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Posts Made By: Tim Taylor

January 16, 2005 08:53 AM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

8

Posted By Tim Taylor
Hi all

For the same money, I can get the 8" Tal 200K Klevzov-Cassegrain or the Orion 100ED 4" apo both on driven equatorial mounts. As a total newbie I've been muddled by the arguments over which sort of telescope is best. Bearing in mind that I can only afford one telescope, I'm likely to observe mainly from the back garden in a small town and that I'm interested in photography, I'd be grateful for any comments you might have. As an example, I'd love to see a large bright image of Saturn that I could magnify up to fill a significant part of the field of view - perhaps I'd need the Hubble for that?!

Thanks

Tim

January 19, 2005 07:13 PM Forum: Refractors

When is bigger better?

Posted By Tim Taylor
Hi

As a newbie with an interest in photography looking for a first scope, I'm most inclined to get a refractor. My budget will hopefully stretch to cover something like the Skyview Pro 100ED on its driven mount or the smaller Borg 77ED on its own lightweight non driven mount. Again for the same sort of price I could get a second hand Meade 6" Achromatic refractor on the LXD55 GOTO mount. They're about the same price here in the UK. I suspect I'd be disappointed with the image quality in an achromatic refractor and portability could be an issue. All advice gratefully accepted.

Tim :S

January 24, 2005 05:29 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Understanding viewing conditions

Posted By Tim Taylor
A very basic question... Can anyone tell me how you define/judge viewing parameters like seeing and transparency? I'd also appreciate advice on a good book so that I don't have to ask such basic questions - LOL.

Thanks!

Tim :S

January 29, 2005 10:21 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

First views ever!

Posted By Tim Taylor
Hi all

Got my Orion 100ED (first ever telescope) Friday and had my first view of Saturn ever, shared with all the family, tonight through gaps in our beautiful English clouds! Thanks to everyone for their advice and the inspiration from all those pics you post.

Clear skies to all.

Tim

May 23, 2005 09:23 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Jupiter - first pictures

Posted By Tim Taylor
Hi all

I'd be grateful for any advice to get me a little further along the road to getting good pictures through my Orion 100ED refractor. The attached picture was taken through a 2x Televue Barlow with a Toucam Pro on a pretty humid night last night in my back garden. The moon had halos around it and looking at this picture, it too seems to have halos and is very unclear around the edges. I had the gain set at zero on the camera settings panel in K3CCD tools and took about 300 frames at 5FPS and stacked about 200 of them. I didn't seem to be able to make much difference when trying some post processing in Photoshop CS.

My own thoughts are that:

1. I need a higher magnification Barlow to get more real info from the picture.
2. I may need some sort of filter to reduce the halos.
3. I could really use some advice on setting up the camera to best advantage and on using the tools I have to process the frames.

All comments most welcome.

Thanks

Tim

May 28, 2005 07:14 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Advice on imaging faint objects please

Posted By Tim Taylor
Hi

I seem to be gradually getting the idea with planetary imaging - thanks for recent advice on this! I'm wondering if I can use my unmodified Toucam Pro to catch faint deep space objects. The guiding on my mount is not accurate enough at present to retain the on screen image seen through a 2x Barlow for more than a couple of minutes so long exposures are out. Using Registax 3 I've noticed a slight boost to planetary avi's. Would this or any other software be effective in adding stacks of short exposure Toucam images?

The other approach I wondered about was using software to 'lock on' to the chosen image on screen to give a longer exposure time.

I expect my question displays my ignorance pretty well! All help/ideas welcome.

Thanks

Tim

May 31, 2005 12:13 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

First reasonable Jupiter image

Posted By Tim Taylor
I think I'm slowly getting the idea of how to point the telescope in the right direction and get an image but at the current rate of progress I'll be 150 before I can post anything to rival what I've seen on this forum!

This was taken with my ED100 and a ToUcam Pro and stacked with Registax before doing some adjustment in PhotoshopCS. The image seems a little red to me and I don't seem to have got as much detail as Paul gets with his ED100. I don't really know how to quantify 'seeing' but I've never yet had an image on my laptop screen that didn't wobble and change shape a little. Perhaps in England, the home of the raincloud, this is the best I can hope for...

Tim

June 13, 2005 06:27 AM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Moon phase in hours

Posted By Tim Taylor
Hi
Does anyone know of a handy resource for calculating the moon phase/age in hours for any particular date and time?
Thanks
Tim

June 15, 2005 06:52 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Re: A not so boring side...

Posted By Tim Taylor
Just stunning!

June 22, 2005 05:37 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

What's the best I can do with...?

Posted By Tim Taylor
Something I find myself wondering frequently as I struggle to progress in this difficult and rewarding hobby is how much can I expect to do with the equipment I have? If I was to get a particular telescope/mount/bit of software what could I expect to see/do then? I occasionally see posts from people with similar kit to me and I look to see if my images or viewing experienmce has been similar. Do other people share my feeling that it would be great to be able to visit a gallery or site where the best experiences people have had are shared and catalogued by the kit used? I'd love to share people's sudden leaps in acheivement where perhaps they've just added a filter and been able to resolve a huge amount more detail in a nebula or to see the difference in acheivable image quality between different APOs to see what I might get for my money by changing scopes. One way or another, all that experience is here on astromart but it's hard to use in the way I describe.

What do people think?

Tim

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