Processing Techniques Invented for Small Telescopes

Above: The lunar surface is processed using digital analog techniques to bring out the discovery and mapping locations of highly specific lunar formations. New invented techniques can increase the performance of small telescopes making their data yield larger than normal. The detection of hot lava flows or the scope and locations of large and small Maria are now within the range of significant studies, for example. Color can be helpful in identifying a commonality of certain features. On the other hand, many points of interest can be extracted from Mare Crisium using identification colors and techniques.

Processing Techniques Invented for Small Telescopes
Mike Otis has invented and perfected a number of techniques to increase the performance and processing yield of small telescopes

AMPING - Amplification of telescope diameter, telescope apertures are electronically increased by factors of ten and one hundred

https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2018/06/hso-largest-telescope-in-world.html
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2018/06/hso-amping-pretests.html
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2019/03/space1-glass-amping-singularity.html

TRANSDIGILOG - Transitional Digital & Analog processing

ARTISTIC CREATIVE SCIENTIFIC ASTRO PROCESSING - ASAP
https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2022/05/artistic-creative-scientific-astro.html

TRANSIS - Transitioning Art in Science

ASTRO SCALING INFERENCE
https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2022/05/acuter-mak-60-observations.html

DIGITAL FLASHING - Digital images are treated like the retro film technique that applied a flash of light to the film to increase the density for the detection of faint and dim celestial objects.

DIGITAL FILTERS - Filters are made with numbers that dial in highly specific spectroscopic ranges using photo computer image processing

SPECTROSCOPIC DIGITAL FILM - make your own "digital" spectral film by selecting the desired spectral characteristics using modern day filters and/or digital computer image processing.

MAGIC GLASS - technique allows the shooting of telescope images through window glass, subtracts window glass from the image, and the subtraction of aberrations, electronically removed.

PENETRATOR

A city setting has a lot of pollution that did not exist years ago. Strip away some layers of water vapor from thin clouds, light pollution, haze, fog, smog, and air pollution using these techniques.

Artistic Creative Scientific Astro Processing

SMALL TELESCOPES GO WILD

Artistic Creative Scientific Astro Processing
In analyzing Moon observations with small telescopes, Otis introduces an artistic creative scientific astro processing technique to bring out highly detailed features on the lunar surface for extended analysis.

Obtain the drawing or image through the small telescope and begin masticating the image. Apply basic enhancements for bright, dark, grain removal, color enhancement, and smoothing as needed. Transform the image to identify specific like-features  using transformations. If like-features are to be identified, assign color. If they aggregate within Maria, turn the Maria dark.

Atmospheric Study - Spectacular Captured Weather Subsystems

Atmospheric Study - Spectacular Captured Weather Subsystems for Extended Observations
It was discovered that spectacular weather subsystems exist in and around regional active volcanic mountains where it can be clear in one area and obscured and raining in another. How is this useful to astronomical imaging? Can the telescope view sky objects during rain? Do these weather subsystems divide and what are their rates of changeability?

PHOTO

In a general example, entire mountain ranges can disappear while others remain visible, depending on weather conditions. In other specific examples, clouds are seen in front of some clear area mountains and not others.

WEATHER POSITION These weather systems move inside, over top side, surrounding the sides, and extending to the base of volcanic mountains.

VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS

There are five main surrounding active volcanic mountain regions, each at varying sizes, distances and elevations. 

LOCATION

The volcanic mountains border on the Pacific ocean where a weather front can spill over into the mountainous formed depressive bowl and weather is thus held captive. Weather inside the bowl is shown to move around, affording clear views in one location and not in another. Sometimes these systems are static more or less, or can be in a high rate of motion and change.

RATE OF CHANGE - SIZE - CONTENT
Weather can change in 20 minutes and one weather cell may have a different rate of change compared to another. Cells can vary in size and content. Some cover entire mountains while others are seen as small prevailing cloud systems obscuring a small mountainous fraction.

