Posts Made By: Ralph Encarnacion

That's a great image vincent. Thanks for posting. I have that one on my list to shoot too.
Ralph

Here is another angle.
Ralph

Nice Shot! One of these days I will have me one of those big chip cameras.
Ralph

Looking Good Tyler!
Ralph

Your question is kind of confusing. Do you want to know if CCDsoft version 4 will work with XP, or if the ST-4 will work with XP. I don't know about the first question, but the ST-4 is stand alone and does't need a computer to work. I once tried to use the ST-4 with my laptop, but the serial connection was so slow, that I went back to using it stand alone.
Ralph

I like bringing my Nexstar 8 GPS running Nexremote on the laptop with the wireless game pad. When I do a goto, I put the object on the edge of the field of view and hand the wireless gamepad to the kids and they can center the object using the joy stick on the gamepad. They get a huge kick out of it since they are used to using a joystick from all their computer games. When they ask me what I am looking at, I hit a button on the wireless gamepad and the laptop starts talking and tells them exactly what they are looking at, that way I don't have to keep repeating myself. The Nexremote software makes you look like a rocket scientist!
Ralph

You can see more of my bat pictures here: http://www.pbase.com/panotaker/bats&page=all
Ralph

Hey Rob. Me and you have a lot of the same equipment. I also use an AP-130F/6 with a FS-60C as a guide scope. My camera is also an SXV-H9. Only place we differ is I use a G11/Gemini and an STV autoguider. I don't have any flexure at all. How do you have your guide scope mounted? I use all Losmandy stuff. You can see how I got mine setup here: http://www.pbase.com/panotaker/fs-60c

Personally I think H-Alpha imaging is the easiest way to start imaging. The processing is super easy. All I do is stack and stretch in Images Plus. LRGB is a different story. I need a lot of help there. Your picture looks a little fuzzy to me, like if you didn't nail the focus or something. It could be the flexure, or the stacking. I am sure you will figure it out. If I can do it, anybody can do it.

I shot the same object last year as you. I already had a few h-alpha shots before I shot it so I had a little bit more practice. You can see my version here: http://www.pbase.com/panotaker/image/45809316

If you need some help, let me know.

Ralph

Nice shot Luca. My BF-15 ia at Coronado right now. It is getting modified to a straight through instead of a diagonal. Hopefully I will have it back this week so I can get back to imaging.
Ralph

If it was me, I would save a little while longer and get an Atik ATK-16: http://www.astrovid.com/prod_details.php?pid=2713 That is a super sensitive camera that takes world class pictures. It is basically an SXV-H9 with a little bit smaller chip. Add an H-Alpha filter and you will be taking world class shots under the worst light pollution. Do a search for that camera and you will see what kind of pictures people are taking with it. It is twice the money that you want to spend, but ten times the camera. You wont take that big a hit either when you decide to sell it to get a bigger chip. Add a cheap APO refractor like an ED80 and an autoguider with a half way decent mount, and you wont run out of things to shoot for a long time. H-Alpha shots are easy to process too. Just stack and stretch. The nice thing about the Atik cameras or the Starlight Express cameras is that you don't have to waste time taking dark frames with them either. The camera is just about noise free. Add a filter wheel later for full color images. Atik makes a pretty nice manual filter wheel too for $200. About the only thing better than that camera is the bigger one. The ATK-16HR, which is the same chip as the SXV-H9.
Ralph