Had a ball this morning!

ErwinvdVelden · #1 23-09-2005, 09:58 AM

Hi everyone,

This morning was a very good one in Brisbane, got up at 1AM and watched the occultation of the Pleiades by the Moon with the 80ED while making images of Mars with the C9.25. It turned out the best seeing since months! 8/10 with a very good transparancy and after the imaging session I did also a good visual session, Solis Lacus was nice and detailed, still a prominent NPH. I tried to glimpse Olympus Mons as well, but that was still a bit too hard.

I shot 1 AVI of 5000 frames and 2 of 2500 frames @ 10 fps, the only problem with the big AVI is that Vidcap screwed up the header, but I can fix that with VirtualDub at the expense of doubling the file size.

I also watched a few stars popping out from behind the Moon, and even at a 74.8 % phase the Earth shine was still visible!

Finally I went to bed at 5 AM to catch 1 1/2 hours of sleep.

I'll try to find some time to process the images over the weekend, but I have also an observing session on Saturday with a 30 inch Dob. And the weekend after that an imaging session in Leyburn.

I think I'm an astro nut!

Cheerszzzzzzzzzzz,

#2 23-09-2005, 02:58 PM

Hey Erwin,

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErwinvdVelden

I also watched a few stars popping out from behind the Moon, and even at a 74.8 % phase the Earth shine was still visible!....

Conditions here weren't as good, lots of high altitude wispy clouds. The accultation of Pleiades wasn't as spectacular as the last one I observed. As like you said "Earth shine"? was kinda washing things out still. Last time from memory it was well into cresent phase the the Pleiades were lit right up. Still it was well worth waiting up for. Had reasonable views of Mars.

Is there a bit of a dust storm happening up there at present? I could see detail in the southern hemisphere

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErwinvdVelden

I think I'm an astro nut!

Count me in on that!!

regards, CS

ving (David) · #3 23-09-2005, 03:07 PM

i am obviously not an astro nut... I was in bed

love my sleep.
wheres the pics!!!

#4 23-09-2005, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ving

i am obviously not an astro nut... I was in bed

love my sleep.
wheres the pics!!!

Soory, I did try, but too much moon/earth shine for any great results through my camera. It was a visual thing for me

regards,CS, tonight is looking good here on the north coast

atalas · #5 23-09-2005, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ving

i am obviously not an astro nut... I was in bed

love my sleep.
wheres the pics!!!

Dreaming of a bigger Dob !

Louie

ving (David) · #6 23-09-2005, 07:10 PM

dreaming of the 16" GSO!

iceman (Mike) · #7 23-09-2005, 10:32 PM

Nice one Erwin, sounds like a great night! I'm looking forward to seeing the images after you've processed them, given the seeing conditions you describe!

What do you use VidCap for?

ErwinvdVelden · #8 25-09-2005, 10:23 PM

Hi everyone,

I use Vidcap to capture AVI's. I noticed however that it corrupts file header when the file size exceeds 2 Gb (which happens when I image Mars @ 10 fps), and I have to use VirtualDub to fix it and down size it to 2 Gb, because Registax V3 can't cope with files over 2 Gb either.

This one was made with 5 fps that night, so no problems here.

Cheers,

ErwinvdVelden · #9 26-09-2005, 05:59 PM

Hi everyone,

I still had to limit the number of frames downto 4620, since Registax doesn't accept AVI's over 2 Gb. As I suspected the 10 fps AVI gives better results, as a matter of fact so much signal with this kind of seeing that the image looks almost overprocessed.

See

http://www.erwinvandervelden.id.au/2005-09-22-erv.htm

The NPH looks still massive.

I made another good observation a day later, but the processing of that had to wait until Wednesday.

Cheers,

Erwin

asimov (John) · #10 29-09-2005, 10:22 PM

Thank you for that Erwin. Great shots!