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Yet another ISS!

DeanWatson

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DeanWatson

DeanWatson

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Hi Steve, Its a 10" revelation dob newt with SPC900 webcam, same as, I think its Tmark below - Its such a matter of luck, I think I caught it at more or less the same time as he did without the solar panels (the big ones anyway) lit up in his bottom right image. Theres still a hint of them though.

I'm not sure what the exposure or gain levels actualy were other than their positions on the sliders (is there any way I can access this in Vlounge anyone?).

Its manually tracked - Heartstopping isn't it for anyone who has a go! 4 minutes of sheer terror! But such great fun, esp when you get a recognisable image - I hope over the next couple of nights to get some of the big panels though.

Checked my colimation beforehand and found at the weekend that I couldn't get a close enough focus on the webcam at prime focus so made an adaptor out of 50mm and 32mm plumbers pipe from b and q and removed the existing 2" adaptor. Works a treat.

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Dave

Dave

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Great stuff.

I know what you mean about 4 minutes or so of sheer terror, but boy doesn't it go quickly? But its always well worth while when you get some recognisable images. I always move just ahead of the ISS and let it pass through the field of view each time and repeat this as I'm webcaming. That way I hope to minimise any movements I may make with the scope so these don't get added to the already speedy craft, especially when at its closest and moving at its fastest.

Then I select the frames that have the ISS in them and use these to do all my processing.

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tmarkuk

tmarkuk

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Hey Dean,

I use WcCtrl, linked in my thread below, to set the webcam settings. It has marked lines so you know where you are setting things, and you can save your setup as well.

Good image though, if you managed to get a few in a row, try extracting just that segment of video and stacking it in registax using 'centre of gravity' align. A small boost on the wavelets and then a very slight touch of gaussian blur should bring out a bit more detail.

I'll be trying again tonight, I may even use the 2x barlow if I feel really brave!

Tim.

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DeanWatson

DeanWatson

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Ain't that the truth Tim! Had to do a little dance last night myself, and while you're doing it you become half convinced you've turned the wrong way but its too late to do anything about it!

EQ mounts! Wouldn't even try - actually, its quite nice as I can capture deepsky data on my HEQ5SS with my 6" refractor while i'm messing about with the dob.

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Dave

Dave

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It used to be "easy" (Its all relative) with the standard LX200.

I haven't even attempted tracking the ISS since I replaced it with an EQ6.

Still getting to grips with managing that mount in "normal" mode.

Despite the image being smaller I always used a .63 field reducer as well to try and ensure I got the ISS on some on at least some of the captured frames.

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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I'm just dipping my toe inthe water with Sattracker... on my wedge mounted CPC800... last night it was lovely and clear until about 15 mins before the first ISS pass and then the cloud rolled in from the EAst and by the tiem the Trackign kicked in it was horizon to horizon cloud bar one tiny hole which wasnt visible to the naked eye but the DSLR did capture a few frames with a "blob" in them...

I found that you cant really have anythign else going on onthe USB bus when Sattracker is driving the scope so I have re-organised the PC resources...

Now have the Lappy and another PC for obs duty - the 2nd PC has a bit more HP as well core duo with 4GB of Ram fast Graphics and a lot more HDD space this will become the image capture PC now with the lappy performing guidign duties...

Added an 8 port hub to the Devolo unit in the obs so have plent of ports out there now...

I have then spent the last hour untangling an re-connecting the cablingl for the main house PC and now have it driving a pair of 21" monitors so that I can teamview into both obs PC's......

Jsut got to get the "knitting!" and software sorted out on both pc's in the obs now...

I Want to try the DMK tonight might start at f3.3 on the 8" though and work up...

Peter..

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