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James4

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Everything posted by James4

  1. James4

    Celestron C6R

    From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Orion Flex Dew Shield replaced original heavy steel dew shield. The Flex Shield is much longer, much lighter, and slides back on to the OTA for easy storage with the scope.
  2. From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    C6R with dewshield relocated to rear of OTA
  3. James4

    Celestron C6R

    From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Too Much CA? Stop down to 120mm F/10
  4. From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Original heavy Metal Dew Shield moved to back of The OTA for counter balance Orion Flex Dew Shield in its Place
  5. From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    JMI Event Horizon focuser replaced S+ock focuser
  6. From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Original sized Jupiter Image after some ham fisted processing ....
  7. From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Jupiter Shadow Transit. 17th January, 2013 C9.25 - Nikon D5000
  8. From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Jupiter Shadow Transit - 17th January, 2013 C9.25, Neximage5
  9. Some retries on processing. I think the DSLR is beating my new planet cam because I'm new to the planet cam and still need to learn the best settings. But at least I'm learning a little more about processing in Registax while I am figuring out the camera. Need another clear sky outting with Jupiter - maybe tonight, its looking good.
  10. James4

    Jupiter 10 Jan 13

    From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Jupiter with Nikon DSLR and Celestron 8-24mm 2" Zoom E.P.
  11. Was out last night and shot rafts of video with the Neximage5. I also tried some with my Nikon D5100 DSLR in Video Mode connected via T-Ring to an 8mm Celestron Zoom E.P. I know I don't know the Neximage5 yet, but on the initial results, the DSLR is beating the Planet Cam. I shot lots of higher resolutions with the Planet Cam - I assumed that's how you got such a large Jupiter. The Videos are all green. I can fix them in PS or NEB but this can't be good for quality. Sounds like I need to Barlow up - just got the new Celestron Luminous 2" 2.5x Barlow. But I do already have Jupiter at a reasonable size. Just not seeing any detail in the clouds - and visually too, not seenig the detail. Collimation must be close but perhaps its not optimal. Bought an external drive to run the video onto at the scope - its drop proof, water proof - just as well because I knocked it off my accessory case first time out. I set maximum frames 2000 on the Neximage5 - which resulted in 3.99 GB files. Although Registax can see these files - its warns 'Unknown Frame Count' Then bombs out when I try to Align them. Running into a lot of niggly issues so far. Next time out I will need to drop the resolution, hopefully that will drop the file size into the useable zone, and barlow up with the 2.5x. Will see how that works out. If can close to your example above I would be well pleased! Got some good skies for the next few days here in BC (Canada). Good Seeing
  12. All right Bus_ter - now I'm inspired ....
  13. Holy! OK there goes the theory that we are at the same level of experimenting! That's superb!
  14. James4

    DMK41 still waiting

    Interested to know how The DMK performs. I've got my eye on one of those for when I hit the improvement barrier on the Neximage5. Hope it turns up soon!
  15. The wifi on the ferry here just lost my huger spiel of a comment. Good to hear someone else is at the same level of experimenting! How are The DFK and The Neximage able to share firmware? Good luck imaging!
  16. I figured out the problem with the resolution on The Neximage5. You have to uncheck the 'Compression' option on the File Save parameters. That setting prevents the files being saved in higher resolutions.
  17. From the album: Observing Images and Notes

    Jupiter New Year's Eve 2012, with 9.25" SCT and Celestron Neximage 5
  18. New Year's Eve 2012, was chilly around 2 degrees C. But the skies were improving and Jupiter was shining through the thin cloud cover. I had just picked up a 'Celestron Neximage 5' and was hoping it would clear enough to give it a run. I set up the CGEM and put the C9.25 on board. Jupiter was in and out the clouds as I hooked up the Neximage. Flashback About 2 years ago I was imaging with a pocket digital camera (a Pentax Optio E30). I had surprisingly good results from this non astro camera. But eventually I seemed to hit a barrier on improvements. The images were noisy and I couldn't get past a certain level. I figured when I upgraded my DSLR to one that shoots video, the better chip would be lower noise and higher quality and would take me to the next level. Survey says XX. It just didn't turn out that way. The images seemed to have almost no colour and were not even quite as good as those from the $150 Pentax. The cost of a real planet camera was out of reach, so I fell away from it. Recently observing Jupiter I decided I needed to try imaging again. I decided to try a planet camera instead of messing around with not astro cameras. I still can't justify the money for a high end camera, but saw the Celestron Neximage 5 - a 5 MegaPixel Planet Camera. I reasoned if this can improve my imaging over the other cameras, the next step will be a monochrome cooled camera. I'm not expecting brilliant results, but do hope to see an improvement over previous efforts. Back to New Year's Eve I removed the eyepiece and put the Neximage 5 in its place. On the computer I could see Jupiter a s a large cloud, I refocused and it was just a few turns of the stock focuser to bring Jupiter to focus. Jupiter was still facing in and out of the clouds. I hit the record button quick to at least capture a few frames. I changed the resolution up to 2592 x 1944 and Jupiter looked huge on screen. Over the next two hours I captured about 20 video clips of Jupiter. I twice put the camera away only to be wowed visually and sparked into taking more video. However, later all the videos turned out to be low resolution. I had tried many different resolution settings on-screen but they had all come out at low res! Meanwhile back at the scope, I decided to bring out the new 10" Lightbridge. I recently sold my 6" Explore Scientific Refractor and picked up a Lightbridge. I used a 5mm 2" Ultima LX eyepiece for 255x on the Lightbridge. The view was excellent, Jupiter was crisp and 5 belts were visible. As far as I could tell there was no GRS or other large features on the nearside of Jupiter. I compared the view in the 10" Lightbridge with the 9.25" SCT. The view looked the same to me, I couldn't really see any difference - I was using 184 x (13mm Ultima 2") in the SCT. I decided to look for Comet 2012 K5/Linear. I googled the coordinates and punched them into the CGEM Handcontroller. I slewed there and hunted around for a few minutes. Then just below two faint stars there it was - a small but distinct cloud. I observed it for a few minutes before moving back to Jupiter. I tried an OIII filter in the Lightbride to look at The Orion Nebula. The Trapezium almost disappeared, but the nebula eppeared larger and more extended.
  19. James4

    DSC4384 Small

    The big Refractor held its own in the Deep Sky Shootout - in fact I have to say it slightly edged out the 9.25 for quality of view!
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