“I believe alien life is quite
common in the universe,
although intelligent life is less
so. Some say it has yet to
appear on planet Earth”.
Stephen Hawking
Copyright © 2023 by Dennis Roscoe, Ph.D. Last Update was June 1, 2023
About Dennis Roscoe, Ph.D.
Dr. Dennis Roscoe holds a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Electrical
Engineering and a Ph.D. in Neurophysiology from the University of
Arizona, School of Medicine. He has been a Professor of Biomedical
Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio and a
Professor of Neurology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, College
of Medicine. Dr. Roscoe has combined his engineering and medical
background to design and develop medical devices and has been the
founder and president of two medical device companies. For the last 11
years, he has also developed a passion for astrophotography and
currently owns and operates his own personal observatory. He
specializes in the imaging of deep space objects such as nebulae and in
May 2014 his images were published in TIME.com. He is currently a
guest lecturer at Carroll University teaching astrophotography and
provides astronomy programs for the New Berlin Park and Recreation
Department. Dr. Roscoe is also a NASA Solar System Ambassador. He
resides in his country home just northwest of Genesee Depot, Wisconsin.
Dr. Roscoe has explored many aspects of the cosmos, but has a
particular love for nebulae. Nebulae are not only remnants of dead or
exploded stars, but the birth place and nursery for new stars. They are a
cosmic recycling plant to which we can trace the origins of the atoms
which make up our very existence. As Carl Sagan so appropriately stated;
“We are all star stuff”. Our own Sun was once formed in a nebula not all
that different from the ones that Dr. Roscoe photographs. Everytime I
photograph a nebula I am reminded how insignificant we really are in the
big picture of the universe. Through a deeper understanding of the
cosmos, we can one day dispel all of our superstitions and find our true
place in the universe.
About
RoscoeSkies
About the Images
The Gallery images were formed by an astrophotography technique
known as Narrow Band Imaging with the use of the Hubble color palette.
Typically, eight 30 min exposures, called sub-frames, are taken for each
of three different narrow band filters. These filters pass ionized sulfur,
hydrogen, and oxygen wavelengths to form the red, green and blue
components of the color image. In total, it takes about 12 hours of
imaging time to form a final color image. The sub-frame images were
taken through a 130mm refractor telescope with an 8 mega pixel
astronomical camera. Formerly, pre-processing was done with Nebulosity
4.0 to remove noise from the sub-frame images and then additional
post-processing of the master color image with Photoshop. Currently, I
use PixInsight to do all pre and post processing.