Ghost Image




Telescope 8 inch Celestron Cassegrain-Schmidt
Date 10/9/2002
Instrument SBIG ST-237
Filter V
Exposure
Time

5 s
Other Image taken at prime focus of telescope.

Problem:

This stellar ghost image very close to Vega (the star on the left side of the image) is a feature frequently encountered during observing runs with Schmidt telescopes. It normally does not occur with other telescopes. The "stellar ghost" always appears diagonally opposite about the center of the field of view from the offending star. Its shape may vary depending on the Schmidt and filter used, but the feature is common to Schmidt data.

Fix:

Tricky. If you take several images of the same field, you could dither very little between frames and hope the ghost doesn't move much, so that it is easily identifiable and well defined in the final combined image. Alternatively, you can try dithering by a lot to move the offending star around and then hope the ghost image changes position enough that any transient features are removed when median combining the images later.


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