Can't use TouCam! Can't fit moon!!!

[DJVege]

Guys, I have no idea what's goin on!! :( First, i can't seem to focus the touCam properly...if I point to the moon, it goes a red colour, if it's too bright, some auto thingy makes it darker. Secondly, I can't seem to fit the whole moon in the one image...??? It's like it's too big.

Any help???:shrug:

[DJVege]

Wow...Lol. You guys need some bandwidth!!

Umm...ok, spoke to Phil...can't take pics of the moon with the TouCam cause the moon's too big...too much magnification. So I'm doing the 30/26mm 2" EP + digital camera trick.

NOT THAT IT MATTERS BECAUSE THERE ARE CLOUDS GALORE!!!!!!

[Omaroo]

DJV - a ToUcam is approximately equivalent to a 6mm eyepiece - so your magnification is pretty high (focal length of your scope divided by 6) for getting in the whole moon which is 30 arc seconds wide.

You could try using a focal reducer, which will widen your field of view - maybe enabling full moon photography.

You could otherwise tile your efforts - and take several pathwork shots and stitch them together - like the one I did here in 9 tiles (see image):

Cheers
Chris

[DJVege]

Hey Chris. Yeah, found that out the long way. LoL.

Umm...what's a pathwork shot?

Also, shouldn't I have been able to focus the TouCam? Even if I couldn't fit the whole moon in, shouldn't it focus properly?? I couldn't get anything remotely focused...it was waaay too bright and blurry.

[Omaroo]

Dang it - patchwork - not pathwork. Typo due to typing whilst running out the door....

Your TouCam will compensate for brightness via the software if you let it settle. You'll notice that after 5 seconds or so it will appear correctly exposed if you let it go. What software are you running? The Philips-supplied VLounge? I run it OK so it should be alright for your purpose too. You'll never be satisfied with how the focus looks on-screen. No-one ever is. It can't be brought into clear focus in preview mode but once you use Registax to stack your captured AVI frames you will notice that things become clearer for you at that stage. All you can do is your best to get it in as best focus you can and wear it. You can then go and sharpen up the final image produced by running an unsharp mask over it through Photoshop or whatever else you use.

Cheers
Chris

[DJVege]

Oooohhhh....ok. Well, how focused can you get the image in preview mode? Just so I know what's ok and what's not. Last night I couldn't see squat...just a lot of BLUR! LoL.

Yes, I am using VLounge. I'll give it a go on Friday night aftery gym.

By the way, the Dew shield worked wonders. Not a bit of dew. I also covered the shield with a couple of old shirts :). Plus I had a mini dryer on hand as well.

[ballaratdragons]

I get perfect focus on my monitor with a Toucam using Vlounge.

Nope, even with a Focal Reducer, you won't fit all the Moon in with a Toucam. I've tried all combinations and ended up having to Mosaic the Moon. :thumbsup:

[DJVege]

Could you let me know what I may be doing wrong, Ken?

I attach the adaptor, which has the UV/IR filter on it, and stick that into the 1 1/4" focuser. The image is fuzzy...blurry...can't tell anything really. But I've used it as a webcam and it works fine...??

[Omaroo]

I agree - even with a f/3.3 it wouldn't fit.



I think it depends on how you define "perfect". ;) I've never seen a ToUcam give crisp focus - close, but not brilliant by any means.

[Omaroo]

You may need to either extend of shorten your focuser reach. Get to full out-focus and try slowly sliding the ToUcam out of the barrel (keeping it still in line with the focuser) and see if it gets any closer to focus point. If so - you'll need to use an extender from that point on, which is cheap as chips. If you don't have enough in-focus that could be a major problem for you.

[DJVege]

Thanks Omaroo. I'm going to give it a try tonight!

[DJVege]

OK! I got my TouCam working yesterday. Took some moving vids of Jupiter (because I didn't polar align). Was pretty cool. Seeing was average, and the moon came into affect around 9 - 9.30, so that killed any hopes of finding Uranus or Neptune (not that I have a clue how I'm going to find them in dark sky either :)).

I didn't see Vesta....I don't think... Didn't really know what to look for. I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to see it moving...

Next on the list!! POLAR ALIGNMENT! That's gonna be fun!

[Omaroo]

Yeah...so...what was your problem?

[ballaratdragons]

For a Toucam it looks pretty damn good :lol:

The Astronomiks IR/UV filter gets it very very close to spot on :thumbsup:

[DJVege]

I have no idea what the problem was. I just wasn't able to focus the moon in for the eclipse. I had no real trouble with Jupiter. :shrug:

[ballaratdragons]

DJ, the Moon was hard to focus during the eclipse because there were no shadows visible to define any surface features. The Sunlight was directly on it. Try the terminator tonight and you should be able to focus on shadows of craters, mountains etc :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Also, if you do want to get an image of the Full Moon, try adjusting your levels in the capture program you use.

You have to fiddle with Gain, Gamma, Brightness, exposure time etc. Because the Moon is so bright you will have to adjust your levels more than for Jupiter etc.

I have attached 2 pics for you. Both taken with my Toucam and ED80.

1. Full Moon using Toucam with the settings adjusted for a contrasty result.
2. The terminator showing what I mean by focusing on the shadows of the craters etc.

[DJVege]

Ok, whoa whoa...How did you fit the whole moon in there using the TouCam??

And yeah, i'm in trouble here...I dunno what gain and saturation do..but it'll be fun finding out. :) I plan to take vids with differing levels of each, so that i can try and see what's changing each time.

[ballaratdragons]

The full Moon image is a mosaic of 9 images. Each image is huge. I reduced the size of each one and stitched them together.

Gamma, Gain, Saturation, etc can be used in thousands of combinations, but learning a few will be good enough.

Turn off any 'Auto' settings, and do it manually. Attempt to keep 'Gain' low, or on Zero, as Gain adds noise.

For example, on the bright Moon I had:
Brightness - 50%
Gamma - 60%
Saturation - 100% (Saturation is full colour to Monochrome scale)
Exposure - 30 fps
Gain - 10%

For Deep Sky I usually have:
Brightness - 80%
Gamma - 100%
Saturation - 100% (Saturation is full colour to Monochrome scale)
Exposure - 5 fps
Gain - 0%

Everyone will have their own favourite settings. Experiment and work out which settings suit you on each object, then write them down so if you go back to that object you'll know what the settings were last time. They may change slightly each time due to seeing, light pollution, temp etc.

[DJVege]

Sweet! Thanks for that.

So, for bright objects, I keep the brightness setting and gamma down.. For not so bright objects, i tweak the brightness and gamma higher, and fps low. Saturation always high. Got it. I'll have a play with it tonight, hopefully. (If I don't fall asleep like last night!)

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, that mode of thinking will get you started, then just tweak them to what you think is better.

Sometimes (depending on the object) it works better with Full Brightness and low Gamma, or visa-versa.

Just go easy on the Gain. It ruins good data.

It's all fun learning :thumbsup:

[RB]

??

:shrug:

[DJVege]

Andrew, I noticed when the eclipse was on, either the site was having problems, or there might have been many people on the site...was very slow, and sometimes timing out. Only for iceinspace, though. So I doubt it was my internet connection.

[RB]

Ah yes, Mike and Terry said it was really busy on the server that night due to all the new memberships and traffic.
Usually I'm told it handles the traffic but this was an exceptionally busy night, same as with Comet McNaught back in January !

:thumbsup:

[Ingo]

There were only 1000 people viewing the observational astronomy section :lol: