Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Technical => Topic started by: mickw on Nov 08, 2009, 19:45:03

Title: Lightbox problems
Post by: mickw on Nov 08, 2009, 19:45:03
Finally I've put together my lightbox.

All is not well  :(

Thanks to John, I've started to understand well depth stuff etc. (nearly) but.....................................

Trying it out, most of the images/views I get have a blue hue
I've already changed the LEDs from a bright blue that were really leaning towards blue but it still looks wrong.

Any ideas or am I just doing it wrong ?
Title: Re: Lightbox problems
Post by: Mike on Nov 08, 2009, 21:32:36
LED's, even white LED's, will give a very blue colour. To get a warmer colour use some amber LED's in with the white ones or don't use LED's at all and use a filament bulb.
Title: Re: Lightbox problems
Post by: Mac on Nov 08, 2009, 21:39:59
it shouldn't really matter what the colour is as you are trying to use the lightbox to capture all the crap/debris
on your filters and ccd.

If it is giving you a blue hue, just use photoshop or similar to convert it to a greyscale.
Just remember to do it for each of your filters, whilst they are connected to the scope and camera.

Just think of well depth as in a real well.
at the very bottom is all the crap (noise)
as you use a bucket to fill the well it slowly fills up (one bucket = one photon of light ect)
until the well is completely full.
Once the well is full the extra water you put in runs away. (over spill), if this is light, then it will start to fill the next well. (blooming)

The depth of the well is the amount of light you can capture before its full.
this is dependent on the ccd chip itself.

Using the light box i would suggest taking the image so that the well is between 1/2 and 3/4 full.
Trial and error should give you the figure you need.

Mac.
Title: Re: Lightbox problems
Post by: mickw on Nov 08, 2009, 23:41:59
Thanks for that, greyscale is easy enough  8)