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Its 2014 and its all gone quiet...


knobby

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I'm certainly up for the Hadleigh open evening, is that 22nd Jan?

I'm planning to head out this weekend to scope out a few sites, using a light pollution map I found that Willingale is the closest dark site to me https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=willingale&ie=UTF-8&ei=AmjYUrPED_OS7AaqwoCwCg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg

Anyone been around there? Have a new camera arriving tomorrow so just itching to head out!

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I'm certainly up for the Hadleigh open evening, is that 22nd Jan?

I'm planning to head out this weekend to scope out a few sites, using a light pollution map I found that Willingale is the closest dark site to me https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=willingale&ie=UTF-8&ei=AmjYUrPED_OS7AaqwoCwCg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg

Anyone been around there? Have a new camera arriving tomorrow so just itching to head out!

What camera Dan?
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Happy new year all....

Its has been quiet, so been loitering on the main forums. I am up for the 8th March. will be good to get out....will you be taking any of your own equipment of just relying upon the clubs?

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I'll definitely be there 8th March, is the Wednesday I mentioned for members only?

I ordered a Mallincam SSIc. I was trying to get some good images of Jupiter recently with my X2 and as I used it without the Focal Reducer it got heavily Dew'd up. Looked into getting a clear window attachment and decided to just add on top and get a dedicated solar system imager.

I'll be bringing my own equipment on the 8th, have to admit lugging around this 12" scope is wearing me down!

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Took a drive to this site I mentioned today in Willingale:

+51 44'7.08", +0 19'3.76"

Very pleased with it, according to this map http://www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/wordpress/?page_id=127 it's almost a dark blue region. It does have a slight tree obstruction on one side but I don't think it will pose much of an issue. It is also on gravelly concrete stuff so a decent site to avoid mud. I really wish I did take some pictures!

I checked out a few potential sites along North Heath Road, one in particular had almost complete 360 views but was a bit muddy, probably a good choice when the weather gets better.

Both sites have completely unblocked views if you can travel a little on foot.

I'm going to head out on the next clear night if anyone wants to join. I'll take some pictures with my new cam and post them up soon.

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Only 25 minutes from where I live in Brentwood!

Also got my gf to agree that her new car should be a 4x4, possibly a Suzuki Vitara which would be perfect for lugging around all my stuff :D

The roads are definitely not great at all, potholes and general unevenness when driven on with a car like mine with really hard suspension you feel everything. 

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Managed to get my first astronomy images i've ever taken last night. This was with my new Mallincam SSIc

These were from my front garden so there was tons of glare from streetlights though.

Used PIPP and Autostakkert2 to trim and stack the two avi's. I've spent over 2 hours messing around with Registax 5 and 6 to do the wavelets but I cannot get a clean sharp image, anyone can give me some tips with this? I've looked online through various tutorials but mostly its play with it until it looks good. A guy at work today spent 30 minutes with it and got nowhere so i'm starting to think my images are just really poor quality.

Really learnt how Rubbish my mount is last night, i'm just itching to get a CGEM DX now!

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The AVIs were 10 and 30 seconds, 225mb and 692mb. The one with more colour was actually the 10 second one.

The device captured at 1280x something and output the same, I think I should have selected a higher resolution but I was having so many mount issues that I didn't spend enough time playing with the software.

I don't think the atmosphere was great yesterday as the picture seem to fluctuate a bit also the mount struggled to keep it still.

Just spoke to Telescope House and explained the mount problems I had and they've told me to bring it in, just got the go ahead from the boss to take a half day to do it! Unfortunately they said it may take 7-10 days :/

If there's any chance to head out tonight I will so I at least have some more material to play with while the scope is out of action.

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Yeah I think i've made a rookie mistake! 

Someone mentioned to me that 1000-2000 frames is the norm. From what I remember I was 7 fps , so that's not many frames especially when autostakker2 only used half of them so under 100. I think that may be the reason why I had difficulty with the wavelets.

It's all good though I at least know what to try next time.

I was also told with my cam settings I was actually using software to stack frames already so that probably messed things up too as well as leaving the AGC off.

It's ashame I won't be able to try for a while but i'll be excited when I get my scope back.

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The solar system cam comes with its own software, it's really easy to use. I was told I could also try sharpcap.

The DSO cam also comes with its own software but there is also a bit of software written by Miloslick it's really good and works with OSX too.

I had another go at wavelets last night and added the pic to the gallery. I'm pleased knowing that it was limited to such a low number of frames as it gives me hope for next time when I do it properly.

What cam do you have?

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