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About this blog

1st Tibbs1972 blog before new site.

Entries in this blog

 

25th Feb Venus and The Moon

I got home tonight and just had to grab a quick shot of the Moon and Venus together. I was amazed by the sight. I've never seen two bodies so close together. I used my Cannon Camera with a 2" Light Pollution filter blue tacked to the lens, as suggested by todd8137. I love the result, it almost looks Alien.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

0
 

Further Moon image from Webcam 03rd Feb 2012

I had another go at the moon tonight with my Webcam. I manged to split the video with Virtual dub and Stack the frames with Registax. I also tried to get an image of jupiter, but it was too bright. No amount of adjustment of gamma or exposure setting would reduce the glare.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

7
 

Repair Job Complete

Somehow, I got a burst of enthusiasm today and decided to repair my EQ2 tripod this evening. After an hour and drilling and tapping, I managed to get it balanced. As it happened the clouds also cleared. I quickly setup the laptop and had another shot at using a Webcam. I managed to get about 30secs of footage before the clouds rolled in, so I didn't get a chance to practice focusing with the webcam. After downloading and using Virtual dub to splice the video and remove the rubbish frames of the video, and putting the 150 or so frames into registax, I managed to create the image attached. I think its the highest power image I've ever managed to get of the moon. All in all, I'm back on a high again. I seem to have made the Tripod a bit more stirdy as well with the fixings I made and have managed to track the moon tonight, which I've never managed to do before. A very short, but worth while observing session in the end before the clouds rolled in.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

0
 

Setting up a Webcam with Sharpcap

A while back I purchased a Philips SPC900NC Webcam and flashed it etc to use with Sharpcap Webcam imaging software. I then watched the astronomyshed tutorials on youtube to learn how to setup the camera. I downloaded the software from the link below. http://sites.google.com/site/rwgastro/sharpcap After messing around with the camera, all I managed to get was a flashing screen. I got frustrated and gave up and I still couldn't get the Philips camera working tonight. Yesterday, I thought I would have another crack at it, so I decided to keep the cost down and purchased a cheap Webcam from Tesco for about £7.85. Tonight, I removed the lens from the webcam and taped it to my cannon T-ring adapter using electrical tape and installed it on my Telescope. After an hour of messing around with settings, I was again getting frustrated, as all I could get were light and dark screens testing with a torch and led etc. I was about to give up again, but then I realised I had missed a crucial point. There's no point waving the scope about at night trying to find something to focus on. I had forgotten one crucial step in the process....... Before messing around with Sharpcap Settings, I should have aligned the Telescope with an object using a normal eye piece, in this case, my 15mm Plossal. One of the most annoying problems with my location is a cement factory about 1 1/2 miles north of the village with 24/7 lighting. But tonight, this had a really big advantage. I setup my scope to align with some of the lights on the factory roof. In anticipation, I quickly swapped my eye piece with the webcam and attempted to focus.... Success, suddeny 2 of the lights came into foucs on my laptop screen. I'm now ready to have a go at recording Planets ( very ambitious, I know ) with my telescope and cheap Tesco Webacm. I'm just waiting for the clouds to clear, but I do feel a great sense of achievement, managing to get the camera and software working. I've attached my first image with the Webcam and Telescope, I know is not an astronomical image, and I need better focus, but It's the achievement of getting the Webcam working that I'm so chuffed about.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

8
 

New Mosaics 27th Jan 2012

Had a go at some panoramas this morning around my house. I've stiched them together with Microsoft ICE. Had excellent clear skies in the very early morning between 5 and 6am.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

3
 

Attempt at a Mosaic

I've been playing around with Microsoft ICE. It's really easy to make a mosaic with it. I Just had a go at stitching a second image to the origional photo to widen the final image.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

1
 

Big Dipper 3rd Jan

30sec Exposure ISO1600, f5.6 Took this earlier in Jan, just converted it to JPEG. Unfortunately, there's a huge 24/7 cement factory North of my house causing a lot of light pollution, so I can't get the best images to the North.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

2
 

Orion 12th Jan 2012

Great clear skies tonight. Managed to get my first clear shot of the Orion Nebula. Pretty chuffed I finally managed to get a shot.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

5
 

Scope setup for Sun Observing

Here's my scope and home made sun filter. I've been informed I'll get a better image if I set the exposure time to 1/500. I'll have another go when the clouds vanish again.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

2
 

Ursa Major 3rd Jan 20:26 to 21:41

I took 66 x 30 sec exposures at ISO 1600 last night, looking at Ursa Major. I then stacked them with 3 dark exposures using Deep Sky Stacker. I also made a short video of the images and uploaded them to you tube. http://youtu.be/5b8aO-LkGQU
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

0
 

14th December Meteors

Now I can say I am officially chuffed. I've seen seven Meteors in half hour, thats broke my record. Thanks 3200 Phaethon Its a shame I have to put my head down, I have to be on the road at 6am. I hope its this good during Star Gazing Live 2 in January.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

1
 

14th December Meteors

I wasn't planning to observe tonight, but I just opened the front upstairs window as its clear tonight. Facing south, I just spotted three amazingly bright meteors falling over Rutland, UK within a couple of minutes. One was across Orion. Pretty chuffed not to have to wait around for hours on end for these spectacles. I have to say, I feel really priveleged to observe these meteors this evening.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

0
 

Jupiter Observation - Quick Sketch

I've never had much succes Photographing Jupiter, so tonight, I took the traditional approach of sketching my observation before the clouds rolled in. I suppose this sketech would be a good start for a log book, as the only record I have of my observations is this blog and various folders on my computer.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

1
 

The Moon and Jupiter

Not a lot going on tonight. Thought I'd go for a different perspective just to get more hands on with the camera.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

0
 

2 Obects tracked in the north east at 1958.

I just tracked 2 objects together by chance as I was taking 20sec exposures. The first was as bright as the ISS and the second slightly less. Its the first time I've seen 2 objects in synchronous orbit, or what seemed to be the case.
tibbs1972

tibbs1972

2
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