Saturn 25/02/2011 in SCT8"

[firstlight]

Hi all,

My effort is a bit embarassing compared to the likes of Quark, John and the like.

Seeing was pretty average, certainly in the early part of the evening and I thought that cloud would end the session before it even started. I packed it in just after midnight when I started dozing in the chair in front of the laptop.

NEQ6, 8" LX50, 2" 2x barlow, TouCam SPC900N, 30 fps, ~2000 frames (from 3600), Registax 5.1. Nothing else done to the image, just straight out of Registax.

Thanks for looking,
Tony
89877

[firstlight]

Hmmm,

The image looked so much different on the main machine monitor... I should have checked it before uploading.

Dropped the brightness a little in PS.

89878

[John Hothersall]

Thats a great start and can see some banding in the reprocess but you need that seeing which will happen at some point. You may need lots of coffee when seeing is great to survive a productive session.

Just noticed your using 30fps which is why the image is soft, these webcams are best at 10-15fps as compression becomes too great at 20-30fps killing detail - I started with a Toucam, they are great little webbys.

With better seeing/success you'll have confidence to push FL higher.

John.

[samilag]

Tony congratulation with these instruments SC8+SPC900 you got very good image with good details

Thanks
Giuseppe

[Matt Wastell]

Great stuff - image 1 looks the best on my screen - image 2 is a little dark - maybe me.
This image is really goos for your 8" and Toucam!!! Follow some of John's advice and I am sure you will get everything out of your set up! More please!

[firstlight]

Thanks for the encouragement John, Guiseppe, and Matt. My biggest problem is not knowing what settings to use when imaging with the TouCam. I will try to use the 4x Powermate tonight @ 10 to 15 fps... if the weather holds.

Cheers
Tony

[firstlight]

Yeah, I have a good screen on the main machine and it looked good, but if I do too much while Registax is crunching it seems to clag up the working, so posted from the loptop. Viewing it on the laptop was pretty poor, but my work one showed up fine. Just goes to show that the el cheapo laptop is... el cheapo :).

[Quark]

Hi Tony,
There have been some pretty amazing images produced with the SPC900N.
One of the best planetary imagers going around is Fabio Carvalho and although his primary camera is, I think a SkyNyx, from time to time he still posts planetary images from the ToUcam which are of incredible quality. Might be an idea to track him down and see what setup he uses with it.

Cheers
Trevor

[toc]

Excellent stuff - you might be able to eek a bit more detail with registax - there seems to be a lot there...

[Troy]

Nice first light :thumbsup: