My first ever image - Mars - 27th Feb 2008

[dweller25]

Here is my first ever attempt at imaging.

I took this image last night through thin clouds. Mars is well past it's best but it's all good practice.

I would welcome any advice if anyone can see any newbie mistakes.

A screen grab from Stellarium is attached for comparison.

(click to enlarge)

C9.25, F20, 90 secs exposure. Phillips SPC900NC webcam.

Here is another sequence...

(click to enlarge)

[Sam]

I think on the capture you could reduce the gain a little bit which may get a more of the detail coming through - though it's a hard target to get at the moment - you've certainly got some detail there so well done!

[russ]

Well done. That's a great first go and Mars is well past it's best now, so not easy at all. As already pointed out, a little less gain/brightness and the detail would show through a tad better.

Great stuff

Russ

[dweller25]

Thanks for the replies guys, I will reduce the gain/brightness next time.

[Brinders]

Hi Dave,

So much better than my attempts to image Mars which have shown little detail. Did you use a barlow to increse the siaze of the image or not?

Brinders

[dweller25]

Brinders,

I did use a Celestron x2 Barlow to get the correct image scale for the pixel size of the webcam, this gave me F20 or x783. I could also have used a x3 barlow at F30 but I think I would have had problems keeping the image on the chip due to rapid movement (x1175) and I did not want to push my luck on my first attempt.

I think I got lucky last night as the clouds were against me and I did not really know what I was doing with the software - as the guys said I used too much gain/brightness.

One area I found easy was getting the image on the chip - I used a Televue 8-24 zoom and just kept recentering at higher powers until I got to full power and then swapped the camera in - it was spot on. I really like this eyepiece as I can change magnification when visual observing to suit seeing conditions and it is very sharp between 9 and 12mm.

Thanks for the comments.

D25

[harry]

Much better than my first attempt. Did you have the webcam in raw mode?

Harry

[Brinders]

Hello again Dave,

That's similar to the method I use to get the image onto the secuirty cam chip only I use a Saben 8-24 zoom.

Brinders

[dweller25]

Hello Harry,

What is RAW mode ????

[harry]

A small freeware programme called WcRmac allows the firmware of the spc900nc to be changed to record in uncompressed greyscale raw format, by-passing the camera's own debayer software, supposedly preserving more image data. The avi must then to be debayered into colour with registax during stacking or prior to stacking with a programme such as aviraw. The camera's firmware can be saved and restored at anytime using WcRmac.

However, after seeing the nice colour and detail you have achieved on your first attempt, I shall be restoring the firmware of my spc900nc, raw mode of this camera would seem to be more hassle than it is worth.

Harry

[Cloudwatcher]

The first image look very much like the eyepiece view of Mars I was getting last night.

Good capture.

Cheers

CW

[cvc]

I have just started using a C9.25 (25+ years since my previous telescope, a home-built 6" Newtonian!) and your photographs match very well what I thought that I could see on Tuesday (26th) night - the best view that I have had of Mars so far from Cirencester. So thank you for posting your images - very encouraging!

Charles

[beamish]

A small freeware programme called WcRmac allows the firmware of the spc900nc to be changed to record in uncompressed greyscale raw format, by-passing the camera's own debayer software, supposedly preserving more image data. The avi must then to be debayered into colour with registax during stacking or prior to stacking with a programme such as aviraw. The camera's firmware can be saved and restored at anytime using WcRmac.

However, after seeing the nice colour and detail you have achieved on your first attempt, I shall be restoring the firmware of my spc900nc, raw mode of this camera would seem to be more hassle than it is worth.

Harry

Harry I use WcCntrl (freeware)in conjunction with K3ccd and the sp900nc, once opened on page 2(secondary adjustments page) there's a slider control for the saturation that has "raw" at one end. Would this offer the same/similar results ?

Karlo

[harry]

Hi Karlo

Although I have yet to use the programme, WcCntrl would appear to give you a little more control over the webcam than the driver provided by Phillips. I believe however that the firmware would have to be amended using WCRmac in oder to use the camera in raw mode. The website, from which both WcCntrl and WcRmac can be downloaded, gives detailed instructions on how to update the firmware. The webcam has to be on and in preview mode using K3CCDtools or the software that came with camera before the firmware is updated using WcRmac

Hope this helps.

Harry

[Tim]

Hi, good image. I have struggled fearsomely with Mars

I use the WRCmac app to use the RAW mode. I cant comment on Mars as I suck at getting it, but on Saturn the results were very pleasing, definetly more definition to be had in RAW mode I think.

Gonna have another go at my mars footage now to see if I can get it anywhere near yours!!

Cheers

TJ

[dweller25]

Here's another image using the same data as above after trying some of the features in Registax .....

(click to enlarge)

[dweller25]

PS - Big thank you to the authors of K3ccdtools and Registax for their excellent software and Martin B for his brilliant planetary imaging tutorial.