Tracking matters!

[iceman]

Well, what can I say, tracking matters..

Took some Saturn avi with Rod's 10" LX200GPS last night, and processed them on the laptop today.. definitely makes a difference.

Can't post the results yet, have to get them off the laptop onto my desktop. But so far, the images on the grainy laptop screen look promising! :D

[gbeal]

Helaluah, the light has come on. Get that tracking platform made ICE, you won't believe the difference.
How you managed without it is beyond me, I only spent one night finding the smeary avi's.
The results you have produced so far without tracking are nothing short of miraculous,
Gary

[[1ponders]]

Hey Mike I heard Dave47Tuc had a good tracking mount for sale. Oh and I think it came with a pretty good telescope too:D

[rumples riot]

Yep tracking matters.

[Rodstar]

Mike, I'll be amazed if the images are any good given how turbulent the air was, and how much the image of Saturn was flickering around on the screen. Does it always flicker like that??

Rodstar

[iceman]

It will swim around, change shape etc, if the seeing is bad. But the seeing was pretty reasonable.. it was just the wind that was rocking the scope around a smidge, and causing the image in the preview screen to jump around a bit.

I just went through using VirtualDub to delete the bad frames where focus was lost due to the image jumping around, and deleted the bad frames where the seeing caused bad images too.

[mch62]

At long last ye hath seen the light and the error in thy ways, and ye said to ones self , twas good.:P

The following post copied from another thread incase any one missed it.

""Hi Iceman, my hats off to you guys with Dobs for getting half way decent pics on the planets.
My self and Saturn%25 spent quite a few hours the other night with my ToUcam and his 12"Dob trying for Saturn.
Talk about a lesson in frustration trying to keep that sucker in the field of the ToUcam and we weren't even using a Barlow.
All our efforts turned up Zip.
Thank God for EQ mounts and tracking.
May be that's why there are so many tracking platforms for Dobs?
Me thinks I will stick to tracking and live longer and keep my hair
May be some more practice with a dob might improve the results , but i don't intend to ever find out as once is enough for me.""

We were only able to get about 200-300frames before it drifted out of field and by the time all the edge of field shots were eliminated due to coma it didn't leave a lot to play with for stacking.
Even tried to stitch several AVi,s together.

P.S. I pick up my Mel Bartels Servo controller package this week from Customs and will start my new mount.
So keep a watch for progress pics you guys lusting for a rock stable tracking mount.:D

Mark

[ving]

hey ice, wouldnt a motor eq6 mount be able to track better than a tracking base? I'd say save your money for that... :)

[iceman]

It sure would Ving, but it's a lot more expensive..

An EQ6 with GOTO is about $3k.. an EQ tracking platform is less than 1/3 of that.

[[1ponders]]

Hey Mike, where are the pics you promised. Surely you don't have anything better to do than process astrophotography pics :P

[iceman]

They're on the laptop, I won't have time to get them off until I take it to work tomorrow.
I promise i'll post them tomorrow morning!

[[1ponders]]

OK then, your forgiven:)

[iceman]

Ok I copied a few via floppy just to get 1 up here :)

I'll post all the details etc tomorrow, but here's a sample anyway.

[[1ponders]]

Ahh wow they're neat. I bet your chuffed.

Great colour and banding on the planet. Excellent shadow on the ring and deliniation between the ring and the planet at the front of the planet. I find those two the hardest areas to bring out. Excellent Mike.

[gbeal]

WOW,
see what we mean ICE, they look good, very good, and I doubt all the credit can go to Rod's Meade, No offense meant Rod.!!
I have seen the EQ6 on Astromart for about US$1000 or less from memory, so maybe revisit the idea. Although for simple webcamming a tracking platform sure is sufficient.

[Robby]

Wow, very nice Ice.... You shoudl be happy with that. Roll on Jupiter..!!

[rumples riot]

Nice images there Mike, really quite impressive, bet it was less processing also. Keep em coming mate.

[Rodstar]

I love my scope! Great work Mike. I can't wait to see what we can do when viewing conditions are really good!

Rodstar

[iceman]

Thanks guys, and yep Rod, next time I'm sure it won't take us so long to align the beast :D

Also next time we do some imaging, i'll be making sure focus is spot on (take my hartman mask and focus on a star first), and i'll be looking to increase the scale by using the 2x barlow.. We couldn't use the barlow this time because the GOTO wasn't aligned well and so Saturn wasn't in the FOV of the ToUcam.

I also don't think the conditions were suitable for a 5000mm focal length scale - visually with the 2x barlow it looked soft and blurry so I don't think it would've held up well with the ToUcam either.

Looking forward to trying it again! It's so easy with goto + tracking it makes me not want to get out with the dob again :(

[Rodstar]

Mike, funny you should have that reaction cos I was thinking how easy it seemed with your Dob, compared with the carry-on with the alignment on my scope! If I ever get another scope (ie, if my finances ever recover), then I'm thinking of something like a 14" Dob. Maybe in that observatory I put in the roof one day (my wife is already talking about it as a foregone conclusion ("As long as I get a dark room as part of the deal", she says).

Rodstar

[iceman]

I'm not talking about finding objects etc (although the goto was nice), i'm mainly talking about imaging..

Imaging is so much easier, quicker, and produces better results in the tracking scope. Of course eevryone knew that, myself included, but as I always say, I have to use what i've got and I guess i'll continue to make the most out of it until I get tracking.

[ving]

er.... point taken :)