against the sky at dusk, after dark I auto-focused, did plate-solving based polar alignment, then added some stars for goto alignment and started shooting unguided subs. It was cold and I decided to pick well known targets for a total of 10 minutes integration time each from 20 second subs. Unfortunately they were fairly low above the horizon. See below, stacked and edited in DSS.
lagoon_dss_small.jpg
eagle_dss_small.jpg
trifid_dss_small.jpg
swan_dss_small.jpg
Despite the mishaps I am pleased because I finally got the software quirks out of the way and I am pleased to be able to get images of 10 minutes integration time only. At the Kaibab plateau this is expected of course so I may visit it next year again. The quality of the images is better than earlier takes of the same object with the Mak-Newt and AVX. I can now focus on the mechanics and start improving.
... Henk. :D Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:Henk's astro images
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

#2

Post by Ylem »


Beautiful pictures, sounds like a great time.
I have never been to the North Rim, just the more popular South Rim :(
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

#3

Post by messier 111 »


nice report and pics , thx .
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

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Post by MariusD69 »


Great images! Well done, Henk!
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

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Post by SkyHiker »


Here's a reprocess in Gimp of the four images above that were processed in DSS (stacked and edited). I had not spent much attention to it the first time around because they were all from about 10 minutes integration time, but I have learned a lot more about how to use Gimp since then and wanted to see the improvement.

I did not separate the stars using Starless. Instead, in most cases I applied a star mask that was based on a wavelet decomposition (to remove the nebulous parts) followed by a threshold. This mask was applied before an erode operation. Then gradients were removed as necessary, saturation increased, sharpened etcetera. For 10 minute images I'm pretty happy about the result. The upper left has some elongated stars, but that's because I should have recollimated before starting, I just left it.
trifidGimp_small.jpg
swanGimp_small.jpg
lagoonGimp_small.jpg
eagleGimp_small.jpg
... Henk. :D Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:Henk's astro images
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

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Post by STEVE333 »


Nice report Henk of a somewhat frustrating trip. Glad it turned out good in the end!

Very nice improvements in the reprocessed images. I especially liked the improvements in the Pillars of Creation.

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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

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Post by starfield »


Nice repro's, Henk. Love the colors in the Trifid. Wonder if they'll be holding the Grand Canyon Star Parties this year. I have been eyeing the Great Basin Star Party and looking to try that one if they have it this year.
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

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STEVE333 wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:20 am Nice report Henk of a somewhat frustrating trip. Glad it turned out good in the end!

Very nice improvements in the reprocessed images. I especially liked the improvements in the Pillars of Creation.

Steve
Thanks Steve. I'll have to take longer exposures this year, then it will be worth spending image processing time on.

I had just barely come to grips with the 12" and its control system so a lot of time was spent to come to grips with it. While the temperatures at Kaibab are quite nice it gets cold at night which makes things harder. So, it came down to the last night. But I enjoyed the event thoroughly, great to be out there with fellow amateur astronomers in a great scenery.
... Henk. :D Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:Henk's astro images
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

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starfield wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:08 am Nice repro's, Henk. Love the colors in the Trifid. Wonder if they'll be holding the Grand Canyon Star Parties this year. I have been eyeing the Great Basin Star Party and looking to try that one if they have it this year.
Thanks for the Great Basin tip, I had never heard of it but I will keep it in mind.

The Kaibab Lodge star party will most likely not be affected by the Grand Canyon star party. Last year the latter was canceled but the Kaibab one was not. It is a small group but none the less very enjoyable in a great place.
... Henk. :D Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:Henk's astro images
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Post by BABOafrica »


I enjoyed the report. I especially like the detail in your image of the Lagoon Nebula.

Do you happen to have any YouTube demos on how you do the processing using GIMP ???

BABO
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BABOafrica wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:29 pm I enjoyed the report. I especially like the detail in your image of the Lagoon Nebula.

Do you happen to have any YouTube demos on how you do the processing using GIMP ???

BABO
I don't, sorry. But the general procedure is not that difficult for RGB. Here are some pointers,

First off you must be fluent in layer management before anything else.

You must also be fluent in using curves, for initial stretch and color balance, later on whenever appropriate. Not just Value but also RGB.

Lately I've started rescaling to 2000 pixels horizontally first. This still has enough resolution, speeds everything up and is essential in case you want to use starnet to separate stars and nebulosity. I will not go into that now because I have not fullg mastered folding the stars back in and have it look natural.

Learn how to remove a linear gradient. Duplicate the layer, select the end color, subtract the layer.

Star reduction using erode works well only when using a star mask. For that, do a wavelet transform with 7 levels and deselect everything except the error.
This gives the nebulous trend that you subtract from the image, then apply color-> threshold to ge the star mask. Broaden it by a few pixels the erode.

The rest is just a matter of sharpening, smoothing, healing (I just learned that last night), saturation, leave the sharpening for last.

Hope this helps. I don't mind getting online with skype or something and showing how it's done.
... Henk. :D Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:Henk's astro images
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Re: The Kaibab Lodge star party

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Post by BABOafrica »


SkyHiker wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 4:46 pm
BABOafrica wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:29 pm I enjoyed the report. I especially like the detail in your image of the Lagoon Nebula.

Do you happen to have any YouTube demos on how you do the processing using GIMP ???

BABO
I don't, sorry. But the general procedure is not that difficult for RGB. Here are some pointers,

First off you must be fluent in layer management before anything else.

You must also be fluent in using curves, for initial stretch and color balance, later on whenever appropriate. Not just Value but also RGB.

Lately I've started rescaling to 2000 pixels horizontally first. This still has enough resolution, speeds everything up and is essential in case you want to use starnet to separate stars and nebulosity. I will not go into that now because I have not fullg mastered folding the stars back in and have it look natural.

Learn how to remove a linear gradient. Duplicate the layer, select the end color, subtract the layer.

Star reduction using erode works well only when using a star mask. For that, do a wavelet transform with 7 levels and deselect everything except the error.
This gives the nebulous trend that you subtract from the image, then apply color-> threshold to ge the star mask. Broaden it by a few pixels the erode.

The rest is just a matter of sharpening, smoothing, healing (I just learned that last night), saturation, leave the sharpening for last.

Hope this helps. I don't mind getting online with skype or something and showing how it's done.
Many thanks for that explanation, Henk.

I will have to look into the layers business first, since I know very little about it.

Joe
"In lumine tuo videbimus lumen."

Scopes: Stellarvue SV80 Raptor Carbon Fiber ED Doublet / Celestron SCT C8
Williams Optics 66mm APO / DIY 8" f/4 Newtonian astrograph / Nikon 180mm f/2.8
Mounts: Orion Atlas EQ-G / Celestron AVX / DIY mini-equatorial
Cameras: QHY163m / Fujifilm X-A1 (modded) / Fuji X-A2 (not modded) / Orion StarShoot Auto Guider
Filters: ZWO 7nm NB set / ZWO LRGB set / ZWO Dual Band / Astronomics UHC
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