Back from Qld, with pictures - Page 2

rowena · #21 28-04-2005, 07:37 PM

Bird,

did you happen to go up to Mt Archer in Rockhampton?
I lived in rocky for about 5 years while going to uni there.

if you go up to MT Archer when a shuttle launch is on, you can actually see the shuttle going up (as long as its on the right inclination at lift off). I have seen the SRB's seperate from the shuttle. All you need is binoculars or a 300Mm plus lens on a camera.

I can hear everyone say yeah right the shuttle is the other side of the world.. well basically the reflection off the atmosphere bounces so that you can see it on the western horizon about 1-5 degrees above the horizon. it is so thrilling to watch one!!!

rowena

videoguy · #22 28-04-2005, 08:28 PM

Bird, Stunning images...!!

h0ughy (David) · #23 28-04-2005, 08:40 PM

why is it everyone else can get stunning, vivid ,wonderful pictures and all I get is a blob. They are wonderful pictures

rumples riot · #24 28-04-2005, 09:11 PM

I feel your pain H0ughy. I wish I could get mine like that also.

videoguy · #25 28-04-2005, 09:44 PM

Houghy

Don't worry about only achieving blobs... I was the blob master for many years when starting out with film photography in particular and still get shockers today. The most important thing is the act of getting out there and having a go. There are many factors involved, the most basic of which are good clean optics, suitable focal length to capture the maximum detail your telescope and camera can achieve, good exposure settings, image processing awareness but most of all, excellent seeing (in the hands of the gods unfortunately) that allows you to capture lots of sharp moments (the more the better).

As far as the planets are concerned my mantra has never been to obtain the best pictures (although this is of cousrse a huge bonus if the gods allow..) but most importantly capturing what's going on with the planet. In the case of Jupiter and Mars for example there are a lot of fascinating meteorological changes that can be observed with the simplest camera so long as you are prepared to get out under the stars at every opportunity and spend the time working with the images to obtain the best results. Those blobs (so long as they're not completely awful) often contain a lot of information but you need to spend the time learning how to extract it.

Thanks to the new age of digital imaging, many of the most basic pictures I've seen (so far at least) here on this forum far exceed what the worlds best amateurs were achieving with film photography some years ago.

But...sometimes I feel we get too caught up in producing wonderful images rather than appreciating the what it is we're seeing and why it's happening.

Keep at it. Every image/photo is a unique record of a moment in time.

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #26 28-04-2005, 09:53 PM

Rats - I was there a month too early!! :-(

Yes, we went up Mt Archer. Was a rainy day though, so we didnt walk too far. The view down both sides is very good though...

Bird

h0ughy (David) · #27 28-04-2005, 10:26 PM

thanks for the encouragement fellas.

iceman (Mike) · #28 29-04-2005, 07:46 AM

Leisa has some excellent shots there Anthony.. looks like you guys had a great time, and from your shots, a very constructive holiday.

So when are you moving there?

ErwinvdVelden · #29 29-04-2005, 11:58 AM

Hi Anthony,

It looks like you had a ball of a time up there, with some excellent results. We had around that date also a decent seeing here in Brisbane.
I find that very elongated oval very fascinating, and imaged it myself also a few times. Can anyone shed some light on it's nature?

Can you give me also an indication of the costs and the transmission rate of the fire wire camera? Currently I shoot at 10 fps on Jupiter with out much image degradation, but it is still USB1.1 @ 12Mbit/s.
It would be nice to upgrade to 25 fps without bus compression.

Cheers,

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #30 29-04-2005, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ErwinvdVelden
Hi Anthony,

Can you give me also an indication of the costs and the transmission rate of the fire wire camera? Currently I shoot at 10 fps on Jupiter with out much image degradation, but it is still USB1.1 @ 12Mbit/s.
It would be nice to upgrade to 25 fps without bus compression.

Cheers,

Erwin,

The camera is a Unibrain fire-i mono camera, currently on the unibrain website they cost US$154. I modded mine with a simple alteration to the board so that the shutter is always open - i.e. at 25fps I get exposure times of 40ms. Normally the onboard controller has a max exposure time of 30ms, not long enough for my 10" mirror.

This camera has worked pretty well for me, but it has a few problems, and I'll be upgrading to something better in the near future so I don't know whether I should reccommend it to you or not... I've had mine for about 15 months, and I know that the newer fire-i cameras are better than my version, but you might want to hold off for a couple of months until I get to try out a new camera in case it's a lot better.

firewire is 400Mbit, so no image compression at all. I use a mono camera + filters, so I get full res in each colour and no hassles fiddling with colour balance etc in the camera.

regards, Bird

iceman (Mike) · #31 29-04-2005, 01:51 PM

Are you going to have a crack at mercury, Anthony?

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #32 29-04-2005, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by iceman
Are you going to have a crack at mercury, Anthony?

I thought about it, but I can't see either west or east from my backyard, which makes it kinda tough. I've got a chunk of work-related stuff waiting for me to do so I might be just reprocessing the holiday pics for a while...

cheers, Bird

#33 29-04-2005, 02:45 PM

Bird, I have an Orange Micro I-Bot firewire webcam, any reason why it should not be useful over the Toucam2 mate.

http://www.orangemicro.com/ibot.html

Just your thoughts..

Peter

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #34 29-04-2005, 03:33 PM

Peter, The trick will be finding out what CCD is in that camera...

But what the heck, hook it up to your scope and see what happens. If it's sensitive enough etc then you should see an improvement in image quality.

Bird

ErwinvdVelden · #35 29-04-2005, 09:47 PM

Thanks Anthony for your information. I'll think I'm going to wait until a USB2 or firewire webcam with a chip sensitive enough for planetary imaging.

I find it a bit amazing that I'm using the same camera for 3 1/2 years and still making satisfying images. It looks almost as if technology doesn't go as fast as it used to be.

Cheers,