How did I squash Jupiter?

[Mike21]

This is the best I've got out of my Promak180. Please comment on my latest image's faults because I'm eager to get it as good as I can. My main guides are you guys and my own mistakes. Can anyone tell me how I elongated the image, or how I find the location of the spec of grit that put a black dot right in the centre of my Neximage FOV?

[iceman]

That's a great image, Mike!

Lots of detail there.

I'm not sure what you mean about the black dot? Did it stay in the same spot during recording? If so, that's usually dust on the chip and you'll need to use a dust blower or a q-tip dipped in dimineralised water to try and wipe it off.

A couple of things about your image:
- Are you recording at 640x480 resolution? I only ask because the dimensions of your image look like 320x240 so i'm not sure if you've got the resolution set correctly.
- How are you setting white balance with the neximage?

Apart from the size and lack of colour in your image, it's actually very good - you're on the right track!

Oh and btw, it doesn't look squashed to me - Jupiter IS wider across the middle.

[Mike21]

My admissions might make you roll your eyes.

[Mike21]

Let me start again, I accidentally hit return.

I think I found the black dot. I pulled the whole scope apart yesterday before imaging looking for dust. Now I think it's on my Barlow. The black dot prevents me from centering the image in the FOV. I have to hold the image in a clean part of the FOV, so it is not in the posted image.

I do set the resolution to different setting to try it out, but it seems to revert to whatever setting IT thinks it should be on. I am no willing to rule out user error 'cause I'm still struggling with Neximage. It gets little attention because I am struggling harder to keep the image in the FOV. That's not going to change until I get a better mount. I'm pretty sure I use the "Outdoor option" for white balance. I can't make it a bigger image until I have a better mount. I have the Barlow to make it bigger, but I reckon my Nan in a rocking chair could aim the scope more accurately than I am at present.

Don't ever expect too much from me concerning colour, I'm colourblind.

Thanks for the tips though. I better start recording settings (advice from Trev.) so that I can answer future questions which might help my progress.

[Quark]

Hi Micheal,

Some nice detail in this image, being colour blind is obviously going to be a problem with colour balance.

The dot that you are seeing will almost certainly be dust on the CCD. It will be microscopic. Your CCD will probably look clean but I think that is where the spot will be. I suggest you, very carefully, follow Mikes advice regarding cleaning the CCD. My DMK has a thin protective piece of glass across the chip which, on occasions, I very carefully clean and gently wipe with a lens tissue from an Orion lens cleaning kit. Definitely don't rub it. It is probably worth trying a jumbo blower first, this may work and then there would be no need to touch the CCD at all.

I would highly recommend to you Al Sheens most excellent "Al's Reticle" which you can down load from the resources link on IIS. This is a reticle overlay that you can position over your capture screen as an aid to positioning your target.

Regards
Trevor

[Mike21]

Thanks Trev, I am really appreciating the direction from you more experienced characters. I am trying to remember if I rotated the Imager alone or the Imager and the Barlow when aligning things. I say this because the spot did NOT move with the Imager. I concluded it is NOT an Imager dust spot.