Posts Made By: Gianluca Valentini

Hi guys,
if you have a solar scope and some time don't loose this one: it is a real beauty!

Luca

Thanks Ron. Alas, this was my first AVI experience and I recorded only 30 seconds at 5 fps which gave me a total of 150. I then processed them using the program Iris and, during stacking, 13 were discarded, so I ended up with only 137. I've applied an unsharp mask to the 3 RGB photos(sigma 1.5) and this is the outcome. Next time I'll go for a larger number of frames.
According to you, should I use a faster fps setting (perhaps 10fps @ res 640x280)to obtain a larger number of frames over a shorter time span, or should I work with movie lengths @ 5fps?
I seize the opportunity for a further question: I have a digital SLR (Fujifilm Finepix Pro S2: 6.17 effective megapixels; up to 12.1 megapixel images). What can I do as far as DSO, emission nebulae to be specific, are concerned? I believe the max I can squeeze out, without a cooled CCD, is about one minute exposures. Multiple exposures? How many, if the limit is one minute?
Apologies for the long message.
Thanks and ciao
Gianluca

PS I just started reading your book: thanks for writing it. I was adviced to read it before even buying a CCD camera. I can't wait to get access to the color copy on the website.

Great picture! I was on the verge to post one of mine, but now I know I have a long way to go before I reach this level. How did you process the image? How many frames did you stack? How the hell did you get that focus!

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Luca

Hello,
I apologize for my ignorance, but looking at your pictures (I always enjoy your stuff on Jupiter!) I always find the CM I II and III right under the picture: what do they stand for?
Sorry to waste your time on something trivial, but I'm a total novice and I must understand.

Thanks
Gianluca

Pheeeww! For a minute there I thought my astroimager's career was coming to a premature end for lack of hope!
A bit slow but I got there only after reading Ron's cryptic comment!

Gianluca

It's absolutely amazing how sharp is the image of Saturn. This is the kind of image I would love to get!
Do you image from a very dark site? How was seing that day? I apologize if my questions may sound trivial: I'm a beginner.

Thanks for sharing your great work with us. It gives me a benchmark to work on.

Ciao
Gianluca

Amazing Ron! Striking details. Must change "benchmark" to avoid deep frustration.

Thanks for sharing.

Luca

Very nice Ron! As usual. But do you ever sleep? Are you on PST? If yes than it is 9 hrs. behind us (Italy) which makes it approx. 3 a.m.!

Ciao
Luca

Very nice 1st image Steve! Jupiter is so small now (I believe below 39") that makes this result even more remarkable. I would darken the background, if you have any chance, because it is a little greyish. I would try working on the histogram. This would also give more evidence to the satellite on the left.

Webcams are amazing, aren't they?

Ciao
Luca

Hey Johannes: this is really a great image! I also checked all the others on your website and I'm really excited to notice that you don't need a cooled CCD camera to obtain interesting results. Since that is what I'm trying to do, you set a difficult benchmark for me, but I'll give it a try.
I have posted my 1st experiment on M3 a few weeks ago: the picture was really mediocre, but I think not so bad for a first and considering my tentative equipment: short cables; no possibility to check the image for focus online on my pc (so I had to go by trial and error focusing manually); no guide (I naively tried one min. exposures unguided and you can imagine the problems). But I'll hang in there.

Thanks again for your very interesting website: I can get a lot of tips from there!

Ciao
Luca
PS My pictures of Jupiter have improved over the last few months (one of them received compliments even from Wei, the Jupiter specialist on this forum!), and you are one of the people I have to thank for this achievement. I still keep the short sample movie you sent to me and use it as a benchmark to judge my focus.