SGL Imaging Day & Astronomy Festival at Norman Lockyer Observatory

[Grant]

Unfortunately we have made the difficult decision to postpone these events.

We are hearing repeatedly late-Oct is too short notice. You are right and we agree. In hindsight, we should have scheduled both events for early next year. 

Once new dates have been confirmed we will post details and make tickets available. 

Thank-you for your patience.

 

More details and tickets will be released Wednesday next week but here is a sneak preview of two upcoming SGL events 🙂

The Friday event is focused on astrophotography.

The Saturday astronomy festival is family-friendly with fun activities for all ages, including beginner talks, trade stands and more!

These are great opportunities for SGL members to meet in a beautiful location and learn some new imaging techniques. 

[Grant]

We are just finalising some catering details so plan for the final details and tickets to go on sale Friday AM.

[Grant]

Tickets for the imaging day including packed lunch bookings are now available!

The general theme for the day is maximising what is possible under UK skies and weather, the provisional agenda for the day is:

• 08:30-09:15 - Doors open, meet & greet, coffee available!
• 09:15-09:30 - Welcome - Darren & Grant
• 09:30-10:30 - Talk 1 - Imaging from Light Polluted Cities - Peter Jenkins
• 10:30-11:30 - Talk 2 - Astro-imaging with Affinity Photo - Nik Szymanek
• 11:30-11:50 - Morning Coffee Break
• 11:50-12:50 - Talk 3 - Processing narrowband images - Peter Jenkins
• 12:50-14:20 - Lunch - Packed lunched available to pre-book or, bring your own
• 14:20-15:20 - Talk 4 - 13 things to help improve your planetary/lunar imaging - Martin Lewis
• 15:20-16:20 - Talk 4 - Solar imaging from the UK - Gary Palmer
• 16:20-16:40 - Afternoon Coffee Break
• 16:40-17:40 - Talk 4 - AutoStakkert! 4 - solar, lunar and planetary imaging stacking software - Emil Kraaikamp
• 17:40-17:50 - Close - Darren & Grant

As you can see, it's a jam packed day with super speakers covering a whole raft of topics which will mean you come away with lots of new techniques, ideas and processes to try on your own astrophotography.

This will also be a great opportunity to meet fellow SGL members and we really hope that many of you will stay over until the Saturday for the astronomy festival day - more details of this will be posted next week. If you book a ticket for the astrophotography day then this also includes entrance to the Saturday 🙂

Over the next week, I will post up more information about each individual speaker and more details about the talks.

Both days are hosted at the Norman Lockyer Observatory in Sidmouth - an amazing, beautiful place that is well worth a visit to see the historical telescopes and incredible facilities. We hope that tours of the domes and planetarium displays will be available for people on the Saturday.

[CraigT82]

Super interested but not sure I can make it due to childcare. Don’t suppose the sessions will be recorded and made available at some point? 

[Grant]

Just now, CraigT82 said:

Super interested but not sure I can make it due to childcare. Don’t suppose the sessions will be recorded and made available at some point? 

We are not intending to record the sessions on this occasion as we really want to focus on the physical event and trying to get more social events etc.. up and running again (watch this space for star party news...). That isn't to say we won't do virtual events as well in the future but it is not planned for this one.

[Grant]

Speaker Highlight - Imaging from Light Polluted Cities - Peter Jenkins

Our first talk of the day is from Peter Jenkins. Peter is a retired IT Manager and previously qualified with the British Institute of Professional Photographers. He had a photographic studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland where he also taught photography at schools and colleges. Following a photographic career, he worked as an IT manager in the construction industry. Peter has always had a keen interest in astronomy and took up astrophotography ten years ago. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) in 2017.

 
 Many of Peter’s images have been published in BBC Sky at Night, Astronomy Now, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and as a NASA APOD. He was shortlisted a Royal Observatory's Astronomy Photographer of the Year in 2017 and 2018. Peter has written equipment reviews, processing articles and given an On-line Astrophotography Masterclass for BBC Sky at Night Magazine. He was a lecturer at the International Astronomy Show (IAS) in 2017, 2018 and 2022 and at the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) in San Jose, California in May 2022.
 
 Peter now lives in Nottinghamshire and currently gives talks to astronomical and photographic societies throughout the UK. He is now an Ambassador and Tutor for Telescope Live which provides remote access to equipment in Chile, Australia and Spain

Imaging from Light Polluted Cities

Peter's talk 'Imaging from Light Polluted Cities' is a look at how to image from urban sky glow using a scope and specialist Astro camera. This will include the reasons for choosing a cooled monochrome camera and filters, image calibration, noise reduction, image capture and processing.

