Hi, my name is Sandra and I am Dr. Sisk's wife and want to welcome you to our CCD image page. I'm sure many who have checked out our website
have marveled at the incredible scope and observatory that we have
spent the past 30 years putting together, but who have also
wondered.......but where are all the results? Where's all these
incredible images that that monster has taken? The simple answer
is.....we are working on it. Back in the 80's when we put the scope
in, film was the standard. Dr. Sisk was banging out incredible results
that as you can see in the "publications" page, earned him a lot of
credit in the way of pages in prestigous table top books, magazines, a
Nasa publication, numerous other publications and attention from
universities and even a poster done of his Orion from Ciel & Espace in
France. But as often happens, life gets in the way of what we want to
do sometimes, and a busy career, family and eventually some health
problems slowed down progress. But here we are in 2009, and the
kids are married, Doc is retired, and with the help of some very
special friends like Richard Olson of Ash Dome who helped us get the
Observatory remotely operated from the house, I think we may be almost back in
business. But now we are in the era of CCD, and even though Dr. Sisk
is becoming more skilled at using his ST 11000, you still have to know how to process
the images once you capture them. Oh, he knew the basics of using SBIG's CCDOps and SBIG's and Software Bisque's CCDSoft of putting them together, but these days, who stops there. Amateur
astronomers everywhere with small scopes are putting together images
that would only have been dreamed of a few years ago without all the
editing software out there. So, I guess that's where I come in. Never
before could I really do much to help with the astronomy. Who wants to
sit in the dome "watching" in sub freezing weather? I certainly wasn't
any help in the dark room either. Dr. Sisk has never had a class or
any training in astronomy or photography, and is totally self taught in
all he does with it. So, I figured I could give the website a try
without any training also. So with the help of books, the internet, and our son, who started his own premiere photography studio after being raised in such an environment (www.fxstudiosonline.com), not to mention a lot of late nights, I managed
to figure out enough to get us up and running on the net. I had no
idea how to scan, or size pictures, or write a word of html, but within
a few weeks the "aha" moment came and it all became more clear. The
next problem to tackle was and still is, image processing. I'm sure
most of you out there realize just how many tecniques there are, and
all the software available, the most popular being Photoshop, along
with CCDOps, CCDSoft, MaximDL, AstroArt, along with various plug- ins
like Russell Croman's Gradient Xterminator, Neat Image, and many, many
more. This by far has been the most difficult part of my journey. So
much to learn! Oh, but it is so much fun! I finally found something I
really enjoy learning and doing. Again, I hit the books. I first had
to learn a little bit about Photoshop (how do you just learn a little
bit about Photoshop). The program is monumental as you all well know.
I had to get familiar with CCDSoft and MaximDL, not to mention the plug- ins I purchased to go
with them. Thanks to our friend, Frank Uroda (www.publicmissiles.com) for his tips, advice, and hours of help, even when I call him "mean ole Frank" when he critiques my work. I appreciate it all. But again, reading and learning from skilled image
processers like Ron Wodaski and his "The New Astro Zone System for
Astro Imaging", and watching tutorials from Warren Keller and Don
Waid. What great guys! Thanks for your great information. I wouldn't
be as far along if it wasn't for you. So that's the story. Most of
Doc's great work is sitting in 4 x 5 photo files waiting to be scanned
with a 4 x 5 scanner we don't own. And more recently, his newest
images are waiting for me to learn enough not to embarrass him on the
web. The good information is there, the LRGB images, waiting for the
magic. We could also use a few more "clear skies" and well wishes from
this close knit community of astrophotographers out there. It's a
special group of people, isn't it? We would welcome any comments,
introductions, and advice on my processing any time. We wish you all
good luck and most of all Clear Skies. Sandra
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR CCD GALLERY TO VIEW WHAT'S BEEN POSTED SO FAR. THANKS SO MUCH!
Update: We recently did acquire an Imacon 4 x 5 scanner which we have sent to Hasselblad for clean and lube. Can't wait to start using it!
I also want to thank Peter Kwan and Michael Wong in Hong Kong for all the kind words they said on the Hong Kong Astro Forum.
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