Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry B
The problem with Alpha cent is that it is very bright. It saturates very quickly.
I agree that I get it as 1 star with a 1 sec exposure but can image much closer mag 13 stars and detect the separation.
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Hi guys,
If it is any help, I used Alpha Cent to focus on when chasing the space
station for a hand guided capture attempt.
Without knowing the exposure needed for the ISS and time running out
before the pass was due, I quickly swung over to Alpha.
Very proffessional preparations I know
.
But it seemed to get me in the ballpark for the exposure setting.
I was imaging at Newt focus on my 8" F7, with a homemade focal
reducer making it about F4ish.
If I had the modified webcam on LX, Alpha would bloat into an
overexposed blob.
If I switched to Non-Lx I could get two separated stars and focus
easily on them.
For this exposure, the webcam was operating at 1/5sec I believe,
and gain was mid-slider.
RGB sliders were at 'daylight' setting from memory.
On the issue of capturing the wobble I think you would need to
be very high magnification.
I can give you another example which may help.
I decided a few years ago to try and identify Proxima Centauri firstly
using widefield long exposure shots, then I went to 8"F7 shots
once I knew where it was.
I repeatedly took a frame of Proxima over many months to see if
I could make a movie of it's parallax wobble over a two year period.
Consequently, after two years of chasing it, I haven't been able to detect
any significant wobble while imaging at 8" F7.
So either I am getting something completely wrong (likely
) or
the angular movement on the sky background is too small to detect
at this resolution.
regards,
Steve B.