CONCLUSION

During daytime, subsystems are visually spotted and the telescope is directed to open areas of the sky for astro imaging or to specific mountains for conservation study. At night, weather subsystems are found with imaging cameras that see in the dark.

AMPING UP THE NEW ASTRO IMAGING LABORATORY
Today is a good day for revamping the entire astro imaging laboratory, taking advantage of a rare good health day and some remarkable weather inside one of the 20M slots.

We are deploying three telescopes simultaneously for departmentalized work. Mountains 25 miles away are crystal clear and it's now possible to collimate our new lasers by beaming directly into the mountain.

When MB Mountain Beaming is complete, the Moon is next. Apollo astronauts left a moon reflector plate on the moon for laser experiments, to our benefit. Current work is on a new sequential tunneling penetratory imaging project.

In regard to multi-purposing, work progresses on  ground penetrating electrodynamic imaging for moons and planets as the precursor to our colonization and the search for underground resources or the penetration of lunar and planetary atmospheres.

Orion StarBlast Color

Orion StarBlast Color
The color of the new Orion StarBlast Dobsonian telescope is a remarkable story to behold

Many white OTA telescopes had flooded the market in the past and white became so common that many telescope makers began using alternate black color.

After a number of years of stumbling over and into black telescopes in the darkness of night, black was deemed no longer creative and Orion began looking for new colors of originality for the lineup.

Signature red was of course taken up by Edmunds red Astroscan telescope and Celestron made a popular line of orange Schmidt-cassegrain telescopes.

The most creative and unusual esteemed and royal colors were sought after and reviewed. Teal was a new web color formulated in 1987.

In the 1990's Teal was a cyan-green fad color for sports and it was adopted by many teams for the color of their uniforms. The color is believed to originate from the common Teal, a member of the duck family whose eyes are surrounded by this color.

Teal green is a darker shade of teal with more green and is a variable color averaging a dark bluish green that is green, darker, and stronger than invisible green or pine tree. Teal green is most closely related to the Crayola crayon color Deep Space Sparkle. Air New Zealand picked Teal green as their signature airline color.

In 2003, the California-based Orion Telescopes and Binoculars introduced the StarBlast, a 4.5-inch Newtonian reflector grab and go telescope with a Dobsonian mount. The telescope became popular with both kids and adults and even libraries have some for checkout. When Orion Telescope Company formulated the signature StarBlast OTA color, they went a step further than white or black and formulated metal teal pearl color. The tube finishes were embedded with scintillating sparkles of a metal appearance (a borrowed technique of creating finer car finishes).  Under certain lighting it looked like tiny pinpoint stars making up the tube finish, a fantastic and very original sight to behold.

Indoor Observatory

Inventing the Indoor Observatory

Above: observing indoors with a focus on the Moon - the sky portal size, area of visibility and which objects are visible at any given date and time, are calculated with an astronomy app. The Celestron CGX/L goto mount with the short OTA 14-inch EdgeHD catadioptric is ideal for indoor observing through an opened window or window glass. Adjacent to the telescope are indoor electrical receptacles, camera imaging computers and accessory racks - the epitome of indoor observatory convenience.

Indoor Observatory

The indoor observatory includes telescopes kept in a room inside a home, and are used for observing through window glass or an open window, in a comfortable regulated environment. This achieves the greatest convenience.

Left: small Dobsonian tabletop telescopes, like the upgraded "grab and go" collector's

signature edition Celestron FirstScope, are extremely convenient when observing indoors

Chromatism

Instruments, such as optical atmospheric chromatic dispersion correctors (ADC), may be used to compensate window glass to improve the overall image quality and to reduce and mitigate optical defects. 

Plane Dimension

Telescope optical orientation to the plane of window glass is corrected through software.

Observing Through Window Glass

Obtaining good astro imaging through window glass necessitates image processing to correct double images, image softening, planar deviation, contrast reduction, color skewing and other factors.

