Posts Made By: Mike Ashburn

This shot of mars was taken using my 6 inch f8 (ATM) Dobsonian and Sony TRV17E digital handicam, eye peice projection through 9 mm plossle and 2 x Barlow. I just hand held the camera at the eyepiece and by tilting the camera I can get about 250 frames as the planet moves across the field of view.

Camera settings were:
AE = sunset/moon
auto shutter off
optical zoom about 7x
exposure about 70 %

best 176 frames out of 296, processed in Registax supersampled 1.5x, further processing in Gimp using Panorama tools 'correct' add-in to remove blue/red fringeing and slight unsharp mask to improve the final image.

Sequence taken 2003/7/29 12:41 (UT) CM 62.81 dia 21.88 arcsec , Mars was at Alt 42.5 degrees at my location.

I am new to this so any feedback on the image much appreciated. Also interested to hear of any others success with this technique particularly with regard to camera settings.

Many thanks

I got the first clear sky in 10 days,

Sony handicam / 6" f8 Dob. handheld afocal

9 mm plossl (no barlow) camera on 10x optical zoom and 2x digital zoom for effective 360x288 effective pixels and 20x magnification. Camera in slow shutter mode (setting 1 = 25 fps, seems to be progressive scan mode rather than normal interlaced which I believe is 50 fps interlaced to 25 fps). Manual exposure adjusted for maximum contrast.

Best 97 out of 172 frames Registax 2.0, unsharp mask and contrast adjust in Gimp.

Mars at alt 62.3 degrees, I am at Lat 38.1 South, CM 59.94, Dia 24.68 arcsec. Seeing 5/10.

Best image yet and more to process with different camera and scope configurations.

This is great fun!

Mike Ashburn

I have been very unfortunate with the weather but the sky cleared briefly on 29th and I spent 2 hours collecting video. This is the result of processing what appeared to be the best clip.

6 inch f8 Dobsonian with handheld Sony handycam into 9 mm plossl eyepiece. No Barlow of any sort but using the cameras 2 x digital and about 7 x optical zoom for magnification. Camera on slow shutter '1' setting (25 frames per sec) and exposure adjusted for good contrast.

Because I tilt the camera to follow Mars as it crosses the field of view there is some chromatic aberation at the start and finish of the clip. I discarded the first and last 25 % and then manualy selected the best frames to end up with 237 frames out of close to 1000 original frames.

Processed in Registax and stacked best 124 of these. unsharp mask / blur in Gimp.

Video taken at 2003-08-29 12:49 UT, CM 148.01 Dia 25.06 arcsec Mars at Alt 67.1 deg. Seeing 6 - 7 /10.

The plan is to build an equatorial platform for tracking and fix the camera to the scope. Trying to hold the camera steady at the eypiece is not easy!

Thanks for looking

Mike Ashburn

Ive been trying out the luminance processing option in Registax and produced this image from video taken on 30 August.

This one is allignment on R with RRGB processing all in registax. 113/237 frames.

6" F8 Dobsonian / 9mm Plossl /Sony Handicam 10x optical and 2x digital zoom. Seeing 6-7 /10 and good transparency.

2003-08-30 12:49 UT, CM 139.18

This is my best yet.

First day of clear sky in about two weeks and its Friday so out I go.

Seeing 6+/10 and transparency good, very still air.

6 inch F8 Dob with 9 mm plossl , 2x barlow with afocal Sony handycam at about 7x optical zoom.

Mars at 61.2 degrees 2003-9-19-12:09 CM 311.56

AVI processed in registax. allignment on R channel. Best 152/314 and RRGB on the wavelet page. Only slight colour adjustment after registax. I tried an unsharp mask but it made the image look worse.

Thanks for looking

Mike Ashburn

Hello to you all.

Here is my first attempt at Saturn. Seeing was quite good at 5 + but Saturn low in the sky at 27 degrees. In fact the view at the eyepice was probably the best I have ever seen. I struggled all night with focus though and I think this shows in the image. There is as not as much of the Cassini division visible as I would have expected.

Six inch f8 Dobsonian 10 mm Plossl and 2x Barlow. with handheld afocal Sony Digital Handycam. Best 85/376 processed in Registax2 and post processing using Gimp (unsharp and curves). Image reduced by .75 from original.

I also pre-processed the video in Virtualdub using chroma noise reduction and spatial noise reduction. Chroma noise reduction significantly reduces stray colour noise which apparently originates on the magnetic tape as part of the recording process.

Best wishes Mike Ashburn

Here is my second attempt at Saturn and a definate improvement over my post a week or so ago.

We had good conditions last night, seeing 7/10 but with some intermitent low cloud.

Six inch F8 Dobsonian, 32 mm Plossl in combination with 2 x Barlow and extension tube to increase it to 3.25x. Hand held afocal Sony handycam at about 7 x opical zoom, 1/25 sec. Best 276/700 frames processed in registax and Gimp.

Any comments for improvement most welcome

Thanks for looking

Mike Ashburn (Kawerau, New Zealand)

Hello all

This shot of Venus taken at 5:22 pm local time (UT 2004-04-16 05:22) with the sun still above the horizon. Venus at just 20 degrees so a lot of atmospheric distortion. Seeing also very poor. 120/267 frames processed in registax 2 (including colour chanel correction) Slight curves and saturation adjustment in Gimp. I was surprised how well it came out.

Afocal Sony handycam with 2x barlow and extension tube for 3.25 x and 32 mm plossl eyepiece. . 6" F8 Dodsonian. 1/100 sec exposure . Camera optical zoom at 10 x. Image reduced by 50 %

Mike Ashburn

Uranus taken a few nights ago with a Sony handicam / 10 inch Newtonian. I have tried to bring out detail but can't convince myself its anything other than noise since the gain was almost maximum and its only 106 frames. Nice to see lots of great Uranus posts recently.

Mike

This is my first attempt at solar imaging. Actually first time Ive visually observed too.

Image is AR707 on 28 November 0324 UT. Taken with 25 cm Newtonian stopped down to 9 cm with Baader Astrosolar filter (visual) and with my Sony handycam / 32mm Plossl and 2 x barlow. Gain = 3dB (18 is max) 50 fps @ 1/215 exposure. 42 frames stacked in Registax and some unsharp mask in Gimp. I am not sure the stacking achieves much as some of the individual frames were almost as good as this final image. Seeing about 2-3 arcseconds.

Mike