Ok i think its better than the first, using the Neximage.
But most of my time was spent fideling, K3ccd kept crashing when i start capture. So I used a small capture utility AMCap and made 3 120sec clips. I made more clips but then i realised i had overwritten them doh, got to be more carefull. Initialy i made clips using only the Neximage, lost those clips. Then decided to try with the 2x Barlow. I used my AAM DSC to help keep Saturn in the EP's (fixed broken encoder pin with a staple and taped it up). But even when i new it was there at a 5fps i could not alwasy see it on the screen. I had to switch to 30fps, auto setings and to see it and then bring the settings down to 5fps. Then i could star capturing. One mistake i made was to try and play with the focus while capturing.. dumb dumb dumb, many of my frames were bad cause of this. Oh well i learned a lot about capturing process with a Neximage/Toucam setup. I was happy to have my DSC there to help me relocate Saturn as i needed to when it drifted out of FOV.
I also realise that i myself was causing to much movement in the scope, next time i will just let it drift through. Instead of trying to move the scope. I wonder if someone could estimate how long it should stay in FOV with a Neximage 2xbarlowed in a 10" F5. This way i can set my capture time to this length and grab one long sequence then chop it up with Virtualdub.
Thanks to my mate who has loaned me his Neximage... I will give it back soon...
Nice shots mate. I would not use the barlow, & resample in registax to get your image scale, that would give you more time to capture. Very hard to get good focus if the object is small on the laptop screen though.
You could also try taking several image runs & splice the AVI's together like Dave Pretorius....He's the resident expert on capturing without tracking here lol, even though he has tracking now.
Man - I broke out into a cold sweat just reading your epic story, describing the trials and tribulations of your Herculean efforts in capturing those images. Mate, that alone is worth an Australia Day honour!
You’ve captured the Cassini Division and the banding on Saturn’s disc which is terrific given your set up.
also make sure you turn the toucam / neximage so that the image is moving across the screen ie 640px.
if you can say get into the quick swing of it, you might be able to get to say 10 to 15 passes. Bink and smacker or virtual dub can then put these together. You will have to use virtual dub to turn them into individual bmps and use ppmcentre to centre them , so that registax won't have a kitten whilst aligning.
Nice You got some detail on the rings and planet surface. And also, you've gotten a good colour! I don't think I've ever managed to image saturn with a nice colour like that, mine always come out brown/orangish (which I then fix up in photoshop). Nice work
I also realise that i myself was causing to much movement in the scope, next time i will just let it drift through. Instead of trying to move the scope. I wonder if someone could estimate how long it should stay in FOV with a Neximage 2xbarlowed in a 10" F5. This way i can set my capture time to this length and grab one long sequence then chop it up with Virtualdub.
Regards
Netwolf
Hi Wolfie
I just created a Field Of View indicator in Starry Night Pro for a 10inch f10 telescope (f5 with x2 Barlow) and assumed that the Neximage was equivalent to a Meade LPI, i.e. 640x480 pixels, chip = 4.8mm x 3.6mm.
When I turned on the FOV and let SNP run at x1 sidereal rate, Saturn traversed the ccd's (longer) 640 axis, in 24 seconds.
The attached screen print of Saturn from SNP looks about right compared to your images.
Asimov go ahead touch it up all you like. What do you mean by resample in registax and image scale?
Matt i think what dave means is rotate the webcam in the Focuser such that the planet moves through more pixels. The CCD is a rectangle so i am guesing we need to set it such that the planet arc's accros the longer diagonal.
Dave thanks for the tips will try qfocus, am also considering purchasing a Orion accufocus seems pretty cheap for a motor focus option. I basicaly went through Mikes guide on how to, but left out the conver to bmp and ppmcentre bit and as such registax did trhow a hissy fit about it. I will try ppmcentre.
Yes. I first created the FOV in SNP based on a 10" f5 scope, hoping for a Barlow option, but couldn’t find one. So, I then changed it to a 10" f10 'scope and the FOV decreased as expected.
Also, the screen print looks in proportion to Wolfie’s actual images so I reckon we are in the same ball park.
Dennis, thanks for that mate.
It seems to me that it is easier to find and keep saturn in the FOV if i use a higher fram rate. I am guessing because there are more samples being taken. For some reason even when the DSC says i am on Saturn (checked with EP) it does not appear on the screen. I have to swithch to a higher frame rate and back down again, sometimes even then it takes a bit of movement in the general area to locate it. Its easier without the barlow.
Quote by Wolfie>'Asimov go ahead touch it up all you like. What do you mean by resample in registax and image scale?'
I mean you can process in registax at the original size that you shot the frame (IE 640X480) or you can 'resample' the image in registax at IE 1.5X (one & a half times bigger) or 1.8X or even 2X. Sometimes you get a better image & somtimes not, but it does pay to experiment with different registax settings/options.
Matt i think what dave means is rotate the webcam in the Focuser such that the planet moves through more pixels. The CCD is a rectangle so i am guesing we need to set it such that the planet arc's accros the longer diagonal.
spot on!
any resampling needs to be done with centred images i reckon, registax does not seem to like the image moving around too much!
Thanks Asimov, it looks much better. I will have to try your resampling method out.
Ok I ran ppmcentre, and took the liberty to delete the bad out of focus and of screen shots. Bird's program is excellent, it also tells you which are the empty frames. Is there some way to use birds program to delete empty frames. BTW i used 400x400 in ppmcentre as per Mikes instructions.
Asimov, can you explain what you did with my image.. I understand the resampling now, I checked that out, gave mitchel at 150 a try and seems good. But you mentioned filtered in your filename, what filter in what program and how.
Saturn - 29th Jan 1am - improving..
So, I then changed it to a 10" f10 'scope and the FOV decreased as expected.
