ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE AND PROCESSING TECHNIQUES USING LOW-COST EQUIPMENT: A METHODOLOGY FOR THE TEACHING OF ASTRONOMY

Abstract

The number of people interested in collecting images of the sky is growing, whether for amateur or scientific use. With this, several technologies have been used to capture and process images of stars, from expensive cameras, in large observatories with huge telescopes, to small digital cameras and CCD sensors. Access to the field of astrophotography has a financial barrier, both for amateur astronomers and research in educational institutions. Thus, this work seeks to develop a simple methodology that exemplifies techniques for capturing and processing astrophotographs using low-cost equipment. For this, astrophotographs are made using two small digital cameras coupled to a telescope, which were later processed and analyzed. Astrophotographs of the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and their Galilean moons were obtained. Also, the diameters of several lunar craters were calculated to exemplify the application of the method in the extraction of physical data from the images, as well as the orbital movement of the moons of Jupiter (Europa, Ganymede, Io, and Callisto). The presented methodology proved to be efficient in capturing, processing and extracting physical data from astrophotographs, which can be applied both for artistic purposes and for the teaching of Astronomy.