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Old 19-11-2009, 12:18 PM
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rat156
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Melbourne
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Hi Marc,

The suggestion to start with the webcam is wise.

Until you know you have the patience for planetary imaging you probably shouldn't get a DMK or Skynyx.

The humble Toucam can still be useful once you step up. What I do is use the SPC900NC webcam to capture the colour and then use a DMK21 to capture the monochrome. I use a flip mirror to have quick changeover, flip mirrors are significantly cheaper than filterwheels.

As you know I have had some experience with LRGB imaging, so I find it easy to reintegrate the colour with the luminance. The fact that the colour is lower resolution matters little as the detail comes from the luminance image anyway. This setup also allows for different filters, you can screw an IR reject onto the front of the whole setup (the Barlow goes in front of the flip mirror), then a red filter infront of the DMK, no filter in front of the Toucam. I use a light orange filter in front of the DMK (reduces the blue light intensity, which is scattered the most by the atmosphere, blue subs are always blurry), but will be experimenting with a red filter soon. The only problem can be the alignment of the colour with the luminance, but hopefully you've got enough planetary detail to use as a guide.

The other advantage of this setup is that you don't have to be speedy Gonzales when imaging Jupiter, I usually capture the Luminance for about 5-10 minutes (several avi's), flip over to colour, grab a couple of avi's then flip back. The colour doesn't have to be that exact to give you the right result. However with RGB imaging the files need to be very close together or the R, G and B frames will never align properly.

JJJ, 10" or bigger is good if you want large image scale, 8" is OK, but you'll want to barlow 3x - 5x. The seeing is often not good enough to do this. The C11 hits a nice sweet spot between focal length and available seeing. A C14 or LX200ACF 14" would be great, but according to Damian Peach's website the seeing ir rarely good enough to show a difference between the C11 and C14. I think that's why he goes to Barbados.

Cheers
Stuart
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