THE
PRESENTERS
NEAIC brings you best and most renowned astro-imagers that the industry has to offer. Learn techniques and secrets from the most successful and acclaimed imagers.
America's Premier Astro
Imaging Conference
Northeast
Astro-Imaging
Conference
NEAIC
Images by Rob Gendler
Warren Keller
Warren Keller is an official PixInsight ambassador, he has been an educator and author in the field of image processing since 2006. Along the journey, he has written two books and many articles,
produced video tutorial series for several outlets, served on the board of The Advanced Imaging Conference, and ran two SWAP imaging
Coloring the Cosmos- How to Get, Use, and Keep Color in Your Astro-Images
conferences in Tucson. He's also been a consultant to Celestron and Diffraction Ltd., and a representative of Atik and QSI camera’s. A part-time musician, Warren continues to enjoy processing and teaching the art and science of astrophotography
to others.
Talk Description: Coloring the Cosmos- How to Get, Use, and Keep Color in Your Astro-Images
Post-processing workflows for broadband and narrowband images couldn't be more different. While broadband requires careful calibration and manipulation to attain accurate color, narrowband is 'The Wild West,' where, as false color- anything goes! Warren will briefly discuss data acquisition techniques, and why our subjects display the palettes that they do, with the majority of the time devoted to post-processing workflow, covering color calibratio combination normalization, saturation, adjustments, and repairs.
Alex Gorbachev
Make your Dreams in Plastic 3D Design and Printing for Amateur Astronomy
Alex worked on solar adaptive optics in a physics lab in the 1980s, changing to an IT career in the 1990s. In 2013 Alex bought his first telescope, which began a lifelong passion for the magic of Astro imaging and visual observing.
Alex is active in deep space, planetary, and solar imaging and is a member of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, and volunteers with NOVAC’s Almost Heaven Star Party, as well as the Smithsonian Institution’s outreach programs.
Professionally, Alex owns a company that designs open source data and
software solutions. He lives in a Bortle 7 suburb of Washington DC, with his family. His other hobbies are coffee roasting and extraction, 3D printing, machining, and cooking.
Talk Description: Make your Dreams in Plastic 3D Design and Printing for Amateur Astronomy
3D printing and 3D design have been rapidly gaining the attention of amateur astronomers. From useful parts for our gear to repair components and completely new innovative designs, this technology allows us to print parts from others’ contribution, manufacturer parts, as well as design our
own. There is truly no limit to what can be created and made into real parts.
Introduce the basic concepts of 3D design and printing.
This talk will:
● Introduce the basic concepts of 3D design and printing
● Discuss equipment, software, and materials
● Demonstration of CAD (design) process using Autodesk Fusion 360 (free for hobby use)
● How to set up and troubleshoot 3D prints
● Finishing 3D printed parts
● Live printing of parts and designs with a QIDI x-CF Pro printer using PLA filament
Ashley Northcotte
Ashley Northcotte is an environmental educator, communication professional, and beginner Astro photographer from Ontario, Canada. Over her career, Ashley has been committed to sustainable resource management and conservation, focusing on increasing public awareness and engagement
Light Pollution is Getting Worse - We Can Do Better
through strategic communication plans, education campaigns, and public outreach. In her current role with AstroBackyard, Ashley focuses on making astrophotography and astronomy more. accessible and inclusive through digital media by bringing her beginner
insights to content. As a Dark Sky Advocate/Delegate and Dark Sky Camping Group Lead with Dark Sky International, Ashley is committed to protecting the night-time environment from the harmful effects of light pollution through advocacy and education.
Talk Description: Light Pollution is Getting Worse - We Can Do Better
Artificial light from urban areas continues to threaten the human experience of viewing an unspoiled night sky full of stars. But losing our ancient connection to the stars is just one aspect of a much larger problem. An increase in light pollution worldwide has long-lasting and damaging effects on nature, humans, and the environment. Learn how we can largely reverse these negative effects by taking simple actions so future generations don’t pay for our mistakes.
Dr. Ariel Graykowski
The Prevalence of the Unistellar Network in the Growing field of Citizen Astronomy
Ariel is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the SETI institute focused on astronomy of small bodies. She is also the lead of Unistellar's comet program and conducts all her research in collaboration with citizen scientists. She graduated with her PhD in geophysics and space physics from UCLA's EPSS
department, where she studied the properties of the irregular satellites of the giant planets as well as fragmenting comets. Before that, she received her undergraduate degree in physics with an emphasis in astrophysics from UC Davis.
