This was taken yesterday at 9:15 UT 8/5/03 with my Celestron 5i and Phillips ToUCam. I stacked 2 barlows to get approximately f/36 (2x + 1.8x + f/10 scope). I grabbed 10 seconds at 5 fps (using k3ccd tools that someone mentioned here the other day), exposure 1/25 sec, and processed the whole sequence through Registrax; none of the images looked substantially different from the others, so I just tried using them all. I'm reasonably pleased with the outcome.
I did try to collimate my SCT on Vega before shooting Mars, but I could see that the star would only focus to a (small) blob even though the diffraction rings looks centered. Partly that may be from the seeing, but it might also be because I store my telescope inside the house and just brought it out to observe. I'll try letting it cool down outside for a few hours tonight and try again. The Clear Sky Clock predicts excellent seeing in my area (Chicago) after midnight tonight so I'm optimistic that I might be able to do even better.
Thanks for looking,
-Joe
I did try to collimate my SCT on Vega before shooting Mars, but I could see that the star would only focus to a (small) blob even though the diffraction rings looks centered. Partly that may be from the seeing, but it might also be because I store my telescope inside the house and just brought it out to observe. I'll try letting it cool down outside for a few hours tonight and try again. The Clear Sky Clock predicts excellent seeing in my area (Chicago) after midnight tonight so I'm optimistic that I might be able to do even better.
Thanks for looking,
-Joe
Attached Image:
