First attempt at imaging

[Russell Allen]

I finally had a go at imaging tonight, using a standard toucam pro II and my OO Europa 250 with a X2 barlow. I took a load of AVI's using K3CCD tools and then processed a few in registax. I think I need more practice...... but I was reasonably happy with the result for a first attempt. Thanks to all the people who have posted so much usefull information on the BB

(click to enlarge)

Regards

Russell Allen

[GazOC]

Great first shot Russel!!!

[AlphaTau]

Think I would be more than happy with that as a first attempt Russell!!! You got detail in the clouds and the Cassini division if I'm not mistaken..... damn good :thumbup:

[steppenwolf]

If only my first shot had been as good as that - well taken!

[beamish]

For a first shot that's spectacular !

[Paxo]

Excellent first shot Russell. :hello1: Take a look at http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,23550.0.html to see others first attempts (DSO's I know but take a look all the same).

Keep up the good work.

Steve..

[themos]

A great start!

[Russell Allen]

I took this one last night, I think it is an improvement on the first go. I used the OMC140 for this instead. I adjusted the saturation down a little in the webcam settings as well.

(click to enlarge)

Regards

Russell Allen

[ianporter13]

Looking good Russell,

the second shot with the OMC looks very natural.

Ian

[themos]

I still think you gotta throw more pixels at this, in other words, longer focal length.

[Russell Allen]

I thought that myself, I was intending to throw in the barlow but the clouds started coming over and the image, feint already kept dissapearing from the screen when I was attempting focus. It was already late and I needed to go to bed. I will give it another go over the weekend. I'm also trying to work out how to use WCS for doing the polar alignment as I think getting that more accurate may also improve the image quality. Could I do the focusing on a star, note the position on the vernier focuser, swing to saturn and centre with an eyepiece, re-insert the toucam and focus on the vernier setting. I found the feint barlowed image very difficult to focus on screen.

[Sam]

Looking very good - you've captured the Cassini division which is very good to start with!

[zhgutas]

Extremely nice first attempts Russel! Especially if that's you in your avatar hehe

Marius

[themos]

I'm also trying to work out how to use WCS for doing the polar alignment as I think getting that more accurate may also improve the image quality.nin

I really don't think that this is a priority. Aligning on Polaris plus a guessed 45 arcmin shift should be plenty good enough for keeping the planet centred for as long as it takes to grab a few thousand frames.

Could I do the focusing on a star, note the position on the vernier focuser, swing to saturn and centre with an eyepiece, re-insert the toucam and focus on the vernier setting. I found the feint barlowed image very difficult to focus on screen.

I haven't tried that but I have tried focusing on lunar craters and then shifting to Saturn without changing the imaging train and I got my best Saturn image that way.

[lunator]

Russel

Both pics are good starting pics

Keep the image coming.

Cheers

Ian

[mpeniak]

Well done Russel. There are some hints of Cassini division...I wish my first image was like this

Martin