Talk Description: The Prevalence of the Unistellar Network in the Growing field of Citizen Astronomy
Unistellar is a smart telescope company partnered with the SETI Institute to establish joint research and education programs aimed at developing a citizen scientist network of Unistellar astronomers. Through this collaboration, SETI astronomers lead five citizen-driven science campaigns on asteroids, exoplanets, cosmic cataclysmic, planetary defense, and comets. The Unistellar Network is comprised of citizen astronomers around the world and has grown significantly since the citizen science program began in 2021. Over the last year alone, the number of registered citizen astronomers has doubled to over 2,000. The Network is comprised of eVscope models with 114 mm diameter apertures (eVscope 1, eVscope 2, eQuinox 1, and eQuinox 2) and most recently 85 mm
(ODYSSEY). We will discuss how results from the ODYSSEY compare with results from previous models. Preliminary tests show that photometric results are statistically consistent between all models. We will discuss some of the most recent achievements of Unistellar's citizen science campaigns such as the observation of supernova SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel Galaxy by 123 citizen astronomers over a 35 day period. Sgro et al. (2023) found that the measured peak absolute magnitude of M = -18.18 ± 0.09 impressively agreed with results from meter-class telescopes (e.g., Jacobson-Galan et al. 2023). In the comet program, the Unistellar Network has been vital to observe comet outbursts. The eVscopes can detect comets as faint as apparent magnitude Gaia G of 16.8 mag, which allows for very thorough monitoring of a comet's activity along the course of its orbit
(Graykowski et al. 2024). The exoplanet program has recently showcased the facilitation of citizen astronomers into peer-reviewed science when 16 high school students utilized eVscopes to help confirm the existence of exoplanet TIC 139270665 b. All 16 students are co-authors on the paper (Peluso et al, accepted for publication in AJ). These achievements and more exhibit the increasing prevalence of the Unistellar Network in astronomical research, as well as the need for citizen science in general to accomplish the science goals in many fields of astronomy.
Dr. Abe Schwartz
Introduction to Intrinsic Astro Imaging
Abe Schwartz, PhD is a physical chemist and
entrepreneur whose career has been dedicated to spectroscopy specializing in fluorescence quantitation within the medical field. He entered the world of astronomy obtaining his first “serious
telescope”, a Mead XT 90 in 2007 in a closeout
sale of the local Discovery Channel Store. Presently, he has two remote controlled solar powered observatories located in New Mexico that have been in operation for the past eight years. His early learning curve was steep, plagued by aperture fever and light polluted skies. He has dedicated the past seven years to developing a process, Intrinsic Technology, that removes illumination from spectra and images.
Talk Description: Introduction to Intrinsic Astro Imaging
Regardless of your expertise in astro imaging, light pollution is a factor that affects the quality of your images. This workshop will present how to apply Intrinsic Technology, depending on your equipment, to eliminate light pollution in your Astro images before normal processing. Comparisons between the original and intrinsic images will be presented. Live demonstrations will be conducted to show how intrinsic Astro image sets are obtained and how these images are processed in a cloud-based platform. Beginner and advanced Astro Imagers will share their experience and results using Intrinsic
Technology with the workshop participants.
Dr. Dennis M. Conti
From Astro imaging to Exoplanet Science: Same Gear, New Excitement
Dennis Conti is a retired telecommunications professional and an amateur astronomer with a strong interest in exoplanet research. In 2015, he founded the AAVSO’s Exoplanet Section and has continued as section leader since. Dennis is also
on the board of the AAVSO. Dennis has worked closely with the TESS Science Team to qualify AAVSO members as official participants in the TESS ground-based follow-up program, with over 26 AAVSO members now part of that program. He also developed the TESS submission guidelines and the software for detecting false positives, both of which have benefited the entire TESS team. Dennis is co-author of over 30 exoplanet discovery papers and has given presentations at numerous conferences and local astronomy clubs, as well as online exoplanet courses. For his contributions to TESS and other exoplanet activities, Dennis was awarded the American Astronomical Society’s 2020 Chambliss Amateur Astronomy Achievement Award.
Talk Description: From Astro imaging to Exoplanet Science: Same Gear,
New Excitement
For those of us who have been doing deep sky and planetary imaging, there is nothing like the satisfaction of using our observing skills to create a beautiful picture. However, what if the same equipment and some of the same attributes used to create such wonderous pictures could also be used to detect a planet transiting a distant star? And what if, as an additional bonus, that same experience resulted in advancing scientific research into that exoplanet?
Those of us who have transitioned from deep ski astro and planetary imaging to exoplanet observing no doubt remember the thrill of our first exoplanet detection. We also experienced how easy that transition was since the same scope, mount, and imaging camera were used.
This talk will present how astro-imagers can use their exiting gear and observing skills when transitioning to exoplanet observing. An example of an actual exoplanet observing session will demonstrate the use of the (free) software available to aid in exoplanet analysis. Finally, the contributions that amateur astronomers can and are making to exoplanet science will be highlighted.
Gaston Baudat
Richey-Chétien Collimation Made Easy
Gaston Baudat was Born in Lausanne Switzerland along the Geneva’s Lake (Switzerland). He Received a bachelor’s degree in electronics & mechanical engineering from the Lausanne Institute of Technology Gaston has a Master’s degree in
electrical engineering and computer science from the Swiss University for Applied Sciences. His Post graduated work was in biological and artificial neural network at the Swiss Poly-technical School of Lausanne (EPFL). He received a PhD’s degree in computer science in the field of machine learning from the CNAM at Paris. Gaston has 35 years of experience in opto-electronics, optics, sensing, digital image processing, machine learning and AI, he has dedicated himself to pushing the boundaries of technology. As the Co-founder, owner and current president of Innovations Foresight, he leads initiatives in astronomy and optics, striving to innovate and create transformative technologies.
He serves as an Adjunct Research Professor at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at
the University of Arizona in Tucson. His journey is characterized by a passion for innovation, collaboration, and shaping the future of technology.
Talk Description: Richey-Chétien Collimation Made Easy
Have you ever found collimating your RCT telescope to be a headache? You're not alone. These scopes are notorious for being a bit tricky to align properly. But fear not! In this laid-back lecture, we'll break down the complexities of RCT optics and show you a simple and effective, step-by-step approach to getting your telescope perfectly aligned. From tackling coma and astigmatism to dealing with sensor tilt and field curvature, we've got you covered. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, you'll walk away with the confidence to tackle RCT collimation. Not to mention, the advice and procedures we will cover apply to pretty much every reflector out there. So kick back, relax, and let's make collimation easy!
Gordon Haynes
TALK TITLE #1: Using action cameras/360 degree cameras and mobile phones for astrophotography/time lapse
TALK TITLE #2:
Covid 19 and how it has affected the industry and how welI do things differently
Gordon Hayes is a retired psychiatric nurse (age 63), he is a coffee and malt whisky
connoisseur and dog lover. He has been interested in astronomy, particularly the
astrophotography side for a number of years and until 2017 he did
mainly narrowband imaging with the occasional LRGB image from his back garden in Hereford, UK. His partner Joanna and three boys (Floyd, Forrest and Fenn) moved to
Harrogate, North Yorkshire in late 2017 and due to this change of location deep sky imaging was no longer possible from where he now lives (lack of space and overhead wires). While still in Hereford, he started dabbling with time lapse astrophotography using a DSLR and a motorised camera slider, this now occupies his astrophotography sessions which also incorporates star trail images, animated star trails videos, nightscapes and “Holy Grail” time lapse sequences. More, recently he changed his mode of transport for overnight time lapse trips and no longer uses public transport, instead he now uses a recumbent trike and trailer (more on this in his talks). He has had the
honor of doing several talks and workshops at NEAIC in the past few years and feels that it is always a great place to share ideas and knowledge and learn from others.
TALK TITLE #1: Using action cameras/360 degree cameras and mobile phones for
astrophotography/time lapse
Gordon originally bought a 360-degree camera to help document rides on his recumbent trike but he has found that they are far more versatile than just that, this talk will look at the astrophotography capabilities of these cameras including some of the special 360 effects that can be used. Also over recent years mobile phones and their camera technology has taken off “astronomically”, He will look at some of these capabilities on a typical mobile phone.
