Mars & Saturn

[duncan]

Hi All,

Well after last nights bungle i thought i would have one more try at these two.
No more now untill i at least get a Powermate to improve image scale, and a Moonlight Focuser. Rack & Pinion is Crap!!!
Tried a heap of combinations with shutter speed frame rate gain and brightness.
Anyhow here they are. Just don't blow them up much,LOL.

Cheers,
Duncan

[Lester]

Nice and sharp Duncan. All the best.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Good effort Duncan,

I think the Mars image is a really good result, the focus looks very good, colour looks right and the level of detail is also very good for the size of your scope.

Saturn is a much more difficult proposition, especially with the rings as closed as they are, which reduces the apparent brightness substantially. I think image 3 in this set is your best of Saturn, you even have the Cassini division. The colour is really all that needs some work, maybe reduce the green and the blue a bit more.

I think your definitely making progress.

Regards
Trevor

[duncan]

Thanks Lester and Trevor. I'll wait now untill i get a 5x Powermate and a Moonlite focuser. I think these 2 items will make all the difference.
Cheers,
Duncan.

[desler]

Duncan,


Good to see your out and having fun.

Your images are clean a show plenty of detail. Keep it going and your new toys will make all the difference.

Darren

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

I like your crispness as well, I am still trying to get it right mine are just fuzzballs. Goodjob.

[duncan]

Hi All.
,
Thanks for all your replies. I'm pleased for what i've acheived so far but i know i definately need a BIGGER IMAGE SCALE!!!!!.
I'm thoroughly enjoying the challenge.
OH for a permanent pier and all the right gear. I can actually sympathise with early astronomers who just wanted more.LOL!
Ah well just have to be patient i guess.
MORE DOLLARS NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers all,
Duncan

[Troy]

Nice pictures well done

[duncan]

Thanks Troy.

[iceman (Mike)]

Great work Duncan. So are you still using the ToUcam with the 12" on a dob base? ie: no tracking?
Or are you using the 6" on the HEQ5?

With the ToUcam producing 640x480 pixel images, i'm confused about the size of the image on some of them. They seem to be way bigger than 640x480? eg: the first one is 1280x960.
How are you achieving this?

[snas (Stuart)]

Duncan

Very nice. Do I see that right, you're in Weipa? Well done to actually have a clear night there this time of year,

Stuart

[duncan]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for replying. You are right about the size.
I've been using the 6" on Heq5pro. Capture program is wxAstrocapture, using Toucam ,binning set to 1x1,Gain between 30-55 depending on frame rate 5-15, Brightness 35-60, Gamma up to about 10. Captured in 640x480, Shutter speed for Mars up to 1/250,Saturn up to 1/100.
Capture length average 1100 frames.

Then processed in Registax5. Final resize done at the end of Registax5.

Any tips greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Duncan

Ps I took heaps of avi's using variations of the above parameters.

[duncan]

Hi Stuart,

Your right, not usually clear up here this time of year. Our normal wet season has not happened this year. Still a lot of high fine Cirrus around though.

Cheers