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Posts Made By: Stephen Fugardi

October 1, 2005 11:17 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 10/1/05, f25

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Folks, I tried to fine tune my focusing this morning and took shots around 4am for a change which allowed the scope to be at a more stable temperature having been set up 6 hours earlier. Its still an improvement from my last images, but a far cry from the professional images posted here. At this point, I believe I am still limited by collimation and processing techniques. Fortunately there are still 29 days left! Waking up at 3:30, imaging for 2 hrs then going back to sleep wasn't too bad. Whats the deal with avi frame 2319? Twice on different nights exactly the same frame 2319 couldn't open - maybe it was the file size allocation?

Best 1000 frames of 2318, 1/33sec
Regards,
Steve


October 1, 2005 11:23 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn 10/1/05, f10

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Minutes before shutting down my scope, I remembered Paul Maxson's recent excellent Saturn posts and slewed over for a quick peek. Having not seen it since April '04, the rings absolutely jumped out of the eyepiece. Anyway with it low in the sky, I didn't even bother taking out the barlow. Sure wish these planets were visible during normal hours... Here's my first Saturn of the season, best 800/1800 shots, 1/25sec

Regards,
Steve


October 28, 2005 05:49 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 10/27/05 4:30UT, f25, raw mode 1st time

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Folks, While Weds night was clear, seeing was poor according to the skyclock. As evident of only 200 decent frames being useable out of 1000. Within 1 hr of taking this avi the clouds rolled in. This is the first time I've have tried the Toucam easy raw mode. Focusing seemed more difficult but could have been from the poor seeing. I left the color settings on Auto since there was no way to tell the true color from the screen image in raw mode. 200sec, 5fps, 1/33 sec, 50% brightness, 100% sat, 0% gamma, 10% gain.

I converted the raw color avi using aviraw.exe as 1 total file, then processed it in Registax3. To get it into 3 RGB channels, only Registax2 was working for this so I stopped the 3-channel work. This definitely seems better than non-raw mode.

Please reply with any advice for improvements. This forum continues to post the best Mars shots anywhere, I seem to be checking it more often than my stocks these days...

Regards,
Steve

November 2, 2005 06:15 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 10/31/05, approx f4.8 afocal

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
In an attempt to capture the moons of Mars at approx 9:30PM EST on 10/30, I connected my Canon Powershot 4Meg digital camera afocally to my 8.8mm eyepiece using my C11. ASA set for 400, 1/100 sec, best 10 of 20 shots stacked in Registax. Once focused, I tried increasing exposure time to 30sec, 1min, 2min, etc and had no luck getting any of the moons to image. 9:30 should have been the time of max separation from Mars, within 45min it was over. While the 4Meg camera is more sensitive than the web cam, taking shots in rapid fire was slow due to data transfer to the computer after each one. Anyway, I've posted this for comparison. Keep in mind 10 shots vs 400+ isn't really fair. Image size is also small.

Regards,
Steve

November 2, 2005 06:19 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 10/31, f10

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Trying to ease into the Mars opposition, I stepped up to the normal f10 image with my toucam using my C11 and IR filter in raw mode. Comparing to the afocal, the equivalent magnification here should be around 656x. Best 400 shots of 1500 stacked in Registax. Seeing was very good, so image quality appears to be collimation limited.

Regards,
Steve

November 2, 2005 06:29 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 10/31, f25

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Finally, at approx 11:30 PM EST, Mars is almost overhead. Using a 2.5x powermate and IR filter, 400 shots were stacked from 1500. 5fps was used. While 10fps visually looked fine, my computer bogged down when I attempted to image at that speed, many dropped frames. My hard drive was a bit full. Focusing at approx 1640x was extremely difficult as evident in the final image quality.

Tonight I will attempt a re-collimation. I'm borrowing another 2x barlow and I will try to stack them in a effort to star collimate beyond where I intend to image. This could give enough margin to improve the situation. Visually looking at the eyepiece at 315x was awesome. However, using the 2.5x barlow showed no detail at all. Hopefully I can optimize this collimation as Mars fades. Switching to raw mode didn't seem to do much except fill up my hard drive with tons more files...

Regards,
Steve

December 23, 2005 02:05 PM Forum: Home Observatories

Web Collimation Using Artificial Star

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Folks, I just finished collimating my observatory mounted C11 using a bright LED flashlight and nominal 150um pinhole approx 100feet away. While people claim they collimate during the day, I tried this last weekend without success. Prior to this session, I removed the plastic washer under the 10:30 collimation screw attempting to "pull" the donut in tighter to this area to improve the symmetry. This did seem to help somewhat, or at least it allowed the 6:00 & 1:30 knobs to finally be tighter. I initially adjusted the collimation using the eyepiece then switched to the web cam going from f10 to f25, then f45. Finally I came back to f25 to recheck. While I was able to image a slight airy pattern at f45, I may need to revisit this fine tuning since I couldn't resist the urge to slightly tweak on the recheck. f45 (2.5x stacked with a 2.0x barlow) was very unstable even for an artificial star. While last night was cloudy I did not expect this level of turbulence. Unfortuneately with a cloudy sky I couldn't actually prove my success on a real planet.

My collimation adventures continue...
Regards,
Steve

December 29, 2005 03:14 PM Forum: Home Observatories

Web Cam Collimation Using 50um Artificial Star

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Folks, Under non-ideal conditions, gusting wind and muddy ground due to temps >32F, I was still able to make some collimation improvements with my C11 last night. Going from a 150 to 50um pinhole required slower exposure times/more gain but the tweaking sensitivity seemed better. By using the dew shield I was able to eliminate any heat from the inside computers and power boxes from interferring, however, this required going outside the dome and reaching in to tweak the knobs. My previous attempts at collimating were mostly "inside" focus trying to center the "donuts". This time I concentrated on "outside" focus which allowed the center dot/diffraction rings more accurate feedback in my adjustments. 20sec avis were taken at f25 outside focus and f45 at focus (see attached). The best airy patterns both visually and taken by the web cam were observed. The slight "elliptical" shape (astigmatism) was likely due to the "sagging" dew shield which I noticed too late. Hopefully I can verify these improvements on some "real" objects soon...

Regards,
Steve

January 28, 2006 09:02 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn at Opposition f25

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
With 3/5 seeing and transparency, I was able to capture my best Saturn so far with a C11/2.5x/Toucam. There is a hint of the white storm just under the brown band and between the grains. My collimation is getting better but I could really use some above average seeing which seems near impossible here in CT lately. I reconfigured the webcam back to the factory settings after getting frustrated converting raw files with marginal results

Regards,
Steve

January 28, 2006 09:09 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn at f10 Opposition with 5 Moons

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
At f10, I took 2 webcam shots and stacked them in photoshop after subtracting the over exposed Saturn. The normal shot was 1/33 sec with very little gain. The moon shot was at 1/25 with 66% gain. Moons from left to right are Titan, Rhea, Dione, Encladus, and Tethys. That white storm is also slightly visible under the brown band. After failing to image any Mars' moons, this felt like a small victory...

Regards,
Steve

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