Meade Instrument Corporation
   
Deep Sky Imager™  
 
Todd Rogelstad
 
M101
M101 - LXD75 SN10. Exposure settings: gain 100, offset 63, black 8124, white 30330, auto contrast off. 20x30 sec images saved as fits RGB then combined using AutoStar Suite image processing software, Final processing done with Photoshop CS. [Click to Enlarge]
 
NGC4565
NGC4565 -LXD75 SN10. This image was taken in Little Blair Valley, in the Anza Borrego desert state park in San Diego county. It is a stack of 20 x 30 sec. images. I saved them as fits normal operation. I then merged the RGB using Autostar suite image processing software. I adjusted the gamma a little and WOW! There it was! The DSI makes imaging so easy. [Click to Enlarge]
  Todd Rogelstad and the Deep Sky Imager

Todd Rogelstad writes of his M101 and NGC4565 images taken from Poway, California with the Deep Sky Imager and his Meade 10" LXD75 Schmidt-Newtonian:

"Ever since I became interested in astronomy I have wanted to take pictures of the night sky. After a few nights wasted with my eye glued to a guide scope, and auto guiders being out of reach financially, and seeing the CCD imagers available as being too complicated, I gave up and focused on visual astronomy. Then when I saw Meade's new Deep Sky Imager, I saw that at last I would be able to take photographs of the night sky.

Having no experience at all with CCD imaging I put the Deep Sky Imager to the test. I attached it to my LXD75 SN10 at my observing site in Little Blair Valley in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, east of San Diego. After experimenting with the gain and offset and getting what I saw as a decent image with a one second preview, I turned the scope on M42. I was in amazement see the image on my computer screen WOW! I then went on to more objects. The Horsehead, M46, M1, M51, M101, NGC4565, and more all in the same night! As the software began to stack the images I saw more and more detail coming into view, and I was doing this, for the first time capturing Images of some of my favorite deep sky objects! I imaged until 4:00 am!

The next day when I began to experiment with the post processing I was again in awe to see even more detail coming out in my images. Meade had done it! An affordable color CCD camera that was easy to use right out of the box! I have since then began to use more advanced features, such as working with images as fits files and RGB merging. WOW!

Thanks Meade for making my dreams of astro imaging a reality!"

Todd Rogelstad
Poway, CA

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