Overview:

Equipment Setup:

1. Setup and level tripod.
2. Attach LX90 OTA (Optical Tube Assembly) to the tripod and fasten securely.
3. Attach Dew Shield to Optical Tube.
4. Re-level scope.
5. Run Power. This can be either 110v current, or 12V DC power depending on the location.
6. Setup folding work table.
7. Setup Laptop computer.
8. Setup the DSI Pro II and attach the appropriate focal reducer and spacer depending on which objects I am planning to image.
9. Prior to darkness, Calibrate the Sensors, and Train motors on the telescope for more accurate tracking (if necessary).
10. Turn on the telescope and ensure that the Autostar hand controller has current information such as Location, Date, Time, etc.
11. Once dark, turn on the telescope and perform an automatic (2-star) alignment. I use a 9mm Illuminated Reticular eyepiece for this.
12. Attach the DSI imager to the telescope and connect it to the laptop using a USB cable.
13. Boot up the laptop and start the Meade Autostar program.

Once the telescope has been powered on and aligned it can then locate objects in the sky. The Autostar controller contains a database of over 12,000 astronomical objects. An object is selected, and the go-to button is pressed. The telescope will now locate that object and center it in the field of view then track the object. Once this is performed the object can then be imaged.

Image Capturing with Autostar Envisage:

When capturing images, the Meade Envisage program is used. It is one of the Autostar Suite programs. Click on the image to enlarge.

Using Envisage to capture images can be somewhat complex but the more it is used, the more familiar the user will become with the program. Images can be captured in a number of file formats but I have found that the best format to capture with is FITS. More on this later.

My Save options are to 'Save All Uncombined Images'. Once the image has been located, centered, focused, and adjusted, clicking the Start button will begin the process of capturing images. By selecting the 'Save All Uncombined Images' option, each image will be captured separately and a combined image will be produced as well. Separate images can then later be combined using various programs like Registax,  Astrostack,  Meade Autostar Suite's Envisage,  or  DeepSkyStacker  (which is my personal choice).  If I am creating a color image, I capture 4 sets of individual images. They are Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue using the provided filters that come with the camera.  See the following image which shows the camera, filter bar, and filters:

Image Stacking:

Click on the image to enlarge.

The screenshot above shows a number of raw images that have been added to the DeepSkyStacker program.  The individual images are of M1, The Crab Nebula. In the example above, this group of Luminance (mono) images will be stacked together in DeepSkyStacker to create one composite image. The procedure will then be repeated for my individual Red, Green and Blue images. Once completed, I will have four composite images that will then be aligned with each other in Autostar Image Processing then post-processed in Photoshop to create the final image. Note how faint the Crab Nebula looks. That is because the image above is only one single raw image. Stacking many frames on top of each other, will bring out more detail. Combining all four sets of stacked images together in Photoshop and post-processing will bring out even more detail.

Once the 4 unaligned images have processed with each other Image Processing will automatically create four aligned images into the same directory as the four unaligned images. If the first alignment is not successful, or additional aligning is needed, process the four aligned images and create a new set of four images using the same process as above.  Once the images are aligned, the result will look something like the following example:

The four aligned images are now ready to be post-processed in Photoshop.

Photoshop Processing:

I post-process my images using Photoshop CS2. My images are captured in FITS format.

What are FITS images?
FITS stands for `Flexible Image Transport System' and is the standard astronomical data format endorsed by both NASA and the IAU (International Astronomical Union).  FITS is a file format used for many years in astronomy to store and move images from telescope-based instruments. It has been designed to provide capabilities needed by astronomers but is not a generally known format such as JPEG or TIFF.

In order to process FITS images in Photoshop, a free FITS Liberator plug-in must be downloaded from  The European Homepage For The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.  The system requirements are as follows:

Once downloaded and installed, the FITS Liberator plug-in will open automatically in Photoshop after a FITS file is selected and opened. The FITS Liberator screen will look something like this:

It is at this point that the FITS image will be initially adjusted before it is further processed using the Photoshop tools. I use the White Level and Black Lever sliders in the Histogram to make my initial adjustment before selecting OK. Picker Tools (eyedropper icons to the left of the image) can also be used to automatically adjust the White and Black levels. Once adjusted, the image looks like this:

While the black level has now been adjusted, the object data is not as apparent. Don't worry. It is still there, and further processing in Photoshop will bring it out.

As I mentioned earlier, I use the Meade DSI Pro II imager. If I am capturing a mono image (Luminance) this is the only image I have to process. However when processing a color image, I will be manipulating 4 separate images - Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue (LRGB).

There are a number of methods used for post-processing the image in Photoshop. I recommend that the new user join the Yahoo DSI group. Once you become a member, you will find many helpful hints in the 'Files' section of this group that will walk you through the post-processing steps. I am also including the following  Adobe PDF documents that will walk you through the steps necessary to process and post-process your images. These documents are:

Astronomy Tools:
Photoshop is a very powerful graphics tool that can take hours and hours to master. As I began post-processing in Photoshop, I followed the guidelines in the documents mentioned above and had good success though time consuming.  I then became aware of a software product called Astronomy Tools v1.5 by Noel Carboni.  Astronomy Tools is a set of Actions - or Macro Operation Sequences - that you load into Photoshop, producing top-quality results. These Actions were designed by Noel specifically for Astro-Imaging. Instead of manually processing individual steps in Photoshop, Astronomy Tools can do this automatically for you. Some Actions encompass literally dozens of individual steps. This saves a lot of time in the post-processing experience. The Astronomy Tools program will install directly into Photoshop and each Action will be listed in the Actions tab. See the following example:

I now use Astronomy Tools v1.5 on every image that I post-process as well as a certain amount of manual processing. While Astronomy Tools is not a replacement for manual processing, it saves a considerable amount of  time.

Before and After Images:
As I mentioned at the beginning of this section, I am not going to go through the post-processing of an image step-by-step. Using the guide documents I have provided, and a bit of time spent experimenting, one will quickly grasp the process of creating a final image. But for those interested, the following images of M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy  will show what unprocessed images look like followed by the final image.

                                           M101 Luminance (Mono) Image                                                                                 M101 Luminance (Mono) Image
                                                   Before FITS Liberator                                                                                                      After FITS Liberator

After combining the Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue images in Photoshop, and adjusting the combined image. this is the end result:

A Review:

The following flowchart summarizes the steps taken from once the telescope has been setup until the final image is processed in Photoshop:

Dust Motes:

The following is an example of a recent series of images taken of M42, showing dust motes on the raw FITS image prior to cleaning the optics, after cleaning, and the final processed image. Note that I still have one persistent mote that shows up even in the final image. While it is not as pronounced as it was before cleaning, I will have to look at my optics again to see if I can locate and remove it.  Cleaning the optics however removed the rest of the dust motes.