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122days since
MWAIC 2009

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Ken Crawford

Ken became interested in Astronomy in grade school in Gary, Ind. and built a 6" reflector including grinding the mirror in 8th grade.  With a high school education he moved to Camino, Ca in 1978 with his wife Lisa and continued to enjoy observations the sky with a orange tube C-8.  He briefly tried film astrophotography but gave up and became interested in computers. He was working as a floor covering installer then in floor covering sales when he was given the opportunity to buy the store he was working for in 1985. Ken gave up astronomy all together until he bought a C-11 in 2001 and then tried CCD imaging with an ST237a and a Hyperstar lens.  From the first 10 second image of The Ring nebula, he new he was hooked.  In the spring of 2002 he built a 12 x 10 roll off roof observatory and installed the C11 on top of an AP1200 GTO.  In the fall of 2003 I bought the RCOS 20" scope and fell in love with hi-resolution imaging and image processing.

Ken's first "published" image was his first Astronomy picture of the day (APOD) July 16, 2004.  Today he is addicted to astrophotography and to image processing.  Ken loves learning new methods of bringing out the beauty of the universe.  He is one of the founding Board Members of The Advanced Imaging Conference were he has the opportunity to meet many wonderful fellow imaging enthusiasts.  He considers the interaction and the knowledge sharing one of the most fun aspects about this wonderful hobby.  Ken admits that he is very lucky to be married almost 30 years to my high school sweet heart who supports his astro imaging endeavors.  In January 2008, he will have sold his business and will look forward to spending even more time at this wonderful hobby encluding remote imaging of the southern skies from Australia.

Ken's MWAIC Presentation will be "The Devil is in the Details"
He explains:
One of the hardest things for astrophotographers  to do is to produce images that show
the important details without introducing noise.  I will demonstrate several sharpening
methods and then selectively blend the results to show the details clearly while at the
same time maintain smooth transitions and backgrounds.  I will also provide some of my
favorite image touch ups for fixing star fringes, halo reduction, star shrinking and
color loss correction.  Using these easy to follow methods will help you produce images
with more depth and visual impact.

Cameras

  • Yankee Robotics Trifid II 6303E and Astrodon LRGB Ha SII OIII
  • Yankee Robotics Trifid Gold KAF 09000 and a Cyclops filter wheel with Astrodon filters. 
  • Apogee Alta KAF 16803 which will be used at a remote site in southern Australia called Macedon Ranges Observatory 
  • SBIG ST402 as an off-axis guider with an Astrodon Monster Moag off axis guider

Telescopes

Software

  • Maxim DL for camera control
  • TheSky6 Professional
  • FocusMax - CCDAutopilot for unattended imaging
  • CCDstack
  • Registar 
  • PixInsight
  • Photoshop CS3
  • Pempro for periodic error correction
  • Boltwood cloud detector to wake me up if we get clouded in.