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The Hubble Outdone?
“Holy cow, you took THAT picture from your backyard!” is the typical response when someone views one of Dr. Steve Mazlin’s astrophotographs. “And I did it while sleeping” is often Dr. Mazlin’s reply. Dr. Mazlin, a neurologist by day, enters the world of 21st century amateur astrophotography by night. Gone are the days when amateurs, exposing themselves to winter frostbite or summer mosquito attacks, used clunky old telescopes and film cameras, and produced inferior images that were usually grainy, blurry, and poorly exposed. Today’s amateur, Dr. Mazlin explains, can take advantage of amazing equipment and techniques that have evolved over the past 10-15 years. The hobby gives the ultimate “high” for those wanting to combine their interests in astronomy, photography, and computing. The telescopes sit on top of computerized “go-to” mounts, which instantly and accurately slew to any of thousands of objects in their databases. The cameras are digital, and often manufactured solely for astroimaging, though many amateurs also use digital SLR’s – the same ones that you can purchase at your local Walmart. Dr. Mazlin adds a few other bells & whistles, including a rotating dome observatory that houses everything all year round, and hardware/software that allows him to control everything by remote from his in-house computer – if everything goes according to plan, he can usually sleep while much of the data is collected. Data collection itself involves taking multiple exposures of given object – say 30 – with each exposure being 5-15 minutes in duration. A very accurate clock drive in the telescope mount turns to compensate for the earth’s rotation, so the object stays precisely centered on the imaging chip. However, be forewarned, the hours of data collected for a single image, often over several nights, is the easy part of this hobby. Next comes the arduous task of image processing, during which time the raw data is “reduced” to remove the effects of thermally generated noise, vignetting in the light path, dust near the imaging chip, and other problems. Then the component exposures are digitally superimposed, hereby greatly improving the signal-to-noise ratio, and allowing for very faint objects to be imaged with a wealth of detail. We are not done yet – the resultant image is further processed to adjust the color balance, sharpen and/or blur selected areas, and remove light pollution effects. Good image processing requires intimate knowledge of complicated software, including Adobe Photoshop, and Dr. Mazlin can spend weeks tweaking a single image until he is satisfied. Sometimes a large object is imaged in pieces which are then digitally and seamlessly blended into a mosaic, “a tedious task requiring a good helping of OCD traits”, jokes Dr. Mazlin. The final product, taken from a backyard observatory in light polluted Bucks County, often produces more “wows and gee-whizzes” than a Hubble image, simply because you expect the Hubble to perform beautifully, but you don’t necessarily expect an amateur to produce work of this caliber. In an effort to further improve the quality of his images, Dr. Mazlin recently became a partner in Star Shadows Remote Observatory, which operates out of New Mexico, and through an arrangement with UNC Chapel Hill, also operates out of a professional installation in Chile (CTIO). Imaging over the internet is often quite challenging -- it's hard enough to troubleshoot problems in your own backyard, let alone thousands of miles away!...but the rewards are great when imaging from these areas devoid of light pollution. Dr. Mazlin’s images have appeared in Sky & Telescope, Sky Watch, Beautiful Universe, GEO International, as well as on-line on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website. He was featured in the "Health and Science" section of the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 13, 2008...the online version of which can be found HERE. Dr. Mazlin's alter ego, The Great Mazlini, can be found on youtube HERE. Please |
Please email any questions or comments to: steve@fourthdimensionastroimaging.com