TALK TITLE #2:
Covid 19 and how it has affected the industry and how welI do things differently: Everybody was affected one way or the other by the Covid pandemic with lockdowns, shops not being able to open, essential travel, etc. This talk will look at how some people adapted and changed, he will also be talking about how this and other circumstances forced him to change the way he does remote time lapse trips and how his completely new website came about.
John Maikner
John Maikner is retired senior research scientist with 45 years of experience. He hold a B.S. in Organic Chemistry. In 2015, he established Comet Hunter Observatory, (W62) under Bortle
class 4 skies out of New Ringgold, Pennsylvania.
His interest in observing comets began in 1965 with Comet IIkeya–Seki and then Comet West in 1975. In previous years, he owned various telescopes, from a Tasco refractor to a Celestron C14. His primary focus is recovering faint comets and performing Near-Earth Observations (NEO) follow-ups. Over the last 4 years, He hasimaged over 250 periodic comets and submitted over 4000 observations to Minor Planet Center (MPC). Currently, he is using an Astro-Physics 305 mm, f/3.8 Riccardi-Honders Astrograph as his primary imaging platform. He is the past President of the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society (LVAAS) in Allentown, Pennsylvania with over 30 years of public outreach.
Talk Description:
With John’s help, you will experience a journey, a journey of discovery, you will explore the process and resources that allow you to recover these distant but fascinating objects such as asteroids, comets and other interesting objects of the solar system. Learn about the classes of asteroids and comets with images he obtained from his suburban Pennsylvania observatory. John will Review the equipment required to search for these faints, fast- and slow-moving solar system object. The Research and preparation needed for the nightly search to the recovery of these faint comet, and newly discovered NEO and solar system objects. The tools for data processing and reduction of the nightly images. And the final goal of submitting of observation to Minor Planet Center. Final thoughts
and conclusion of your journey into the solar system faint and elusive objects.
Nico Carver
FIVE Killer Features of Siril (Free Processing Software)
Nico Carver is a dedicated deep-sky astrophotographer with a knack for teaching people complex software. He has taught Photoshop professionally in the past at the University-level and in nationally-attended
webinars. After discovering astrophotography in 2017, it quickly became an obsession. From 2019-2022, he worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where he helped preserve the early history of astrophotography through Project PHaEDRA. Starting in 2023, he has gone full-time with astrophotography education and his primary mission is helping beginners get started with astrophotography through detailed videos on his YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/c/nebulaphotos). Nico’s favorite objects to photograph are nebulae. You can find his work at: https://nebulaphotos.com
Talk Description: FIVE Killer Features of Siril (Free Processing Software)
Siril (https://siril.org) is cross-platform, free program for processing astronomical images. In this talk, Nico will introduce five of its amazing features:
• EASY and FAST Pre-processing with scripts
• Linear processing: Background Extraction and PCC
• Lucky Imaging Applications
• Star Recomposition
• Scientific Applications
Workshop Title:
NEBULA Processing - Start to Finish Workflow with Only Free Software
In this workshop, participants will run through a full workflow for processing an image of a nebula using only free software. Several key techniques such as multi-night pre-processing, photometric color calibration, background extraction, star recomposition, and HaOIII+RGB blending will be demonstrated. To get the most of out of the workshop participants should bring their own laptop with the following software already installed:
• Siril (https://siril.org)
• Sirillic (https://siril.org/docs/sirilic)
• StarNet (https://starnetastro.com)
• GIMP (https://gimp.org)
Files for practice will be supplied on USB flash drives.
Trever Jones
An Introduction to Deep-sky Astrophotography:
Trevor Jones is a full-time Astro photographer and content creator, sharing his more 10 years
of knowledge, experience and expertise with his online audience. Trevor’s popular YouTube channel ‘AstroBackyard’ reaches nearly half a million-subscriber, making the art and
science of astrophotography accessible to beginners. Viewers learn about equipment options, image acquisition tools, and image processing techniques. Trevor’s
involvement in astrophotography extends to the greater community as a photography contest judge, dark-sky advocate, and public speaker. He is especially passionate about making this hobby more accessible (and fun) to those who are new to their astronomy journey.
Talk Description: An Introduction to Deep-sky Astrophotography:
Trevor will describe his process of photographing stunning deep-sky objects from his backyard. From building a beginner-level astrophotography kit to image processing tips and tricks, this presentation will open your eyes to what is now possible using
amateur equipment. His simplistic approach will help you avoid the frustration and confusion many astrophotography beginners face and set you on a path to success.
