In 2003 I managed to attend an observational astrophysics class in Hilo, HI. Part of the class was basic CCD operations, and filter control. Towards that end we took and processed some images into a "color" composite.

These are the results of that project. I'll grant that the quality can be much higher but: It was my first time doing this, and it's really, really, cold at 3 a.m. atop Mauna Kea in an unheated dome (we used the rather old 24 inch scope on the summit). It gets worse with altitude (14,000 feet) and not moving for nearly 6 hours. The fun thing was rotating 4 of us through the scope in that time period. And let me tell you, some of the objects were hard to find, focus, and take good images of when you're that loopy due to oxygen deprevation (mathematical operations like addition were murder!)

Also note: First time dealing with images here...so I may flub this up.

Enough of my excuses:

The trifid nebula is a 3 color composite (plus one "luminosity" frame), each frame approximately a 3 minute exposure. The colors were then tweaked to best match what the eye saw...though I still got some odd colored stars.

Also attached is a B&W image of M82, also approximately 3 minute exposure.

Attached Images

	post-27-1089762303.jpg (55.6 KB, 46 views)
	post-27-1089762383.jpg (78.3 KB, 34 views)

Hi Ricimer, nice start!

How powerful (megapixels) was the CCD you used?

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Geez, I can barely remember...it was actually a low end research grade CCD Better than the SBIG-7 series, but I'm not sure which one anymore.

Nice one, Ricimer! Being atop Mauna Kea would have been a unique & wonderful experience!

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

"Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful." - Ian Faith

It was a very nice trip, and I did spend quite a bit of time up there too. If you ever get a chance to go, take it (and a very warm coat).