Clear Night of Video Broadcasting (Astrocasting)

[ballaratdragons]

Last night was the first clear night in ages, and the boggy water-logged back yard has dried up enough to support the mount again, so I had a night of Astrocasting again.
Been months since my last broadcast.

I started the night with a 16~160 lens from Bert (Avandonk).
I had to fit an IR/UV filter inside the lens as the stars were horrific.
Last night was the first chance to try it out.

The stars were markedly improved but I was having trouble picking up nebulae.
I have to learn which settings work best with this lens.

The 1st image in the collection below is with the 16~160 lens. See how faint Tarantula is.

After unsuccessful attempts, I switched over to the Saxon 120mm f5 Achromat Refractor with a 0.6x Focal Reducer.
All the other images are from the Saxon.

Every image is a screen grab of live video. No stacking, No processing. Just a single screen Grab.
These give a great example of what you see on screen doing 'Live' Video Astronomy :)

Camera used: Samsung SCC-A2333P

[ballaratdragons]

and one more for the road. :lol:

Also a look at what I see across 2 monitors when Broadcasting 'Live' on the net :thumbsup:

[desler]

Lovely work Ken,

Good to see someone is out under the stars.

Darren

[Astroman]

Everytime I look no one is there :( must go to bed too early :D

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: Yeah, because it is world wide it helps to know when people are actually broadcasting.

In the last image above (my monitors) you can see I have the time for several places around the world. That way I know when people are likely to be broadcasting.

Americans tend to broadcast in our mid to late-afternoon, Poms in our Morning.
If I want to watch Martin (MLyons) in South Africa he comes on around 6am our time.

When I broadcast at night the Americans are just getting up and the Poms are having afternoon tea :lol:

By the time I finish broadcasting in the wee hours the Americans have all gone to work and the Poms are coming home from work :rofl:

It's all a matter of working out when people are likely to be broadcasting in their night-time.
I seem to be the only one broadcasting in our night-time, except for the occasional American Solar broadcast.

[erick]

astrojunk is live now

[ballaratdragons]

Ahhh, excellent!
Thanks Eric.

Going to watch and chat. :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Jonathan (astrojunk) put on a great show :thumbsup:
Glad to know I'm not the only Aussie in NSN (http://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/).

Martin Ferlito up in Sydney used to do a bit but he seems to have stopped.
Hopefully Bob in Melbourne might be in there soon, and Tony (that_guy) is setting up ready to start soon too. :)
and there's also Martin Lyons in South Africa :thumbsup:

We need more Aussies and other Southern Hemi's broadcasting in NSN to show the Northern Hemispherians what REAL sky looks like :lol:

[mill]

Looking good Ken.
The camera picks up a lot of faint fuzzies.
I see if i can finally start broadcasting when i have build my obs.
Cant image and broadcast at the same time at the moment :(

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Martin.

Yeah, I pointed at the Centaurus Galaxy Cluster and saw approx 25 little galaxies in the FOV 'live'!!!

Now that's a buzz :D

[Astroman]

I have a channel, but not broadcasting, not sure anyone wants to see an unfinished Obs LOL

[ballaratdragons]

Why not.

I have watched broadcasts of blokes showing their equipment. :thumbsup:

I did one of watching sunset over Snake Valley.

[Hagar]

Great stuff Ken. Looks like you are having some fun. Maybe able to image tonight if I am lucky.

[ballaratdragons]

Yes Doug.
That's the amazing thing about Astrocasting. It's actually FUN :)
Probably because the images are 'live' and the site is interactive with the viewers :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

I had a great time when I was on Ken.
I can really see why you're so enthused.

[ballaratdragons]

Get back into it jj.
You have all the gear ;)

[AstroJunk]

Thanks Ken, it was fun to chat with you and the NSNers. We will have to setup an alert mechanism somehow. Maybe something as simple as a post to a standard thread here on iis would do it?

[jjjnettie]

How much bandwidth does it use, say, per hour?
My kids eat me out of house and home by watching Youtube. Don't ever want to get slowed to 64kbps again.

[ballaratdragons]

Hmmmm . . . I don't know jj.
I just use it without fear of running out of Bandwidth coz I have 100Gb a month, and with all 4 of us using You Tube (one son heavily), surfing, Cheryl and my other son playing online games, and me broadcasting (up to 8 hours at a sitting), we still only use about 10% of our 100Gb allowance.

I've never checked how much broadcasting uses up. How would I find out?

[ballaratdragons]

Yeah, I've been thinking about that.
Not sure how. :shrug:

[erick]

Ken used my wireless internet last camp. He used over 1 GByte during that time - was that 3 nights, Ken - about 7-8 hrs per night?

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, that's about right Eric.


I am broadcasting right now if anyone wants to drop in and have a look and a chat: http://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/live/channel.php?n=Snake%20Valley%20Aust ralia

:thumbsup:

[erick]

Mind you, if your ISP gives you free upload (any of those still around??). you're laughing!

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Jeanettie and all the others that dropped in during the very early hours of this morning during my broadcast.

It got quite crowded in there for a few hours with all the regular viewers from Australia, USA, Canada & UK, plus some folk from in here, and Jeanette and all those she invited in from Facebook :lol:

Had a great time looking at some of the same old regular objects (but the Northerners love seeing them :) ), then some new objects, then I started showing objects and the viewers had to guess what they were :lol:

Was a great night. :thumbsup:

And all 'LIVE'. :)

[jjjnettie]

I had a ball Ken. Looking forward to next time. :D

[ballaratdragons]

I am 'live' on air now if anyone wants to drop in and watch and say hello :thumbsup:

HERE: http://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/

Look for Snake Valley Australia :)

[AstroJunk]

Sorry I missed it Ken. I've had to pull out of broadcasting myself because I can't abide to their terms and conditions :(

[ballaratdragons]

Last night was finally clear until a fog rolled in at about 3am.
No wonder my on-screen live views were starting to lose a bit of quality by then (it shows in my Eagle Nebula pic).

But up until then it was a great night with a whole bunch of great targets and great people dropping in. Thanks

This was the first real chance I have had to test out Bert's (avandonk's) Skywatcher 6" f5 Achro with my Samsung Camera.
It sucks in some good light

Out of the few Screen Grabs I remembered to get :P I got some fairly reasonable ones, all with the 6" f5 Achro, 0.6x focal reducer, modified Samsung SCC-A2333 camera, all up on an EQ6 mount.
All are single 10 second integration Screen Grabs from live feed during my NSN broadcast last night (NO post-processing).

They are all great examples of what you see 'Live' on the screen with Video Astronomy.
WYSIWYG :thumbsup:
Time to throw away all those EP's and see objects 'live' in colour :lol:

[erick]

Gosh, I've had to register! Getting formal now. But no-one online. .................

UPDATE: - Ken's online! :thumbsup: