Posts Made By: Chad Cord

I am considering the purchase of a 1.25" paracorr for a 10" dob f5.6. Does anyone have experience with a paracorr in an f5.6? Also, are the TV paracorr's compatible with other brands (e.g. Pentax) of eyepieces? What about barlows?

Thanks for input.

What is the story with the powermate? Is it that much better than a barlow? I am specifically wondering about the 2.5x powermate. Thanks for any input.

I have attached a image I took holding a vidocamera (Canon ZR20 to a 12mm eyepiece w/ 2x barlow. The telescope is a 10" DOB ORION DSE, tracking was done via elbow grease. I recorded about minute and one half of footage and took ten decent frames and stacked in Registax. I then did some random manipulations in Photoshop (I have no idea how to use that program, so I experiment and read the postings). I am imaging from Scottsdale, AZ (adjacent to Phx) under moderate light pollution and seeing was varying from bad to good as a storm was just breaking. Moments of excellent seeing. Holding the videocamera creates wild variations in the focus of the image. It becomes a bit of a crapshoot I am finding out. It really becomes apparent when I review the individual frames. This picture was from 12-19 and was my fourth night out.

A little rough I know, and I would welcome any tips to improve upon this image.

P.S. does anyone have suggestions for obtaining better detail on Jupiter. I find Jupiter much more difficult to film then Saturn. Thank you guys for turning me on to the option of filming planets using a videocamera, I really am enjoying the different aspects involved in getting an image from from photon to PC.

Thank you for sharing!

Chad

Does anyone know a method to "batch" process levels in photoshop? i.e. Can you take a bunch of individual frames and run them through the process of setting the black point and adjusting the levels without having to do it for each one individually?

Chad

I have found the Nexstar plossls to be an outstanding value. I have seen them for around $25 used. 25mm gives very good views. I have not tried the others.

Chad

Both images are outstanding. The colors in the one on the left seem crisper, less washed out. I vote for the one on the left. Way cool!

Chad