Richard S. Wright Jr.
Getting Lucky
Richard S. Wright Jr. has been an amateur astronomer for most of his life and an imager for going on three decades. His images have appeared in numerous magazines, web sites, commercial advertisements, and NASA’s Astro Photo of
the Day (APOD). Professionally, Richard is a
computer graphics and imaging specialist and works full time at LunarG, Inc. on the worlds most advanced graphics and “compute” technologies. He’s also worked both full and part-time as a developer at Starry Night, and with Software Bisque for over 20 years. Today, he continues to do consulting work and product development in the
astronomy industry under the guise of Starstone Software & Imaging. Richard is also a contributing editor at Sky & Telescope magazine and writes frequently on the topic of astrophotography and product reviews.
You can visit his web gallery at www.eveningshow.com.any Starstone Software. You can visit his web gallery at www.eveningshow.com
Talk Title: Getting Lucky
Lucky Imaging is a technique where rapid short exposures are used to “beat the seeing” for very bright astronomical targets such as the Sun, Moon, and Planets. Advances in camera and processing technologies are also bringing this technique in a more limited way to deep sky imaging, as evidenced by a recent tidal wave of products that capitalize on the idea of “live stacking”, which is really just a variation of the techniques used by
lucky imagers for years. In this talk Richard will review the current state of the art for lucky imaging for all types of astrophotography, its challenges, and a few predictions about where things are going next.
DR. RON BRECHER
PixInsight Tools and Tips
Ron Brecher (http://astrodoc.ca/) has been an avid amateur astronomer for more then 25 years. His deep-sky, Sun and Moon images and articles are regularly featured in magazines, scientific journals, CD covers, websites, calendars and more. Ron uses PixInsight
for processing his deep-sky shots, imaging mostly from his home observatory north of Guelph, Ontario.
Ron writes regularly for Sky & Telescope and other publications. He is the Technical Reviewer for both editions of Warren Keller’s, Inside PixInsight, published by Springer.
Ron offers private tutoring online, and teams up with Warren Keller (ip4ap.com) to teach 2- and 3-day dep-sky image processing workshops. Ron is a regular speaker at star parties and conferences in the U.S. and Canada.
Ron and his wife Gail live under Bortle 4 skies with two dogs, two cats and two kids in university. In “real life,” Ron holds a PhD is a board-certified toxicologist with more than 30 years’ consulting experience, specializing in risk assessment and risk communication. To round things out, he plays guitar and sings lead vocals in the R&B band The Exceptions.
Talk Titles:
1. PixInsight Tools and Tips
This series of three lectures shows how PixInsight can be used for processing deep-sky images. In each session, Ron will show you tools and tips you may not have seen before for achieving great results in this challenging, rewarding hobby. The first lecture looks in depth at process icons and icon sets. The second shows how a one-shot color data set can be processed in fewer than ten steps. The third lecture demonstrates a more detailed workflow with monochrome narrowband data.
PixInsight Icons and Icon Sets
- What are icons and why use them?
- Creating, editing and using icons
- Iconizing vs shading an image.
- Establishing a workflow using an icon set
- Process containers.
- History explorer
-
Working with One-Shot Color Data
- Broadband vs narrowband – definitions
- Simplified Workflow Flyover
Working with Monochrome Data
- Color palettes.
- Processing Flyover
-
2 Optimizing Image Scale for Deep-Sky Imaging
The “image scale” of an astrophotography setup refers to how much sky falls on each pixel of a sensor. Image scale is usually expressed in arcseconds per pixel, and smaller values can deliver better resolution – to a point. This presentation shows how to choose a telescope and camera combination that gives an optimum image scale for the types of targets you want to capture, and your location.
Simon Lewis
Fireballs Aotearoa
Simon Lewis is an active Astro photographer located near Christchurch, New Zealand. He has been active in the hobby since being introduced to it by his uncle at an early age when living in Europe. He grew his interest further while living in
the north of Scotland in the 80-90s taking an interest in auroral research and meteor detection in the VHF radio spectrum.
