Tom that was pretty good seeing thanks for the video link. I had a quick look the other night with the 16" GOTO Dob and the seeing was nothing like what you captured. Still its good to enjoy the views.
As an aside now that Venus is getting there in the West I would be interested in what you achieve with your setup.
Thanks for the views Derek
Hi Daniel, the tracking on the Goto is pretty good, but in this image I manually tracked it using the hand controller. The reason why is that if manual corrections have to be made whilst autotracking, the backlash at some of these magnifications takes it out of view. Manually tracking avoids that and I'm too lazy to align sometimes (even though it's easy!). All that said, the autotracking is quite good.
Michael, I've gotten used to manually tracking over the last few months, so it's just a matter of time. The response of the scope to manual movements without autotracking is better than when autotracking is on. I guess it's just a preference.
Hi Derek, I did do Venus from that evening but haven't processed it yet, will put it up when I do.
Great image! I think I shall try your settings with my 600D, once I figure out how to do it.
Did you have to convert the video from MOV to AVI or does Registax 6 have no problem with MOV formats? Never tried it before as I use Lucam's SER format (Starshoot planetary camera) and I still use Registax 5. Being able to use my 600D for planetary imaging would save time in changing cameras and refocussing, etc.
Here's a shot taken earlier in the evening, with seeing a little poorer but I decided to go all out and use the magnification I had to hand: 5x Powermate, 2x Barlow, 2x teleconverter and 1.4x teleconverter with the 600D in HD crop mode. Out of interest I wanted to see if it was possible to get anything. Jupiter fills the entire screen with that setup. It makes me wonder what is possible with more aperture and better seeing.
Hi ICEINSPACE community,
Hi Tom,
I'm from Italy and this is my first message in this community.
Great images!
I have a 12"Sw dobsonian goto and a canon eos 550.
I have some questions for you:
Why did you changed the 550 for the 600? Is the 600 better? If so, Why?
Canon 550d has the following crop mode : 680x480 60fps (or 50fps), that is 7x. Since you use the 600d, always you write "HD crope mode": what did you mean, 3x or 10x?
I would like to buy a powermate 5x:if I'll use my canon 550 only in combination with a 5x powermate and in Full HD (no crop mode), how big will result Jupiter on the display? Does the full HD video could be opened with registax 6?
And if I combine the 5x powermate and the 7x crop mode, how big will result jupiter?
If you have some images (or videos) of jupiter taken with the canon eos 550 and the 5x powermate only, and with the 5x powermate in combination with 7x crop (640x480), please, may you show it to me, or send to: ciarlotto@gmail.com
Usually, I convert the .MOV file to .AVI file by using "zoombroswer" , the software included with canon eos package. Then, I simply open the .AVI file by using Registax6: why don't you use this method instead of Avidemux to convert the MOV file into individual jpg frames, then drag and drop all the jpgs into Registax.Thank you.
Thanks for your questions (your English is perfect ) .
I changed to the 600D for the HD (3x crop) mode. That let me get a wider view image of Jupiter and made it easier to keep Jupiter in the frame with the 5x Powermate.
The 550D gives a 640x480 crop mode at 60fps at the longest exposure of 1/60th sec.
The 600D gives a 1920x1080 crop mode at 30fps with a longest exposure of 1/30th sec.
I will post up some pics for you of Jupiter with 5x Powermate and the 550D 640x480 crop mode, and with the 5x Powermate and the 600D.
Jupiter at its largest with the 5x Powermate will almost fill the 640x480 crop mode frame of the 550D. If your tracking is good you should still get the same size planet in both the 550D and 600D but the 600D will have a wider field.
I never have tried Zoombrowser! I will have a look at it.
Thank you Tom for your ready and perfect answers.
I'm thinking about this: by using a Televue 3x, I'll work at 4500mm focal lenght (f/15), that (according to the Nyquist's Criteria) should be the best equivalent focal lenght for a 300mm telescope used in combination with a sensor of 4,3 micron pixel. However, because of Bayer matrix in colour imaging, I know that in very good seeing conditions, I should go up this focal lenght (for example , just by using the 5x powermate), as you well showed with your fantastic images..
Practically, using the barlow 3x, I should use it more frequently (because my seeing is not always very good as yours) and and I should'nt have great tracking problems (because the planet will be well contained in the 640x480 crop frame of 550)
So I'm torn beetwen a 3x or a 5x... What' s your advice about it?
However,I'll wait your pics...http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/..../winking70.gif
All that said, the autotracking is quite good.
and better seeing.
