Mars 19 October

[rumples riot]

Well got some reasonable seeing in between the clouds tonight. Was lucky despite the humidity. Weird for Adelaide.

Seeing was around 4/10.

All the usual settings.

Comments welcome.

[rumples riot]

One from a bit later

[asimov]

Good one Rumps! I've been waiting for some shots from you. This weather really sucks so good capture/s between the clouds mate.

[matt]

rumples
Out of curiosity, what are "the usual settings"?

cheers

[gbeal]

Nice shots Paul, you have been lucky lately. We have either had cloud cover, or lousy seeing. I have had a couple of cracks, but nothing to write home about (or post).
Plus it is what I term the "Dull side of Mars".
Keep at it,
Gary

[iceman]

nice work Paul, looks the same face as my image from the 18th, with Olympus Mons just rotating off on the left.

And it looks like you got some clouds over the tharsis volcanoes region (the blue on the left) - I had the same in my image too.

[h0ughy]

Nice imaging there Paul. the second image looks better than the first, would that mean the conditions were better?

[davidpretorius]

i like em, well done!

[rumples riot]

Thanks Guys for the comments.

Matt the usual settings are 10fps, gamma 0, saturation 95%, gain 10%, 1/33 of second and brightness 50%.

Mike I thought the same with the clouds over Tharis. Was happy to see that on the AVI as I was taking it. Looking forward to better seeing up in the Flinders next week.

H0ughy, the conditions did get slightly better but not enough to say that it was a 5/10. Still both images look reasonable in the cold light of day.

[davidpretorius]

hey paul, does your avi capturing software give you the raw image in b/w or colour for focussing and exposure tinkering, or do you need to convert to colour and then check histograms and the avi?

[rumples riot]

David K3ccdtools gives me the colour version to focus with and I just take the Avi. No conversions done.

Here is another shot from last night. This time it is with a 5x Powermate. I would not normally post this, but this will give you an idea of the image scale that I can get with the LX200. I need exceptional seeing to use this piece of equipment. The seeing last night was not up to scratch, but just wanted to show you all.

Paul

[davidpretorius]

You have the toucam raw colour mod right??

Do you have to do any setting changes to K3CCD to display the raw images in colour or does it recognise the raw colour mod for the toucam automatically?

I better trial the K3ccd again!

[davidpretorius]

nice scale Paul, thanks for that, i have always wondered about how big you can image a planet within reason!

I would love to think that you and bird can go head to head with damien peach with Jupiter next year with great conditions.

A great goal, and how extastic would u be if you nailed one that size in great seeing conditions.

[rumples riot]

Yep I have the toucam raw colour Mod that's true. Once it is loaded into the camera then there are no further settings to be made in K3CCDtools.

[davidpretorius]

thanks

[rumples riot]

David Jupiter with the 5x powermate is bigger than the 640 x480 imaging pane. It gets very large and hard to work with. All my best Jupiter shots were taken with the 2.5x powermate.

[davidpretorius]

wow, but as you say impractical!

i have been talking to gary beal in NZ and he has a new camera, which chews up the juice pretty quick. cmos chip and images @ 1280 x 1024!!!!

[rumples riot]

This one is better but it is reduced to 75%. Still looks crap though.

[atalas]

Nice work Paul as always and battling bad seeing as well !

[Striker]

Excellant work Paul....keep them coming.

We can only admire everyones images up here....no clear sky insight atm

[rumples riot]

Yeah looks like you are going to cop a bit in the next few days. Mars must be a lot higher up for you than it is for us down in SA. The weather here though is a bit topsy turvey at the moment too.

Looking forward to better weather next weekend.

[seeker372011]

as of now weather In Sydney looks ordinary for the next few days :(

[matt]

rumples

What was that link you had for checking the jetstream?? How up to date is it?

Is there an actual whole website dedicated to it?

Cheers

[davidpretorius]

i like this one

http://www.wunderground.com/auto/virtuallythere_jan3/global/Region/AU/pxJetStream.html

[rumples riot]

Matt, I use this one mostly. Updated twice a day

http://weather.wvec.com/auto/wvec/global/Region/AU/2xJetStream.html

[matt]

thanks lads

[rumples riot]

No probs. happy to help.