[Grant]

Speaker Highlight - Astro-imaging with Affinity Photo - Nik Szymanek

Our second talk of the day is from Nik Szymanek. Nik is an amateur astro-imager based in North Essex and has been a practicing astrophotographer since the mid-1980's. He has written a monthly Masterclass article in Astronomy Now magazine on astro-imaging for 10 years and is a regular speaker to astronomical and photographic societies. Nik is the author of three books on astrophotography techniques and is an Ambassador / Tutor for the remote imaging platform, Telescope Live. He has a well-equipped back-garden observatory as well as access to a remote imaging system located at Oria, Spain.

Astro-imaging with Affinity Photo

The talk will show how Affinity Photo, which is a low-cost program, can be used for all stages of image processing. This includes calibration and stacking as well as colour manipulation of broadband and narrowband images. There is a very good range of free astronomy macros for Affinity to streamline many processing techniques.  It's also possible to use multiple plug-ins for astronomy within Affinity so there will be brief demonstrations of noise reduction and star removal techniques.

[UKDiver]

Hi, how can I book for the Saturday only? I can't find an appropriate link. All seems to be about the imaging day or lunch.

Adrian 

[Grant]

23 hours ago, UKDiver said:

Hi, how can I book for the Saturday only? I can't find an appropriate link. All seems to be about the imaging day or lunch.

Adrian 

We will be announcing details about the Saturday event next week 🙂

[Grant]

Speaker Highlight - Processing narrowband images - Peter Jenkins

Our third talk of the day is from Peter Jenkins. Peter is a retired IT Manager and previously qualified with the British Institute of Professional Photographers. He had a photographic studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland where he also taught photography at schools and colleges. Following a photographic career, he worked as an IT manager in the construction industry. Peter has always had a keen interest in astronomy and took up astrophotography ten years ago. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) in 2017.

 
 Many of Peter’s images have been published in BBC Sky at Night, Astronomy Now, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and as a NASA APOD. He was shortlisted a Royal Observatory's Astronomy Photographer of the Year in 2017 and 2018. Peter has written equipment reviews, processing articles and given an On-line Astrophotography Masterclass for BBC Sky at Night Magazine. He was a lecturer at the International Astronomy Show (IAS) in 2017, 2018 and 2022 and at the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) in San Jose, California in May 2022.
 
 Peter now lives in Nottinghamshire and currently gives talks to astronomical and photographic societies throughout the UK. He is now an Ambassador and Tutor for Telescope Live which provides remote access to equipment in Chile, Australia and Spain

Processing narrowband images

A demonstration of a nebula processing workflow using PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop. Techniques used in PixInsight will include weighted batch pre-processing, cosmetic correction, alignment, stacking, stretching, noise reduction, star removal, SCNR, curves adjustments and producing coloured stars from Narrowband Data. Photoshop techniques will include retouching of starless images, combining the separate filter layers, colour manipulation of Hubble palette images, adding coloured stars and luminosity as layers.

[UKDiver]

1 hour ago, Grant said:

We will be announcing details about the Saturday event next week 🙂

Cheers Grant. I was a little confused as the image currently has the same link for both days, but different QR codes.

[Grant]

Speaker Highlight - 13 things to help improve your planetary/lunar imaging - Martin Lewis

Our fourth talk of the day is from Martin Lewis. Martin has had a fascination for all things in the sky since he was young. He is a professional engineer and part-time planetary imager, telescope builder and deep sky sketcher. He images using his home-built 444mm and 222mm Dobsonian telescopes, both used on a home-built equatorial platform from his garden in St.Albans, Herts. Martin has been a prize-winner in the Planets section of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year for the last four years – winning both first and second prize in 2018. He is an equipment advisor in the Equipment and Techniques section of the BAA.

13 things to help improve your planetary/lunar imaging

Martin will describe 13 practical steps you can take to improve the detail visible in your planetary and lunar images, from testing your mount for micro vibration to imaging during The Golden Hour.

[Grant]

Unfortunately we have made the difficult decision to postpone these events.

We are hearing repeatedly late-Oct is too short notice. You are right and we agree. In hindsight, we should have scheduled both events for early next year. 

Once new dates have been confirmed we will post details and make tickets available. 

Thank-you for your patience.