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Philip Imbrogno

M 33

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Posts Made By: Enrico Africa

October 12, 2004 01:18 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Fastar M33

Posted By Enrico Africa
Ralph,

A very nice image! I'm trying to find that fine balance between artistic blurring and accurate sharpening with my images (i.e., they either come out too blurred or oversharpened). You got the blurring artistically right in this one! Did that make sense? :S Either way, good job!

Eric

October 17, 2004 02:58 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

ngc672 and IC727

Posted By Enrico Africa
Nice ones, Larry!

Eric

October 18, 2004 01:34 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Good wide field refractor for astrophotography.

Posted By Enrico Africa
The Takahashi is a great choice! You probably won't need the Takahashi rings for this. You can probably get by with the Losmandy piggyback/ring system.

In case you are looking for other possibilities, the Orion 80ED is another good choice, if maybe a little heavier and bigger. My personal scope for this purpose right now is a Borg 76ED - it weighs about the same as the Tak, costs around the same (maybe a little more, depending on how you package the system), has almost the same FOV (500mm focal length vs about 480 for the Tak) and has a bit more aperture for visual use. Plus, it can be upgraded (via an easy objective swap) to a 101ED (or 101 Ach, to save a bit while gaining aperture for visual use).

HTH,
Eric

October 26, 2004 01:10 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Cederblad 214 in H-alpha

Posted By Enrico Africa
A "Neat Image" indeed! 8)
Eric

November 10, 2004 09:49 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Cederblad-214 HaRGB

Posted By Enrico Africa
Very nice, Jose! It's a very smooth image, which I seem to have troulbe processing out in my images. Any tips?

Rorshach (spelling?) moment: it looks like the head of some giant bug, or space monster! See the two bright stars that could go for eyes, and the vertical dust cloud between them that could be a mouth?

Eric

November 20, 2004 05:45 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Borg 76 ED vs. Megrez 80 II ED

Posted By Enrico Africa
Douglas,

I have no experience with any WO scope, so I won't go into comparisons here. I do have a Borg 76ED, and can say this for the Borg instruments:

They are very flexible. With a 76ED (discontinued now in favor of the 77ED), if/when you develop aperture fever, you can upgrade to a 101 (ED or Achro) lens and swap out objectives almost as easily as swapping eyepieces (well, not quite). The helical focuser will bind under heavy loads (I have no 2" EP's, so that's not been a problem with me yet). This binding can be addressed two ways: either swap out for a Feathertouch focuser, or opt for a shorter tube and go for a front-focus option, which places the helical focuser behind the objective (won't work for photography with a 101 - vignettes too much). Bottom line, Borg offers a dizzying array of options for adaptability.

Optically, it runs circles around my old ST80 (now since sold, that old trooper just saw no use after I discovered Borg). I have not conducted fair side-by-side comparisons with other scopes yet, so I can not comment on that.

HTH,
Eric

December 9, 2004 08:27 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

My first webcam Saturn

Posted By Enrico Africa
Ivan,

That is a great first try! I'm not in a position to play with your image yet, but I do have a suggestion (unless you've tried this already): play with the wavelets in Registax. As an example, here is a before and after picture I took of Saturn last New Year's Eve. It's from the same AVI file, the only difference is that I did not play with wavelets in the Before (image on left) image, and then got more aggressive in the After image.

HTH,
Eric

December 17, 2004 04:43 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

New Image: Deep M45

Posted By Enrico Africa
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

Eric

December 21, 2004 05:29 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Something bright when it's windy and the Moon is up

Posted By Enrico Africa
Man, that's gorgeous! If I may ask, how long were your subexposures?

Eric

January 24, 2005 04:12 PM Forum: Takahashi

Mewlon specs

Posted By Enrico Africa
John,

Rooting around the Takahashi Yahoo group, I found this thread:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UncensoredTakGroup/message/25295

The title of the thread is "JMI NGF-C focuser to Mewlon 210"

The short answer: it is part TCD0010 (verify with Anacortes).

I highly recommend subscribing to the Yahoo group, and contacting Ted at Hutech anyway just in case he has other options.

HTH,
Eric

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