Left: the Moon through the indoor Celestron 14" Edge HD

Experiments were performed with large and small telescopes and the result compared for the notion of an indoor observatory. Telescopes reside indoors, completely isolated from the outdoor elements, such as bugs and mosquitoes, extreme heat and humidity, and bitter cold and wind.

Remote Controls

Extra remote observatory control elements are not needed and power is readily available, often with several computers. Visual observing and imaging are possible with astro imaging using computer image processing to improve the images. 

Telescope Aperture

Telescope size makes a difference in the quality of the observation. Observing through window glass is a lot like observing through the atmosphere - small telescopes perform better across the smaller wavefront than larger scopes because they look through a smaller diameter of window glass which will have less deviations.

Window Glass Quality

Other defects up for compensation and correction include off axis planar orientation, nonhomogeneous glass, and chromatism. The quality of the float window glass can also widely vary.

Room Reflections

Eliminate and minimize internal nuisance ghost reflections from the glass window by turning off indoor lighting.

Left: the Moon image taken with the indoor 2.99-inch Celestron FirstScope Dobsonian is processed to subtract window glass. Imaging through window glass can change the focus, reduce contrast and soften the image.

Double Image

The double image anomaly can result from two sided reflections off the window glass, front and back surfaces. Design image processing to subtract (more complex) or suppress (more simple) the weaker of the two images, which is normally the backside image coming back through the first surface.

Glass Thermal Insulation

Be sure to avoid thermally insulated glass of the double pane type. This would create additional unwanted reflective images and aberrations. Window glass can also cause thermal convection if the indoor and outdoor temperatures vary too much. In this case there are two corrective options. Make the temperature indoors the same as outdoors, or use lucky imaging techniques.

Polar Align Indoors

The indoor telescopes are set up, calibrated to north as needed using a compass, and positioned for maximum viewing. 

Window Size

It helps to observe through a large deck glass door to see more of the sky. Of course a small telescope and a small bedroom window sill may be ideal.

Glass Avoidance

As a simple option, put on bug repellant, slide the window open, equalize the temperature differential, and bypass the glass.

Telescopes Indoors

Telescopes kept indoors under regulated temperature and humidity have an advantage and will not be as prone to dewing. In some cases, expensive large outdoor telescopes were known to dew over inside the sealed Schmidt-Cassegrain tubes, ruining the telescope or causing a very complicated repair disassembly.

Sky Area of Visibility

A portal of sky visibility is determined and a planetarium app calculates which objects will be visible in the window on any given date and time. It can also determine how long the object will be visible.

Blast from the Past: Old school telescopes often had the front end capped with a flat of conventional 1:1 plate glass. These telescopes were primarily visual and the user dealt with any problems caused by the telescope's glass window. Essentially these old telescopes were looking through a window, not much different than a house window.

Left: Celestron's cell phone mobile sky app, free SkyPortal, can determine the window of opportunity for available objects at a given date and time when observing from indoors

Indoor Observatory

https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2021/06/indoor-observatory.html

Singularity Observatory Telescope Indoor Observing
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2019/03/space1-singularity-observatory_20.html

Singularity Observatory Indoor Observing Success!
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2019/03/space1-singularity-observatory-indoor.html

Space1 Glass Portal
https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2018/09/space1-glass-portal.html

Celestron Firstscope Image Through Glass
https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2020/08/celestron-firstscope-image-through-glass.html

Singularity Observatory Diving through Glass

https://space1usa.blogspot.com/2019/03/space1-singularity-observatory-diving.html

Light Pollution City

 

Light Pollution City
This city has a rating beyond a Bortle number with all its light pollution and air pollution sky haze

The author has invented the Penetrator, an invention to cut through sky dynamics such as light pollution, haze, fog, smog, air pollution, light overcast, a sheen of atmospheric water vapor, and thin clouds.

