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tibbs1972

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Blog Entries posted by tibbs1972

  1. tibbs1972
    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.
  2. tibbs1972

    Southern sky ignored.

    By tibbs1972,

    I realsed tonight that I've been ignoring the Southern sky and can't navigate it very well. I think this is beacause my house faces the neighbours houses and there are street lights there.
    Due to the light pollution, I've always concentrated on the Northern skies.
    Tonight I just tried checking out the south west.
    For the first time tonight, I learnt how to spot Hercules and the Corona Borealis constellations with the naked eye.
    I also managed to spot M13, The Great Globular Cluster with my 10x50 monocular.
    I can just make out the cluster by identifying HIP 81848 and HIP 81673 and then looking between them slightly to the right. If you don't follow, you can see what I mean from the attached image.

    Another notch from the Messier catalogue.
    Pretty chuffed I've learnt a few new things tonight, even thought I didn't get the scope out.
  3. tibbs1972
    Had a great night viewing tonight, really clear from around 9pm.
    I've spotted a few satellites, one with a flare.
    I've also seen a few meteors falling to earth, while looking north east.
    My main object of concern has been Andromeda tonight.
    I've managed to get a few shots with my small 130mm Mirror and EOS 1000D camera.
    I don't think I'll ever get a better picture unless I upgrade to a larger scope, but this is my best attempt at capturing Andromeda so far.

  6. tibbs1972
    Glad the nights are drawing in for better Photos, I'm looking forward to getting some more images.
    I Took a few shots of the northern sky tonight.
    I was concerned that a lot of what I could see was noise on the camera, but when I compared the Photo with Sellarium, I was pleased to see the stars in my Photo matched up with the image on the software, something I haven't done before, it helped to assure me I'm getting something right.

  8. tibbs1972
    Amazing, the clouds have cleared tonight.
    For the first time in months, an opportunity arose.
    Unfotunately, it's Summer and June as well. I managed to spot a couple of stars, but the viewing time
    is so limited at this time of the year. I'm not even going to bother dusting of the Telescope.
    I'l just stick to my handy DSLR.
    I managed to spot Altair in Aquila, but thats the most I can image at the moment.

  9. tibbs1972
    Here's my attempt to capture Sirius on a cheap Webcam through my Telescope.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c_vbVHAPkU&feature=player_profilepage
    Here's my first ever attempt to video the moon, again with my webcam, unfortunately upside down.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwQ3qD1FLQI&feature=player_detailpage
    Regards
    Neil
  10. tibbs1972
    Something I've been trying to do for a while now.
    Thanks to two really clear nights this weekend, I finally managed to find Andromeda in the scope. Just a smudge, but it still feels like an achievement, as its the first Galaxy I've spotted through my scope.
    I realise I also need to be quick off the mark adjusting the focus for my camera, once i've spotted something with my 20mm lens.
    I've now marked the focuser with felt pen, which speeds up camera focusing immensly.
    Neil
  11. tibbs1972

    Cloudy Tonight

    By tibbs1972,

    Cloudy & a full Moon tonight, what a mix.
    Still, sometimes it looks like the Moons at the end of a tunnel. Definitely worth taking an image.
    This image doesn't do it justice, I'm afraid.
  13. tibbs1972

    Observing Pleiades

    By tibbs1972,

    Had a look at Pleiades, managed to get 25 shots directly from my 18-55mm Camera lens on full zoom at F5.6, ISO 400.
    Not sure yet how I'm going to take similiar shots with the telescope as it zooms in too close using the prime focus method.
  14. tibbs1972

    Collimating

    By tibbs1972,

    I've had a natural fear of collimating and thus far upto now have not tried.
    Tonight I watched a few videos on youtube and took a crack at it, one of which I've linked below.

    It's quite tricky holding the secondary mirror trying to align it with the focuser.
    The other problem on the secondary mirror, is that celestron have somehow cross-threaded one of the adjustment screws. This caused me no end of trouble.
    I pricked a hole in a black lens cap, which I then used to collimate.
    The main mirror was eaiser to adjust, but I got a bit confused for a start, as on the Celestron Powerseeker, the locking screws are exactly the same as the mirror adjustment screws. This made things more difficult as neither are labelled.
    After about an hour, I managed to get both mirrors dead centre.
    This is one of lifes little tasks that I won't look forward to in the future, as its pretty frustrating adjusting the secondary mirror.
    At least I won't be diving in without a clue in the future.
    Neil
  15. tibbs1972

    14th December Meteors

    By tibbs1972,

    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.
  17. tibbs1972

    Repair Job Complete

    By tibbs1972,

    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.
  21. tibbs1972
    I popped my head out the back door tonight to see if it was clear.
    To my surprise, it was clear and the moon was rising over the village.
    I had an amazing view of The Moon chasing Jupiter. I thought to take a quick shot.
    It's a shame the moon has so much glare, the shot below doesn't justify the true view.
  22. tibbs1972
    Thought I'd have a go at making a video from DSLR images, rather than a webcam.
    I took some shots of Orion early this morning, so I'm using these, only 24 shots for a first attempt, which I shrunk down to 25% of the origional size to reduce the file size.
    A stacked image can be seen below.
    Next I found a Freeware tool called ImageToAVI 1.0.0.5, which I used to stitch the images into an AVI file at 4 frames per second.
    I then used a program to convert these to MPEG II format.
    I've uploaded the file to the Youtube link below.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4qpdYioTs
    My only problem is with light pollution, but if I stacked each frame with dark images, maybe I could get rid of it.
  24. tibbs1972
    WOW !
    Just caught the ISS going over the UK.
    Wasn't expecting it tonight, but saw it as I was just now watering the garden.
    I ran upstairs and leaned out of the window with my Minocular.
    As it's been such a beautiful clear day, I could see a bright shiny centre, and I believe I could make out the solar panels.
    Another amazing sighting for me.
    It lasted about 3 minutes. :)
    No clouds tonight, looking forward to the best couple of hours observing this month, I hope.
  25. tibbs1972
    I Started out well tonight, the third night in a row, a great weekend for observing, and then The Moon started to rise. Gradually, most of the stars faded out.
    I managed to stack 16 x 60sec exposures at ISO 400, F4.5.
    I was going to try for 100, better luck next time. At least there's a better chance of observing, now the nights are longer.
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