Chris,
I've always thought that Windows Movie Maker was a great application, simple and straightforward, but found that when you saved your movie to avi format within the program, Registax wouldn't recognise it.
I'm taking an idea off you and at the moment am downloading a wmv converter.
Thanks for the tip.
Do you have to download from the camera through a tv card or usb?
Jeanette
Yeah, I found the media player avis dont work which is why I convert from wmv. I use a firewire card and cable to get the footage onto the computer.
Also, a question cause I think I might be cheating Someone asked me about this shot at DeviantArt today and they asked "surely you track by hand, at that mag." At the magnification I was using, it was unpractical to let saturn 'drift' across the field of view because it would be gone in like 2 seconds or less. So, I centred saturn on the camera screen and dragged the scope (by hand, just pulling it) whilst imaging and keeping saturn in the centre of the screen. So it is cheating to say 'no tracking' if I was was pushing the scope after saturn?
Just using my 10" F5 Dob from Bintel. For imaging, I use my 32mm eyepiece, and connect my video camera to it by a home made camera bracket, then use zoom in the camera to get the image scale I want.
Thats an excellent image for a Dob with no tracking.
If you have firewire miniDV camera then the following tools will enable you to transfer the raw movie from the DV tape to your PC. As i understand it miniDV does not require you to capture via Windows Movie Maker, the information is already in digital format on the tape and you just need a transfer tool.
A truely fantastic image Chris , especially considering the equipment you are using. As Rumples said, one of the best (if not the best considering you got the moons as well) I've seen afocal for non-tracking and non-webcam. With those restrictions in mind that shot is well worth sending to the astromags. Top Marks
Chrissyo, what model minidv camera are you using? And could you please share some pics of this homemade adapter of yours. This is the best photo i have seen taken with a dob and manual hand tracking. I tried hand tracking Mars once but it was near impossible, whats your trick.
My mididv camera is a Panasonic NV-DS50. I have uploaded a pic below showing the camera bracket - one of the bracket and one with eyepiece and camera. I don't really know my trick Keep at it, and get used to how to move the scope.
sorry more brain picking here mate, that image size is pretty damn good for a .8 MP camera! (have i got that right?) I read on a site that it has 10x optical/500x digital zoom - were using those to get image size - or was it just due to ep and /or barlow set up? btw what eyepiece or barlows did you use - sorry i may have seen those details on your other posts, but not this one? i know you said it was 1000X ish at the start, but how did you achieve that mag - btw to hand track at that mag you must be part equatorial platform/part human j/k /compliment
Very interesting stuff!
I have no idea how many MP my camera is. Yup, the zoom figures you got there is right. To get the mag I use my 32mm eyepiece with a 2X barlow. I then use the camera zoom (I had it at 15X for this shot). Therefore mag = (1250/32) X 2 X 15. That gets 1171.875.
Also, I had another attempt at imaging Saturn at this mag tonight. Its not very good though, there we clouds everywhere (imaging through little gaps) and my focus was a bit off.
Thanks Chris their also great too! Huge image scale again. banding on planet is spectacular, and detail is plentiful :-)) I m still very impressed - you are a now officially a poster boy for the dob brigade propaganda machine !
sorry for more questions, but was that a 2" or 1.25 ep/barlow
and one more what did you have for breakfast that day?
Also, I've had a new mini-breakthrough sorta thing.. I'll need all your help for this one... Whilst checking over the frames etc for jjjnettie, I decided to go and reprocess it to see what I could do. And I think I might have JUST managed to capture the little faint inner ring (its name starts with an E doesn't it? Ench??). I might just be excited and seeing some slight smudges, but you be the judge.
The uploaded image is about 300 or 400X zoomed in.. tell me if you think the smudges in there are that inner ring (espessiouly look at the right hand side ring). Thoughts?
I had a look at the image yes there is a smudge on the right side it looks to be almost a finger print could have been on the lens maybe, but other than that Top Image,
Love your mount to, so simple and works great after seeing this image.
Someone asked me about this shot at DeviantArt today and they asked "surely you track by hand, at that mag." At the magnification I was using, it was unpractical to let saturn 'drift' across the field of view because it would be gone in like 2 seconds or less. So, I centred saturn on the camera screen and dragged the scope (by hand, just pulling it) whilst imaging and keeping saturn in the centre of the screen. So it is cheating to say 'no tracking' if I was was pushing the scope after saturn?
).
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
j/k /compliment
!