Upgrade the Celestron FirstScope with a Rotating "Multiple Eyepiece" Turret
This revolving eyepiece turret accessory increases convenience in switching eyepieces, cameras, and those with filters or other devices

Adding light weight accessories is important for maintaining telescope balance, especially for telescope tube OTAs that have no means of balancing. The Celestron FirstScope is one of those telescopes.

The Eyepiece Revolver fits my complete set of Svbony Gold series Aspheric eyepieces consistently. This includes 4mm, 10mm, and 23mm focus oculars. The Revolver has good lock rotation and can be adjusted with a centerline screw.

Tips & Techniques
It's ideal to put on camera and sight in first with eyepieces to center the image. The revolver adds about one inch of back focus so adjust the mirror position or substitute a different focuser accordingly to compensate for focus.

Procedure
The Revolver holds a complete set of Svbony eyepieces and rotates each into view on a Celestron FirstScope. Scope balance is not significantly changed with the lightweight revolver and lightweight eyepieces so manual tracking remains the same. The product is outstanding.

Adjustment
I adjusted wherever possible, including the tightness of the screw in barrel for rock solid performance. Overall, the unit matches the telescope and eyepieces perfectly and has free and smooth rotation. The eyepiece barrels are not too long and do not protrude.

Specifications
Item - 1.25" Eyepiece Revolver
Brand - KSON
Sold By - BestGoBuy
Cost - $28
Capacity - 3 Eyepieces
Adjustable - Yes

Focus - Adds 1-inch of Back Focus
Hold Other Equipment - Yes. Camera, eyepieces with filters

Spectacular Focal Reducer Discovery for FirstScope

Spectacular Focal Reducer

Discovery for Celestron FirstScope

by Mike Otis

Experiment Gone Fantastic!

Change your telescope's world with a simple Fresnel card. Turn your telescope into a very fast f/.5 system!

Over the years the flat plastic Fresnel lens about the size of a credit card has significantly improved and now forms much better grade optical images. The card is designed to be used as a low cost flat magnifier and conveniently carried in a wallet like a credit card,

I bought several flat Fresnel lenses for experimentation in the lab. I noticed a long focal length of several inches and the last night out with the Celestron FirstScope, I held one up to the rack and pinion and pointed the telescope at the Moon. I was surprised to see a very tiny Moon, as if the Fresnel lens was acting like a massive focal reducer.

I set up a rig to measure the focal length of the Fresnel and got 6 to 8-inches. The Celestron FirstScope has 2.99-inches aperture with a focal length of 11.8-inches at f3.95. Using the upper limit of the Fresnel focal length, I got f/3.95/8-inches = f/.5 and a magnification of 11.8/8=1.5x. Technically, the flat Fresnel performs like an 8-inch focal length eyepiece giving 1.5 power. After learning the very bright tiny dot in the telescope was the Full Moon and not a reflection, I realized the lens was acting like a spectacular focal reducer. Having a Celestron FirstScope converted to a very fast f/.5 system is like having an all new telescope, very fast lens, or a Schmidt Camera.

Aberrations

System aberrations include small effects of flexure - deviations from a plane surface, and achromatic aberration due to using the single plastic element.  When taking images for processing, the blue end of the spectrum is easily subtracted or filtered out.

Fresnel Lenses - Tips & Techniques

I also discovered the opposite effect of the focal reducer is possible. Make a 2x or greater Barlow by stacking two or more credit card lenses and observe the overall magnification increases.

Extra Experiments

* Try making a telescope using the Fresnel lens as the primary objective

   and stack two for the eyepiece

* Record the magnification increases when stacking cards for a Barlow effect

* Prop one up on the telescope tube for use as a finder card

* Place over the hand controller to enlarge the display

Mystery Sky Light UFO

Mystery Bright Sky Light Identified

For the past several nights, a very bright UFO - static flashing sky beacon light appeared above the mountain range. Posing as a possible stationary geosynchronous orbital satellite, the beacon hovered above the mountain and was watched over the course of several nights. Sometimes it moved position from night to night. Other times it remained stationary as if hovering.

