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Posts Made By: Dan Petersen

January 30, 2009 01:10 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn from Chiefland, FL

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi, here is a shot taken January 22nd, 9:14UT. Meade 10" SCT at F/44, Philips SPC900NC webcam. Saturn was at an altitude of 65.5 degrees. The moon Rhea and its shadow are visible. Cheers, Dan

February 15, 2009 03:09 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi, here is a new composite that I just finished, it's from my January 22nd file. This shot was taken 15 minutes after my earlier posting. Rhea's shadow is now quite a ways in from Saturn's limb. I used IRIS for much of the post processing, there is some detail, depth, color and contrast in this one. I pushed it a little to much though, maybe next time out I'll have better seeing so I won't have to process as much. I'll give Photoshop (CS4) a try one of these days. grin cheers, Dan

June 14, 2009 09:06 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars on the meridian (6/14/09)

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi all:

Mars is currently very faint and small, but I didn't let that stop me from trying to capture it. Late this morning (4.5 hours past sunrise) with the Red Planet right on the meridian and with an H-alpha filter attached to my webcam I started shooting the Martian home world. From here on out my images of the fourth rock from the sun should improve on an exponential curve, I hope. The contrast levels between Mars (Mag: 1.1) and the bright morning sky were extremely low, that's why the sky is not black in this 750 frame composite. Syrtis Major is visible close to Mar's CM. I'll be in Chiefland, Florida to image its January 29th Opposition, that trip should produce some very sharp and colorful composites.

Steady skies, Dan grin

January 23, 2010 02:16 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

PM list no longer updates?

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi guys:

The red flag has been up on my AstroMart mailbox for months, everytime I click on this red letter message there is nothing new to read. Is anyone else having this problem or is it just because Mars is in my sign? grin

Take it easy, Dan

February 5, 2010 01:33 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

F6.3 focal reducer?

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi All:

I have some questions, just what exactly are these reducers doing to the SCT's wavefront and lightpath? Do they add chromatic aberration or reduce it? Do they slightly overcorrect or undercorrect the optics? Is their primary purpose to reduce spherical aberration, similar to the HST's corrective surgury? I have a 12" LX200 with undercorrected optics and way too much chromatic aberration, Damian Peach had this same problem with his 12" LX200, but to a lesser degree. What I'm really asking is will one of these reducers improve the view or make it even worse?

Thanks, clear skies! Dan grin

March 8, 2010 09:07 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 3-7-10

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi Guys:

Here is the Martian home world recorded Saturday evening through 7/10 seeing conditions, using my 10" SCT and an SPC900NC webcam. I applied the eyepiece projection method for the first time and prefer it over the barlow system. Friday night produced 8/10 seeing, I spent that evening just observing, the views of Mars were sharp even at 1,000 power, really!

cheers, Dan 8)

April 15, 2011 11:37 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

PLATO (12" LX200) f/36

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi all:

It seems like I have not posted here in years. Seeing was good Tuesday evening. This is a first light image with my new scope, well not really new, it is a six year old Meade 12" LX200 GPS/SMT UHTC with Peterson mods. The corrector plate may be off plane a hair and I think the primary mirror is being pinched in its mount, I'll fix both of these small problems next week. The optics are very good and tracking is silk smooth!

This image was captured on April 13th at 1:54UT, using "EP Projection" and a 12.5mm Orion Highlight PL eyepiece that produced a magnification of f/36 or 11,000mm. Plato filled almost the entire 1/4" CCD chip. Philips SPC900NC webcam; 15fps for 1.2 minutes, shutter speed 1/50th. Best 350 out of 1,060 frames stacked in Registax 5, single point process. Microsoft Digital Image for post processing. It's a color image with no attached filters other than a Baader UV/IR cut.

Clear skies, Dan grin

April 18, 2011 06:16 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn March 31st

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi all:

Here is a first light Saturn image taken with my new 12" LX200 GPS scope. I have not yet properly collimated its optics, or this image would be many times sharper, but who cares it shows the NED storm and I like that. F/36, fl= 11,000mm. SPC900NC webcam (YUY2 codec), 15fps, exp.= 1/15th sec, no filters were used. 6m 40s video. Best 4,600 frames out of 6,000 were stacked in Rv5.

Clear skies, Dan grin

January 23, 2012 07:26 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Jupiter 1-9

Posted By Dan Petersen
HI! Here is Jupiter using my 12" LX200 and an SPC900NC camera (700) frames in Rv5, Baader UV/IR cut filter. F25.0. 100% image scale. Cheers, Dan

February 14, 2012 06:26 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Jupiter (GRS) 2-10-12

Posted By Dan Petersen
Hi, I captured Jupiter using my 12" LX200 (f/32.0) and a Philips SPC900NC webcam (10fps for 2 minutes), I also used a Baader UV/IR cut filter. Best 640 out of 1200 frames. Processed in Rv5, post processed using IRIS. I hope you like it. Cheers, Dan

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