Posts Made By: Aaron Tornow

I have made my first serious attempts to do imaging and am in need of some suggestions on processing.

I am using a polar mounted f/15 Meade ETX-125 EC with a SAC Imaging SAC7 webcam. I know, you're all going to laugh and tell me to switch to a dob or something else with greater aperture, but that's the equipment I have and an upgrade is not forseen in the near future.

Here is an image of Jupiter that I took on May 20th. The seeing wasn't the best (maybe a 6, if I understand the system correctly) as the moon was very full and in close proximity to Jupiter, and it was pretty humid and hazy. I was imaging with the webcam at 20fps with a 1/40 sec shutter speed through a moon filter to cut down on the brightness. The 500 frame .avi was aligned and optimized through Registax 3.0 followed by some curve and leveling modifications in Photoshop 7.0. The processed Jupiter was inserted into a single-frame over-exposed image of the planet in order to get the dimmer moons into the picture, which is why they look so fuzzy. There is also a slight gradient originating from the bottom left of the picture, but I am not confident enough in my skills to try removing it yet.

I just finished Ron Wodaski's CCD Imaging book which I purchased after sitting through his presentation at NEAF, and was eager to try out some of the techniques he showed. In looking at the picture, I think I am overprocessing the planet itself a little too much. Can you guys make some suggestions on what I should do differently?

I am looking for some recommendations as to purchasing a 2.5x or higher barlow. I am curently observing/imaging using a Meade ETX-125 EC which limits me to a 1.25" barrel. I already have a Meade 2x telenegative barlow, and while the optics in it might not be the greatest, it will suffice for now. I'm looking at purchasing a good quality 2.5x or 3x barlow that will give me better magnification than what I can get with the Meade while still leaving some clarity of detail and not leaving a smoking hole in my pocketbook.

In trying to keep the expense below $120, I've been looking at the Televue 3x barlow (Part #BLW-3125 on Anacortes) or the Scopetronix 3X (Part #BAR3).

1. Are there other products that I should be looking for?

2. Will my optics be able to handle this level of magnigfication?

3. Should I try to go with a higher magnification?

Thanks,
Aaron Tornow

While I am not exactly a beginner, there is something I (and others I am sure) would like to know:

What is it that all of you do that you are able to afford the amount of equipment you have?

I admit that my wife and I make enough to live fairly comfortably for the cost-of-living in my area (we're not wanting, anyway) but I just don't understand how you guys can afford to purchase some of the collections of equipment I've seen posted here. Although I am sure a lot of you obtain equipment through trades and purchases in the Astromart Classifieds, that still doesn't explain some of the collections that are out there.

I've seen used equipment such as larger Discovery and Starmaster dobs with Zambuto mirrors going for close to $10K, RCOS OTAs for multiple $10ks, and forget about decent astrophotography CCDs.

I couldn't even fathom the idea of having an EP collection like Floyd or having a Takahashi or Astrophysics setup with more than one OTA. I'd love to upgrade from my 5" mak-cass setup, but my wallet and bank account cringes every time I buy a used mid-level EP.

How do/did you guys do it? How can you afford to make that kind of investment?

I'm in the market for a beginner 10" tube dob and since the Discovery split-tube is out of my price range, I was looking at the Orion XT and the Hardin. Are there any cons that I should look for in these choices? Are the optics of comparable quality? Would I be happier with one over the other?

Any thoughts or information would be helpful.

Gents (and Ladies),

I have been processing some of my webcam images and have run into a problem after stacking. The attached image consists of a stack of 109 AVI frames from a 740 frame file that were taken through a C8 using a Logitech 4000 webcam and K3CCD tools then stacked in Registax v4.

Disregarding the fact that the planet is out of focus, the problem I am having are the diagonal bands from top left to bottom right that I keep getting across the image. I initially thought that it might be an issue with the Bayer matrix so I attempted to use Registax's debayering options and none of the four combinations (GR, BG, RG, GB) have removed the banding. When I magnify the image so the pixels can be clearly seen it looks as though the bands occur every six pixels rather than every four that I would expect with a debayering issue.

I have used the raw AVI by itself as well as with combinations of flats and darks to try to remove the banding but have been unable to make any headway. What is it that I am seeing here and how do I remove it?

Aaron

Check out the "How do I read it?" section on the Clear Sky Clock page for my area:

http://cleardarksky.com/c/WawaNJkey.html?1

It has a brief synopsis of each facet of conditions as well as links to more detailed explanations.