If you swing one of the very large telescopes over to the light, it can be resolved and identified. However, no telescopes were in operation most nights during the spell of inclimate overcast weather. Overcast skies only deepened the mystery.

But when the object was sighted just as the sun was setting, it became obviously clear it was simply a powered pulsating warning light located at the tip of a very large construction crane occupied in the development area of a new tall skyscraper. It was not a rotating satellite in space reflecting sunlight after all.

After identifying the hazard light, at least three more were found looming in the night sky. These contribute significant light pollution, thus destroying the darkness and beauty of the night sky, as the wide band multispectral beam emits strong light in all directions including skyward to warn low flying aircraft of its position.

Celestron Firstscope Camera Mount

Celestron FirstScope - Mounting a Phone Camera

The Celestron FirstScope is a telescope sold at toy companies. It has serious astro abilities when upgraded. For astrophotography and astro imaging, a camera mount is needed to steady the camera and stop motion blur.

No ordinary camera mount will work, as the telescope does not have a tube that can be rebalanced. This means finding and   using a very light weight camera mount is necessary. For example, the Celestron NexYZ camera mount may be too heavy for the small firstScope.

There are several good low cost mounts cast from polymer that weigh almost nothing. The mount in the illustrated example cost $6.98 including shipping and fits the iPhone Xs Max.

The camera is firmly held in place with spring loaded sides that tightly grip the phone sides. A screw adjusts to hold the ocular which carries the entire mount. The phone position is infinitely adjusted with a tightening knob after the phone is positioned directly above the eyepiece, or before attaching to the telescope (an example in the video). The photos are self explanatory. As the camera will add the majority of the weight, increase the tension on the Dobsonian mount. Make sure to mount the camera along the telescope tube and optical axis for best balance and to minimize any rotational imbalance. Experiment with other mounts, brands and sizes of phones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8EIyocVRJI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoT44STXUhU

Celestron Firstscope Experimenting Through Clouds

Celestron Firstscope: the Experiment, Can We Shoot Through Heavy Clouds?

Using a 2.99-inch Dobsonian to shoot the Moon through heavy clouds - is it possible?

by Mike Otis

THE VIEW at left shows the Moon totally obscured by heavy clouds on the night of Saturday, April 24th, 2021, captured with an iPhone Xs Max camera.

Photos are taken through the author's Celestron FirstScope with two Svbony Aspheric 62-degree eyepieces, using eyepiece projection, one at 10mm FL  at 30x and a 23mm FL at 13x. The experiment is to see if images can be obtained by shooting the Moon through very heavy  clouds without using filters.

At left, the first step is using the 23mm 13x ocular, holding the iPhone camera above the eyepiece and observe the effects at various exposures, noting the appearances across numerous images and seeing which images improve or degrade with various exposures. Low power seemed to accentuate the cloud haze across the front of the Moon and created less detail and surface features. It is also noted, focus will change based on the varying cloud density. It would be best to

place a lightweight plastic camera mount on the telescope rather than handhold the camera, thus allowing a greater ability to position the telescope, refocus as needed, and greatly minimize image motion without needing too many hands or bumping the telescope.

The final image shown above is through the 10mm eyepiece at 30x. The greater image scale is better at penetrating the clouds and showing lunar detail. The single prized image is software processed with PhotoScape X to remove cloud obstructions and water vapor haze. The image, towards the bottom right of the Moon shows some remaining water vapor, however it's not necessary to remove it as it does not appreciably cover the Moon. This experiment was far more successful than expected. Without the use of filters and only by adjusting image scale and exposure, a reasonable cloud penetration is possible with the Moon.

Star of Bethlehem Found

FINDING THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

Using computers to confirm the appearance of the Bethlehem Star according to the Christian Bible, the book of St. Matthew, and cross referencing to the birth of baby Jesus

by Mike Otis

In 1992, I used five computer programs to initiate a program of time travel back to the time of the birth of Baby Jesus when the Bethlehem star was said to have appeared in the night sky and guided the Wise Men.

