Imaging with Mak 127mm

[bigal1]

So it's just a 30sec video on your camera that you stack the frames of, or 1 30sec exposure?

The images were made from single photos shot in raw mode then stacked in deepsky stacker .

[vphotographic]

Here is my first attempt,

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/186989-first-image-mak-127-a.html#post2277049

Paul

[M4lcs67]

Just come in on this thread. (Better late than never) Wow. That is a brilliant pic. I would love to get into astrophotography with my mak and originally was looking at the Philips webcam, but they are like rockinghorse now. The webcam of choice now seems to be the Microsoft HD one. There is link on the net http://www.billetparts.co.uk/catalog...ter-p-122.html

Does seem a little involved converting it. Is there somewhere that can do the conversion for you?

[vphotographic]

Heres my first attempt from last week.

Kit:

Skymax 127 + eq5 (non goto)

Nikon D300 - Prime focus

Single shot and resized in photoshop.

[Russe]

Lovely - how much post processing went into this?

[vphotographic]

As it says, cropped, bit of brightening and sharpening and uploaded.

Paul

[skankanan]

skymax 127 az goto quickcam pro 5000 webcam stacked in registax

tried to link to save reposting pic but couldnt get it to work sorry

[ccbmedic]

My first attempt at Saturn, seeing wasnt really great here on the East Coast but still managed to have a fiddle with the camera. Too much tinkering needed for my liking but I suppose I'll get the hang of it sooner or later

[Delboy_Hog]

Skankanan and Ccbmedic - those are really nice!

[bigal1]

I had a root through my astro images and i rekon these are my best images i have taken with the good old Skymax 127 over the last 3 or so years

[tjr]

Bigal, these are VERY good!

[ccbmedic]

Bigal, Id love to know what setting your Jupiter was taken with, especially if you used your webcam. Im having major dramas with mine and its proving to be a little too much

[bigal1]

Bigal, Id love to know what setting your Jupiter was taken with, especially if you used your webcam. Im having major dramas with mine and its proving to be a little too much

I have used my Philips webcam for all my planetary images ( still need to buy an Imaging source cam ) but i'm afraid i cannot remember what the settings were i used for the Jupiter image . I always take between 2000 and 35000 frames @ 10fps using YUY2 codec , i never touch the brightness just leave at default level ( mid point in Sharpcap ) and just adjust exposure and gain for brightness control . For all planetary images besides Venus i used 1/25 exposure then tweaked the gain till the image was not too bright or dim on screen , gamma is set to 0 and i have saturation at max plus i always start with auto color balance enabled leave to settle for a min then freeze it which seems to give me the best color settings .

[Delboy_Hog]

Bigal, I've said it before about your pictures but I'll say it again...Incredible! Thanks for sharing those - definitely something to aspire to!

[ccbmedic]

Thanks Alan I'll have fiddle using your tips next clear night

Regards,

Chris

[Russe]

Brilliant pics - the moons are mosaics I gather? Which program did u use to stitch them together?

[bigal1]

My Moon images are stacked dslr subs about 30 to a stack on each image .

[Russe]

Oh, so Not the SPC - sorry misunderstood!!

[vphotographic]

My Moon images are stacked dslr subs about 30 to a stack on each image .

with motors im guessing ?? so the moon is in the same position on each shot ??

paul

[bigal1]

with motors im guessing ?? so the moon is in the same position on each shot ??

paul

Yep your spot on

[JonnyK]

These images are amazing and something to aspire to. I have bought a celestron Mak on a goto mount and im really enjoying it, I have managed 1 image of saturn stacked from a 60second video. Im hoping to have a go at mars as soon as the clouds lift and hpefully a better image of saturn if I can get a couple of longer videos. Just a quick question, do you stack still's of images taken from video's?As in if I took say 20 videos and got 20 still images from them could I then stack those in registax to get even more detail?

[knobby]

Now that's a good question ... that I wish I knew the answer to!

Sent from my HD2Droid

[Russe]

No. As planets rotate and change the angle of view you'd get rotational effects, making your picture more blurry.

[knobby]

Good point ... so what's the longest realistic exposure for a webcammed dob?

Sent from my HD2Droid

[Russe]

wait, let me remember... I forget which thread I found that in

Mars is 8min, Saturn 4 min and Jupiter 2 min methinks. Somewhere thereabouts.

Mars I make 5000 frames with 10 fps.

Will try to find it.