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Posts Made By: Rod Mollise

March 15, 2008 01:36 PM Forum: DVDs and Music and Books That You Recommend

ummmm

Posted By Rod Mollise
Mike Clemens said:

Amy Winehouse is kind of awesome on this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KnBVJfXHx8

Amy who? Your Old Uncle Rod still thinks _The Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East_ is a "recent album."

8)

March 17, 2008 10:54 PM Forum: ASTRONOMY

David H. Levy (born 1948) a Canadian astronomer

Posted By Rod Mollise
Paul Neesam said:

Anyone know Davids email address or know what scopes he uses in his garage? I just saw a Discovery Channel special with him on it. Would love to know what product he uses. Icluding the software he uses to track astroids.

Thanks
Paul Neesam

David, as you've been told, uses Earth Centered Universe. It's a nice program, similar to Megastar. Hardly cutting edge, but very capable and reasonably priced. I like it too.

Scopes? In addition to several dobs (mostly) he's used for years, David has some pretty serious Meade guns at his disposal now.

8)

March 17, 2008 10:56 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Compact Lightweight 18" Scopes

Posted By Rod Mollise
Rod Kaufman said:

While it appears Obsession has the market with their new ultracompact scope, it appears to have compromises like any other scope. While I think the strengths of the 18" ultracompact appear to significantly negate its weaknesses, here's what I would be concerned about:

While neither my temperament nor my vehicles are conducive to big dobs (I do use a 12.5-inch truss tube job), suffice to say that Dave Kriege's new 18-inch is almost enough to turn _my_ head.

wink

March 17, 2008 10:58 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Pondering a change....

Posted By Rod Mollise
Paul Maxson said:

Hi all,

I'm pondering if moving to a C14 would be a significant upgrade from my Mewlon 250 for planetary imaging, any thoughts?

Paul

Yes. As I've said before, more aperture is a big help in planetary imaging if, for no other reason, than that it allows shorter exposures/higher frame rates at large image scales.

8)

March 17, 2008 11:00 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Video Eyepeice possibilities

Posted By Rod Mollise
Alex McConahay said:

Lately, I've been bringing a video eyepiece and a small b&w monitor to use at outreaches.

I have a five year old or so Meade Video eyepeice hooked to a 200mm Zuiko lens. It works fine, but is relatively low resolution.

What is the newest in the way of video eyepieces? What are the possibilties for putting the image of the moon on a big screen.

It is really good for pointing out features and telling people what to look for when they get to the nice scopes.....but I would like to get better pictures on the screen than that old eyepiece will do.

ALex

Know what you mean. While I've got the deep sky pretty well covered for public outreach with my Stellacam II, I reckon it's about time to upgrade my PC23C for planetary work.

What do y'all recommend on the cheap?

8)

March 19, 2008 01:09 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

xlt coatings

Posted By Rod Mollise
victor truglio said:

hey guys
how much difference is there in a celestron c8 with
starbright coatings and one with starbright xlt coatings.

The difference is detectable visually. Also, always buying the top coatings is important if the scope ever needs to be sold. Ask the folks who scrimped on Starbright back in the 80s...

8)

March 22, 2008 02:39 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Image sampling confusion

Posted By Rod Mollise
David Doctor said:

Hi group,
Is there a consensus regarding optimal image sampling for planets? I've seen generalities made such as: f/35-40 or whatever is best, but if I make the same calculation I do for deep sky ccd i.e. 205*pixel size/f.l., which for my 10 f/7 newt is around 5000+mm with a 3x barlow and 8000+mm with a 5x, my final arc sec/ pixel (using skynyx 2-0) is 0.2-0.3!! I seriously doubt I would EVER have seeing good enough for that here in the Northeast. Perhaps I should move? smile
Thanks,
Dave

That wouldn't hurt. wink

However, even if your seeing ain't good, Registax can help. You want small pixels and you want long focal length, for starters, so there is something for Registax to work with. Get the image scale up and the pixel size down. Oversampling be damned.

Then you want many frames. Almost anywhere, seeing settles down at least occasionally, so take plenty of frames so you can catch these good periods. Take long sequences if your seeing ain't good. 1000 frames is where you START.

The only place where that becomes a problem is Jupiter. It rotates so fast that you need to limit your .avi sequences to about 90 seconds. If the seeing ain't what it oughta be, that means a camera capable of delivering a high frame rate, not a webcam. Yes, you can kick up a webcam's frame rate, but at above 5fps they introduce compression to the images, which will not help.

8)

March 22, 2008 02:41 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn March 20, 2008

Posted By Rod Mollise
Paul Maxson said:

Hi all,

An image of Saturn from a couple of nights ago. I'm trying to shoot for more plate scale so I used the Televue 3x instead of the 2x. Except for the ring on the fringe of the planet, not too bad I think.

http://www.sunspot51.com/Saturn/Saturn031908-LRGB.jpg

Paul

"Not too bad"?! I'd say _derned good_. Have you tried kicking up your gain a bit to get rid of the "onion skin" effect?


March 22, 2008 09:20 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

usb cable for Celestron Nexstar 6 SE

Posted By Rod Mollise
Hernando Bautista said:

Hi all, my Celestron Nexstar 6 SE does not have the RS-232 cable to connect my computer/laptop to the telescope; I have to buy Celestron's RS-232 cable then another RS-232 to usb cable both amounting to total of $53.05 (at Amazon). Does anyone know of a direct Nexstar to usb cable? The Nexstar end seems to be a standard phone plug. Thanks!

Nope. The NexStar needs RS-232 serial data, so if your laptop doesn't have a serial port you will need either a USB - Serial converter cable or a serial PCMCIA card. It would be nice if Celestron and Meade produced usb -serial converters and cables in one cord, but they don't.

8)

March 23, 2008 11:50 PM Forum: Reflectors

Spiderless Reflector

Posted By Rod Mollise
Oren Soffer said:


I have an old Celestron 10" f1.5 Camera that has no primary but it does have the front 10" round (optical flat?) glass window. Is that glass considered to be flat enough so I can glue a seconday in the middle and add a good 10" f/4 mirror and a focuser and have a reflector with no spider of a good quality? I know those cameras were made for low power imaging, so will it take high power ok with that glass in the way?

Thanks, oren.

What the--?!

What you have is a Schmidt Camera. That's not a flat piece of glass, that's a lens.

wink

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