Saturn again ho hum

[jjjnettie]

Much joy last night as the clouds parted.
I've been itching to test the scope after collimation.
This is the pick of the bunch. Funnily, the best photos came from avi's taken through light cloud. Why?
I stacked 148 frames with Registax. No other processing other than wavelets and contrast.

[davidpretorius]

what camera do you have?

your gain could have been too high, hence the clouds compensated???

[jjjnettie]

You were right there Dave, I'd had the gain up for Mars, and didn't turn it down again for saturn.
I use a Panasonic video camera, afocal, hand held.

[ving]

well ther ya go... :)

still fine and not "ho hum" worthy at all :)

[davidpretorius]

Hi,

a few more questions:

have you tried using virtual dub to put a few videos together. ie i you can get say 600 odd frames, then it would be better for stacking

what length of video do you get before it passes the field of view and do you know the frame rate of the camera. if you load one of the videos into registax, how many images does it say it has?

what size is one of the videos?

have you got winzip to compress the video and email to me?

[jjjnettie]

I was shooting through a 12.5mm ep, I have to line up the planet, zoom in, adjust focus, exposure etc, then shoot. If I can get 500 frames I'm lucky, but they will be shakey because I have to move the camera to follow the fov. The best shots are only about 150 frames, but are fairly steady.
I'm pretty sure it records at 25 frames per second.
I've thought of joining avi's together but as I'm holding the camera by hand, I have no guarantee that I'm holding the camera at exactly the same distance from the ep as before. There is too much difference between each shot.
This particular avi is approx 36meg.

[davidpretorius]

do you know the distance between say the front of the eyepiece and the threaded hole for a tripod on your camera.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/content/images/875186c00dea33c24723e362748217d1.jp g (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/image_zoom.php?show=ZGEzMTQ4OWUwZjA wMWUwZjEzYWRiNDc5ODJmNDcyNjcuanBnP3 dpZHRoPSIxODAiIGhlaWdodD0iMzI0Ig==)

i am thinking one of these! I have one and can check to see if your camera would fit on it. It clamps over the eyepiece.

Jupiter is looking great already, and it would be great if you can get more of saturn at opposition at the end of the month and jupiter later in the year

[ving]

yeah , you need something to hole the video cam :)

or is the cam too heavey for the scope?

[davidpretorius]

i got mine from frontier optics. with the toucam it will tilt when you are close to the horizon, but at 30 odd degrees for say saturn, i could check.

what is the weight of the camera?

[asimov]

I'd have to agree, you really need some sort of holder for your camera. Ving's got a point there...how heavy is your camera?

BTW I've heard of people setting the camera up on a separate tripod (if you have one) & shooting in Afocal, never tried it but it would get rid of the problem of having to hand hold it I guess.

Anyhow, a nice shot given the circumstances. :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

It is approx 5-6cm from the tripod hole to where I butt up to the EP.
It weighs just over 800gms with the battery.
If it was attached to my dob, I'd have to make up some heavy duty counterweights. The poor thing finds it hard to cope when I use my 2" barlow and EP.
I was at York Optical the other week and took the camera in with the hope of finding a suitable bracket. They had one that fitted v. well, but it was close on to $100 and that is not in our budget at the moment.
As for putting the camera on a tripod, tried that, and keeping the tripod aligned with the EP and the scope in alignment with the planet is too difficult for me. I read somewhere that a monopod is helpful, just to take the weight. Maybe if I just retract 2 legs of the tripod.. I'll give that a go.

[Robert_T]

not too shabby at all - nice one jjjnettie :)

[jjjnettie]

Thanks for your input everyone.
Jeanette

[RAJAH235]

Jeanette, Nice, Saturn again, ho hum. :thumbsup:
See attached. Disregard the dimensions/text etc etc.
Is this similar to the one you looked at for ~$100.00?
If it is, then I might be able to get one made for you at a 'reasonable price'.
(We have a Fitter & Turner in our club). He made one for me. Let me know, O.K.? :D L.

[jjjnettie]

It's much the same sort as the one at Yorks.
When you get it in your hands you can't help thinking that it wouldn't take much to knock one up. If you had one to work off.
I'll let you know if I can get one. My birthday is in March and hubby needs to make up for Christmas. ( thongs and a fishing hat, what a guy, at least it was better than the bar of chocolate he got me a few years ago.)

[JohnH]

You can have mine if you like, I no longer need it:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=4263

[[1ponders]]

Hi Jeanette. Next time you come up to Ron's I'll bring my afocal mount out for your to try. I don't use it much so your welcome to borrow it and see if it works for you. It's one of these.

http://www.astro-engineering.com/Camera%20Mountings/digitalcameramou.html (scroll down to the Ultra standard digital camera support)