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Merry X-mas Saturn processing

Started by frewi80, 12/26/2004 10:55PM
Posted 12/26/2004 10:55PM Opening Post
First of all a Merry X-Mas to all,
I live in Hawaii and I admire those who go out at night for hours to take those great images in the freezing cold. Like Wess, Tom, Ivan, Mike, Brian, Paul, Stefan Paolo in Italy and all those other that I forgot to mention.... They all post great, incredable great imgages on Astromart and I enjoy looking at it every single day.
For more then a year I have a Meade 14"LX200 GPS with UHTC and I love that scope, I want to get into serious astrophotography as well and it took me months before parts where shipped to Hawaii, still waiting on some parts which will arrive in January.... Hawaii is a looong way....Still waiting for the wedge for my 14" which will be a hudge tilt at 21 degrees in Hawaii !!!
I made some pictures with my Canon 10D and need some help, I know I made some great pictures of Saturn with the 14" and the Canon 10D, just want to know what to do with them, do I need to stack lots of images like when you take images with the Toucam, (stacking 1000 or more pics ?)...I did see some GREAT Saturn images just taken with the Toucam and a 5X Powermade.. I hope my setup can handle the same result. If not I will get a Toucam too..
I post some of my raw images of Saturn taken some days ago, just want to know how process them to get already a reasonable result so I can start from there...
Thanks to everybody again for sharing those great 'professional' images, cassini can't do better......
I even used Wes' advise to pull out the 5X powermate about 3/4 inch and even retract the cam about 1 inch on top....

Freddy

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frewi80's attachment for post 21031
Posted 12/26/2004 10:56PM #1
And an other one......

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frewi80's attachment for post 86292
Posted 12/26/2004 10:58PM #2
and another raw one ...

Attached Image:

frewi80's attachment for post 86293
Posted 12/27/2004 12:46AM | Edited 12/27/2004 01:13AM #3
Freddy, first of all, Thank You, and Merry Christmas to you too!

You have a great setup, no doubt about that. The 14" is a "MONSTER" (literally!) and the 10D camera is a great one to have...

Do you have any less powerful barlows? 5x is a very strong one, and I would consider using it only if my seeing is amazingly good... (would probably recommend starting with a 2x or 3x and working your way up...)
Also, it looks as if your focus is a bit weak...as you are close, but not quite there, and focusing is the most critical and time consuming task...(frustrating sometimes!)

For planetary imaging, I would, IMHO, get a webcam, like the Toucam Pro. It is not that your 10D cannot take planetary shots, but the webcams take hundreds or even thousands of frames, which they get combined at the end to make one "great" shot. The 10D in this case is taking one frame, which would be VERY HARD to make it look as good as what you would get with a webcam... (you would have to take hundreds of shots with your 10D, which could be a "pain in the behind", and then combine them with Registax)

On the other hand, the 10D is an awesome camera for DSO & wide-field imaging (if you piggy-back on top of your scope) since it can take very long exposure shots...

If you would like to get started on taking DSOs through your scope, I would also invest in a f/6.3 or even a f/3.3 reducer/corrector...

I hope this helps you a bit...


Clear dark cool steady skies!



Ivan
8)

P.S.
Did you take these Saturn shots at prime focus, or eyepiece projection?

Ivan Gastaldo 8)
Coconut Creek, FL

Ivan's Observatory
Lat 26N 16' 48" Long 80W 10' 48"
[COLOR="Red"]Personal Website:[/COLOR] http://www.ivangastaldo.com

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