The software was coded to calculate and examine the positions of million of stars, examining the night sky for a brilliant apparition of spectacular magnitude. The calculated astronomical data was plotted to create a visual of the Star, Bethlehem, and the three Wise Men under the night sky as it may have appeared in the past. 

The story was published in a 1992 issue of Observatory Techniques Magazine, issue number 4, pages 40 and 41. It later was picked up by News and AP Wirephoto nationally across the USA. I was invited to lecture at the Christian Methodist Church where I presented additional details. I'm a baptized Christian graduated from three churches - First United Methodist, Bible Baptist, and Lutheran. I'm known for combining and explaining religion with science and technology. By reverse extrapolating the data far into the future, another apparition "Star of Bethlehem" was found! I encourage others to speculate on the positive aspects of a future apparition.

     

Day Night Viewing

Experimenting with the Moon. A red or dark red filter
will increase the contrast of a blue sky in the daytime.
Experiments with a filter to let through infrared light
and block other wavelengths will also help clear up the
image and increase contrast. Image by Mike Otis

Which is better? Day or Night?

These are some ideas on Wednesday, July 29th, 2020

Light pollution is very strong at night, greater than Bortle 9, and only one star and a planet are visible. I got an idea this afternoon.

After a big rain yesterday, the blue sky is beautiful and very clear today. Rare wind has taken the edge off high humidity levels. Using a red filter, some bright stars, planets, and the Moon are visible in the daytime! Which is better, day or night? There is no artificial light pollution in the daytime and only natural solar light prevails. Some current daytime objects to view are planes, satellites, the Sun, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and the Moon. The idea is to increase sky contrast and subtract some solar light to a point where the observation becomes useful. Using GOTO and filters, I wonder if the brightest deep sky object can be teased into view? Certainly planets and the Moon have great potential. Depending on how this works out, I might switch to day viewing and imaging.

Otis Robotic Cyber Space Telescope

Online Otis Robotic Cyber Space Telescope

I'm working on restoring the original remote Otis Robotic Cyber Space GOTO Telescope which operated by internet on the full number of Messier objects plus some selected objects like the Horsehead Nebula.

The original GOTO telescope was programmed by Mike Otis in HTML and included the ability to image the night sky from anywhere in the world, with a good internet connection. It included a sky computer with star maps for all available sky objects with its capabilities. It held a database for accessing objects with both coordinates and data. A weather radar scanned the skies. A page detailed programming, operations, and a photo of the telescope. One page covered methods for going online with other telescopes and links were provided for programming your own remote telescope. Imaging took place with a choice of two imaging cameras, a black & white SBIG ST4 and a color Connectix. The telescope observatory was maintained by mobile robot droids that tasked the mini observatory opening and closing, camera choices and parameters such as oculars. The best features of the ORCST was its fast response time, the ability to capture and present an image in real time, and capability to image all Messier objects plus a few selected objects like the Horsehead Nebula. When one hemisphere telescope was under cloudy skies or busy, the other hemisphere telescope could take over. The telescope also had a novel hidden "land mode" for camera testing. The internet telescope was popular with schools, universities, observatories and was used by professional and amateur astronomers.

Observatory Techniques Magazine

Observatory Techniques Magazine
Coming Soon! Selected articles and back issues of the coolest magazine for astroimaging and the amateur observatory.

I have the complete publisher's collection of all issues of OTM Observatory Techniques Magazine as I'm the founder, owner and publisher, plus holder of all copyrights, trademarks and registrations. OTM was ink published from 1992 through 1997, and included the early black & white issues beginning with #1 through the color issues culminating in #22. A few issues appeared online for a short time in digital format after issue #22 but these are currently not available and were discontinued due to limited internet bandwidth at that time. Today I'm looking at the potential of PDF files, and electronic publishing of selected issues, articles, and images as the magazine was heavy into astro imaging and processing.