I've got the shakes... someone image mars, quick!

[Robert_T]

Hi All, it's been two days since I've imaged mars. It's three days since Asi has! For all I know it's fallen out of the sky. It's cloudy and I need my fix. C'mon guys, (Asi, Rumples, DP, Iceman, Ken, Beren, jjjeanettie, JohnK, Dennis, someone, anyone) there must be a clear sky somewhere and a Toucam or somethin' begging for some red planet action. Put me out of my martian-missing-misery :sad: ... pleeeaasse

[iceman]

No Mars for me until Lostock. Where it's positioned now, I just can't see it from my backyard. I can only see up to about transit but once its passed I have to love it and leave it.

So a road trip is my only option.

[ballaratdragons]

And I've got thunderstorms! Sorry Rob.

[davidpretorius]

clouds!

[Robert_T]

well that's the east coast out then, my only hope is the SA and WA crew :prey:


quick I'm having to watch re-runs of my old mars avis (surprisingly dull actually) :P

[Dennis]

Rain, clouds, wind, rain and more clouds - sorry Rob.

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

Clouds here. :sad:

[Robert_T]

it's morning, the fever's broken, I'm OK now - thanks for trying anyway guys...

cheers,

[rumples riot]

Sorry Robert, I have the dang tree in the way and a great number of nights where the seeing has been crap. Weather gods hate me.

[asimov]

It's clear here tonight Rob....................with 1/10 seeing!!!!!!! I'm really NOT HAPPY! :mad2:

I've got one mars image from the LPI that even I...the great poster of crap planet images won't even lower myself to post! :lol: One can only stoop so far you know! ;)

Wake me when we have good seeing!!

Signed: rip-van-asi

[davidpretorius]

hows the lpi versus the toucam, any initial thoughts???

[asimov]

Yes, I have definitely come to some conclusions already. I could already write a book on this subject!

In some ways I feel the LPI is better. I love the way you can just set the quality filter & then auto stack. It won't stack the image taken until the frame meets the required % rate you allocate. Last night I set it to 85% & because the seeing was rather poor/coming & going it took 20 mins to get a 68 frame stack. I got a pretty darn nice image of Saturn with an almost perfect CD!

One of the problems with the meade software is I can't seem alter the white balance (red & blue) to get rid of the green ring refractor syndrome like you can in the Philips software for the toucam. More experimentation is needed here. It is indeed clunky software, specially when trying to do imaging any slower than 2 seconds.

Less grain/noise in an LPI final image I reckon too. You can also draw a box around the object & track it.

Just after I shot saturn with the LPI (68 frame stack) I shot it again with the toucam (600 frames, stacked 200) The end result was I deleted the toucam image & kept the LPI image because it was clearly a better image. To put the 2 saturn images side by side: LPI image: Great CD, little noise/grain. Not realistic colour(refractor induced)to be fixed with software. Very faint globe banding (need more images stacked?)

Toucam image: Heaps grainy, very messy CD,(registax's fault??) object heaps bigger on screen, more globe banding details present.

I tried getting 16 second images of M42 with no barlow, results were crap. need really good seeing conditions for this I suspect.

All up I wouldn't sell either at this stage. I'll post this LPI saturn image soon for experimental/comparison reasons.

Seeing is still King no matter what imaging device one is using.;)

[davidpretorius]

cool, i have gary beals big cmos camera to give a rip tonight!

[asimov]

Cmos camera??? Tell me more!!

[Robert_T]

C'mon Asi, cough up the Mars image you got stashed in that PC of yours, it can't be that bad and I still need my fix :P - no end in sight to cloud and rain here:sad:

[asimov]

Get an orange crayon & make a small circle & then colour it in. Then smudge it a bit with your finger, get a red crayon & then draw a circle round the orange featureless blob, smudge it a bit & your done!!

That's Wot my mars image looks like!

It should be clear here monday night, I'll try to get U a decent one then.

[Robert_T]

almost as good as the real thing asi :lol:

monday :sad:

[asimov]

Correction! I just saw the weather on the idiot box...........make that next saturday!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[Robert_T]

AAAAGGGGHHHH... back to avi reruns I guess,

hey Asi, don't lose that Mars crayon image ... it might be looking pretty good by next saturday... bit like puttin' on the beer goggles.:P

cheers,

[davidpretorius]

i have clear skies, if the wind drops, i will give it a rip tonight!

[Robert_T]

go you good thing DP:)

[asimov]

Don't forget we want close up details of the machinery used to dig them canals dude!!

[asimov]

I'll send the IIS mars crayon to ya' Rob after I'm done, ok? he-he!

[davidpretorius]

i am trying the tried and true asi-method of finding the planet while it is still daylight, gee it is hard.

mars is about to transit, so i will keep trying!!!

[asimov]

Yup. It's not easy, try a pair of sunnies Davo...not real dark ones though! You'll be looking, & about to give up & then you will spot the lil' bugga & say to yourself "how did I miss that!?"

[davidpretorius]

arrrrgghh past transit and haven't spotted it, ok sunnies on and try again.....it will dark soon so eventually i will win!!!

[asimov]

Yes, in this case you will spot it eventually!

[asimov]

I have a clear patch to the north, so I'm out there looking for it too! No luck yet!

Got side-tracked (like usual of late..a lovely sunset happening here!) I'll post it later.

[davidpretorius]

got it!

[asimov]

Cool! I keep forgetting your further east than me, Another 10-15 mins I should have it too.

[davidpretorius]

nah, a gooy mess, did lots of star test and i am really happy with the collimation tonight. got a rippa of 6 stars in the trap at 480x

saturn and jup are looking good for tonight

[Robert_T]

skies cleared here abruptly and took me completely by surprise - got the scope setup and about half hour only to cool, seeing was rubbish 3-4/10 and my electric focusser packed it in, but I did get a couple of avi's before mars sank behind a tree and the clouds started scudding back in.


will post soon - hope it's worth it...:prey:

cheers,

[rumples riot]

Not imaging at mo. Heat wave has made seeing totally crap, plus last two nights it has been 35 at 1230 am. It is now 1033am Sunday and it is 39degrees already. Damn heat. No imaging for 3 weeks now.

As for the LPI, I find it cannot handle Jupiter well. With 60-90 seconds you cannot get enough frames in. That's why I went to the Toucam. More frames per second and the image scale is bigger. Not to mention the extra resolution that it gets. Chris Go did a side by side comparison and said they were fairly even, but those three things stood out. The LPI is fine as a starter (in my opinion, not that counts for much).

Paul

[asimov]

Well I dunno, your opinion counts for much in my opinion Paul! I've been right thru this site & I know you talk from practical hands-on experience when you mention LPI's.

Picked it up fairly cheap so I'm just having a play with it. I may just use it for the moon, seems to do a good job on that. I think planets are out with it though. That's where the toucam comes in.

[davidpretorius]

i also listen and put lotsa weight to your opinions mr g(rumpy) pants!!!

[asimov]

Yeah!! See!? I'm no longer asi-grumps.......RUMPLE-GRUMPS!!

[Robert_T]

I dunno, sponge bob still looks grumpy.. or is he just plain evil? He's scaring the kids :lol:

[davidpretorius]

poor old rumples has had a 3 week enforced break...i would be itching and grumpy too!

[rumples riot]

Yeah getting a bit stir crazy at mo. However, it has forced me to get lots of sleep and do a couple of jobs that needed doing. Oh, and of course spend time on here.