Jupiter frm Planetary Camp - Wartookrise

John K · #1 03-06-2007, 04:09 PM

Got together yesterday afternoon and evening with some of Australia's finest planetary imagers (in fact the world I should say!) and finally met face to face with David Pretorious (DP), Anthony Wesley (Bird) and Paul Haese (Rumples Riot).

We had a great night. We battled low cloud, variable seeing, a near full moon next to Jove and dew dew dew and more dew! with extreme moisture in the atmosphere. Seeing peaked at around 7/10 (my estimate)

The most popular accessory was Anthony's $7 hairdryer (become dew remover) and it did the rounds of the 4 scopes. (Thanks for fixing my PC as well Anthony and collimating my scope!).

We compared equipment and tequiques and had a great laugh before the serious business of imaging and comparing captures. Some stayed up until 3am processing and over the comming days expect to see some amazing images as these guys and others will be there for the whole week.

Highlight for me was looking at Jove visually at around 400X through Paul's amazing 18" scope.

My result from last night attached.

The dreaded "onion ring" effect due to moisture and possible condensation on the optics made an appearance but otherwise quite a nice result that I am happy with.

John.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #2 03-06-2007, 04:24 PM

Stunning Joop image John!!!

The weather isn't going to make it easy for them.

davidpretorius · #3 03-06-2007, 04:40 PM

weeeeellllll, the seeing was great, last night, bird even smiled and paul stopped swearing...........so the official seeing based on these events was 6- 8/10

so for the moment, i was the quickest to post and will now disable the internet connection so bird, and paul cant show me up with what are some of their best images for this year!!!

matt · #4 03-06-2007, 04:45 PM

Significant improvement there, David.

You doing something different with your capture/process? Pick up a few handy tips on the weekend?

Looking forward to seeing Bird's images.

Starkler (Geoff) · #5 03-06-2007, 04:59 PM

Great results!

Glad you all had a good time.

Lester · #6 03-06-2007, 05:00 PM

NIce images John and David. Hope you chaps have a great time.

Ric · #7 03-06-2007, 05:09 PM

Lovely images guy's, very stunning and detailed.

Cheers

iceman (Mike) · #8 03-06-2007, 06:16 PM

Great stuff guys, gotta love wireless internet. Look forward to seeing the results.

davidpretorius · #9 03-06-2007, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt

You doing something different with your capture/process? Pick up a few handy tips on the weekend?

YOU SHOULD SEE THE NEW VERSION OF DOGSTAR..

bird, paul and i got to "code" up this awesome auto sensing / stacking / sort that rips up intensity levels and makes the whole process really simple.

almost one touch operation

Exfso (Peter) · #10 06-06-2007, 02:48 AM

Lovely shots John and David. From what I have been told by Paul and DP, they, including Bird, have got some outstanding data, so we will just have to see what transpires. Have to give the big boys from the Northern Hemisphere something to ponder upon. The 18" SDM is definitely a beast. Once the inevitable teething problems are sorted, it should be awesome. The mirror is fantastic.