After moving to New Zealand in 2008, Simon continued his interest in radio astronomy doing moon bounce experiments in the VHF-Microwave spectrum. With access to the dark skies of New Zealand he built his own ROR observatory and grew an interest in imaging emission and dark nebulae and supernova
Simon works in telecommunications professionally working for a national telecommunication provider in New Zealand. In his spare time, he is also the current President of the Canterbury Astronomical Society where he provides management of the societies education and outreach programmers and is also a member of ZWO technical support team providing end user support and product support to the internal ZWO team.
Talk Title: Fireballs Aotearoa: Hunting Meteors in the Southern Hemisphere
Of nine rare meteorites that have been found in New Zealand, only one was seen to fall, and that was way back in 1908. In 2004 a meteorite came through the roof of an Auckland house during daylight, but the fireball wasn’t seen. Fireballs Aotearoa was established in February 2022 to change that. Using cheap video cameras and low cost compute modules, New Zealanders from schools, universities, observatories and their own homes, are watching the night skies for incoming meteorites, ready to calculate where those elusive rocks might be found.
Simon Lewis takes us through how citizen science is contributing to the search for these elusive New Zealand meteorites but also playing an important role in the discovery of previously unknown meteor showers and helping us discover more about these galactic wanderers. Simon will show how you can also build your own low cost meteor camera using easy to buy parts and prepackaged software so you too can build your own meteor observatory and join in and chase the burn.
Timothy Hutchison
Combining Narrow Band Images to Produce More Natural Results
Tim Hutchison attended Gannon University in Erie Pennsylvania where he earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering. His early career was spent as a control systems engineer, developing numerous control systems for centrifugal pumping
stations for natural gas pipeline applications. In 1994 Tim joined his father in starting SoftWriters, Inc., where they eventually focused on creating automation software for the long-term care pharmacy industry. As the creative designer and head of product development, Tim led SoftWriters to become the largest supplier of software to the LTC pharmacy space in the US. Tim retired from SWI in 2018 after serving as the CEO for 18 years. Always an avid photographer, Tim looked for a new challenge in the area of astrophotography. He designed and built a completely automated backyard observatory, as well as automating another astroimaging setup at the Sierra Remote Observatories. Tim developed an imaging scheduler application that completely automates target selection and acquisition, making the collection of data a completely automated operation. Tim concentrates primarily on photographing deep space objects, as well as solar imaging. He is a regular on The Astro Imaging Channel where he also is a frequent presenter. Tim lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife and 2 sons.
Talk Description: Typically, narrow band images of nebulae are combined using a mapped palette that, while striking, does not reflect the natural look of emission nebulae. In this session, Tim will explore the true “color” of emission nebulae, and discuss how those colors can be represented using computer monitors and printers. Tim will then demonstrate a technique for combining images that takes advantage of that “more natural” color mapping using both PixInsight and PhotoShop.
Tom Field
Easy Science with the Spectra of Stars.
Tom Field was a Contributing Editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine for ten years. He’s the founder of Field Tested Systems and the author of the RSpec software (www.rspec-astro.com) which received the S&T “Hot Product” award. A pioneer in
amateur astronomical spectroscopy, Tom promises to demystify the field and open the door for you to do easy hands-on science.works the field and open the door for you to do easy hands-on science.
Talk Description: Do you want to do some hands-on science with your current equipment? Do you want to learn more about the HR diagram and the lifecycle of stars? Are you looking for a way to augment your imaging activities, especially under light-polluted skies?
In this session, you’ll learn how easy and inexpensive it is to capture star spectra using a simple 1.25" filter grating. You don't need dark skies. You don't need a Ph.D. in astrophysics or a lot of math! And there's no steep learning curve.
We'll start by discussing a bit of the history and science of spectroscopy. You'll gain an understanding of why spectroscopy is so powerful. You’ll see why spectroscopy is the primary research tool we use to understand the stars.
Then we'll review a handful of simple sample spectra captured with standalone DSLRs or small (3" and above) telescopes. We'll look at the spectrum of a supernova and of a black hole. We'll examine how to detect the atmosphere of a planet, and how you can use spectra to detect the composition and temperature and radial velocity of stars. You'll learn how to extract exciting scientific data from spectra you can capture on your first night out.
We'll finish up by talking about how you can get started in the field, what targets to begin with, and where to find resources on the web. You’ll also see how you can do citizen science by contributing spectra to the AAVSO spectra database.
Astronomical spectroscopy isn't just for professionals! Join the thousands of amateurs who are using spectra to learn the details behind the images we capture.