I do not log in very much on IIS any more. It's not because I don't love you guys!! but because there is so many other things keeping me very busy. But I had to log in and congratulate Anthony on what really is an unbelievable achievement. That someone can do this alone, with very modest equipment esp when you compare what the pros are using, the best of whom with ground-based equipment are getting lesser results (typically far lesser!) - this just blows me away. I'm awed and very inspired! This should be inspiration not only for (amateur) astronomers but anyone who has a dream of doing something grand, something that far outperforms the so-called pros or those with lots more $s to throw at the task.. We human beings are all very similar. We are all capable of great things yet most of us feel there must be someone smarter and/or better equipped. Often we are wrong in our assessment when thinking this way. Persist, insist, and just do it.
Thank you Anthony for your persistence, creativity and inspiration. I hope many follow your example whatever their field of endeavour.
Hey, thanks Steve - the biggest challenge we face down this way is finding good seeing... I suspect that what we all generally consider to be "good" would be considered mediocre at best by FLoridians (or Barbadians)...
Hopefully I'll catch up with you at SV next time I get there... maybe this November, not sure yet.
Here I was getting bored with the magnificent images in the magazines taken by astronomers with their gigapixel bignob cameras and their thirty inch ratchety crikey scopes on their potsandpandy mounts stuck on the back of a peruvian
peasants high in the andes mountains and then you come along and prove "we're just not trying hard enough. "
Well done Anthony. Your image and processing skills are superb!!!!
Question for you. What what would you estimate the distance to be from the end of the barlow to the image plane of the video sensor?
Regards
Coldlegs
Hey Stephen, I don't have a ruler with me, but I reckon it's about 50mm or thereabouts from the top element of the 5x powermate to the ccd.
The 5x powermate is working as approx 5.5x, my filter wheel is in between the camera and the powermate.
I've unscrewed the visual top off the powermate, screwed on the T adapter, and then screwed this into the filter wheel. The video camera screws into the filter wheel from the other side with it's own T adapter.
can't add much that's already been written but awesome work 
