Success with my cheap Lunar/planetary scope.

[Chris]

This was the second time out Lunar imaging with the Logitech webcam, 150pl f/8, and the vintage Meade pillar mount. First time out didn't go well, the mount wasn't tracking and the seeing was bad so not only could I not stack any images, even the AVI footage looked poor.

Second time out the other night was a completely different story! With the scope better balanced on the Meade mount (works on a friction plate on RA making balance critical), and much better seeing, I not only managed to get still AVI footage for stacking, but I could even Barlow the focal length to a massive 3000mm for real 'up close' images.

I've gone from being worried to impressed.

Footage and images below:

 

[RobertI]

You must be really chuffed Chris, some great lunar video and super sharp stacked images - great to see that classic setup working so well - visually must have been superb too. Are the stacked images in B&W? Some of the subtle colouring that was in the vid has been lost? (Viewing on my phone so may be getting wrong impression).  

[WanderingEye]

Superb set there... well done 😀👍

If I may say, the collimation is slightly off me thinks... 

[Chris]

2 hours ago, RobertI said:

You must be really chuffed Chris, some great lunar video and super sharp stacked images - great to see that classic setup working so well - visually must have been superb too. Are the stacked images in B&W? Some of the subtle colouring that was in the vid has been lost? (Viewing on my phone so may be getting wrong impression).  

Yeah, really pleased thanks Rob, a much better outing this time I think they should be stacked in colour? Registax points out that it thinks the footage is colour with a little notice that pops up. It then asks for confirmation which I remember doing. 

Edited January 6, 2020 by Lockie

[Chris]

1 hour ago, WanderingEye said:

Superb set there... well done 😀👍

If I may say, the collimation is slightly off me thinks... 

Thank you I didn't check collimation on the night, but I collimated the scope the time before and the doughnut was concentric in the centre of a Plossl. I can't imagine it's far out, but I'm very interested to hear what you've noticed?

[rl]

Very nice set of images taken in rather poor seeing. I've seen sharper at that scale but not too often.  Just goes to show why the 6" Newt  has been such an institution even if it's rather overlooked nowadays  simply because they're cheap.  In the right hands they are still a formidable observing tool.

Nice presentation too..well done!

[WanderingEye]

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

Thank you I didn't check collimation on the night, but I collimated the scope the time before and the doughnut was concentric in the centre of a Plossl. I can't imagine it's far out, but I'm very interested to hear what you've noticed?

The focus looks really good, yet there is still some softness to the images, so it’s either collimation, or maybe a wavlet setting in registax that’s a little harsh, but excellent all the same....

ignore me...what do I know.. 😀

[Chris]

1 hour ago, WanderingEye said:

The focus looks really good, yet there is still some softness to the images, so it’s either collimation, or maybe a wavlet setting in registax that’s a little harsh, but excellent all the same....

ignore me...what do I know.. 😀

Ah I recon it's my rusty Registax skills lol It's been a while. I might watch a couple of tutorials just to see if I'm doing anything a bit different. I think I know what you mean, the AVI looks great to me, but one or two of the stacks look a teeny bit mushy. Then again it could be that I was imaging at 3000mm of focal length with a revelation Barlow. Maybe with 6" of aperture I just ran out of resolution also? Oh, then there's the cheap Tesco webcam I used lol

[Bobby1970]

What a great video and collection of images. Love the soundtrack too. Very atmospheric. 

[Chris]

1 hour ago, rl said:

Very nice set of images taken in rather poor seeing. I've seen sharper at that scale but not too often.  Just goes to show why the 6" Newt  has been such an institution even if it's rather overlooked nowadays  simply because they're cheap.  In the right hands they are still a formidable observing tool.

Nice presentation too..well done!

Thank you, very kind Honestly that was quite good seeing comparatively speaking, it was much worse the other day! lol 

[Chris]

Just now, Bobby1970 said:

What a great video and collection of images. Love the soundtrack too. Very atmospheric. 

Thanks Bobby, it's the best I've managed with a 6" Newt I've started leaning towards more ambient music for my channel, it just seems to fit astronomy and space quite well. I've also become a little OCD about timing changes in the music to the changing images. Glad you liked it