Posts Made By: Steven Murphy

I plugged my new Philips Vesta webcam into my ETX90EC on Sunday night (skies unexpectedly cleared off) and got the following image of Jupter. This was my first attempt at imaging with the camera and was surprised how easy it was to get Jupiter's image on the CCD chip (Beginner's luck, I'm sure).

The steps I used:
1) Used 2x Barlow and film canister adapter on webcam
2) Acquired the image using K3CCDTools
3) Aligned and stacked 100 images using Registax
4) Brightened with Gimp

I was surprised by the image. I had difficulty focusing (moon was gone, so had to focus looking at the image on the computer screen). I am looking forward to learning more and I hope the images will improve.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

The clouds have finally cleared in North Carolina enough to get my telescopes back out. I got my first images of Mars the other night. It is amazing how much the ice cap has receded since July. Solis Lacus is visible in the picture in the upper right quadrant of the planet.

The telescope/camera setup is as follows:

Telescope: Meade ETX 90EC
Camera: Vesta Pro
Barlow: Yes (2x)
Time: 01:20am
Date: 08/19/03
Seeing/Tranparency: 7 out of 10 for Seeing and 5 out of 10 for transparency
Used Registax to align and stack 90 frames. Slight gamma correction to darken the background.

I hope you like it. Suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

I had a chance to get out and photograph Mars last night. It was supposed to be a clear night, but the clouds did not clear until 11:30. This was my second attempt and I think it is the best so far. There is some nice detail in this shot that was not present in the picture I posted last week.

The telescope/camera setup is as follows:

Telescope: Meade ETX 90EC
Camera: Vesta Pro
Software to record: K3CCDTools
Gain Setting: 25%
Barlow: Yes (2x)
Time: 12:45am
Date: 08/25/03
Seeing/Tranparency: 7 out of 10 for Seeing and 4 out of 10 for transparency
Used Registax to align and stack 320 frames. No gamma correction required post processing, since I adjusted to achieve darker background while recording the avi (hence the lack of red color).

Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

Seeing on the morning of August 27th was warm and very humid. I was soaked ten minutes after setting up outside and the day's high temperatures (95 F) made for poor seeing due to the cooling taking place. Focusing was difficult with the unsteady air, but I have found using the brigtness indicator with K3CCDTools to be a reliable focusing method.

Despite the poor conditions, I am pleased with the pictures I obtained this morning. The telescope/camera setup is as follows:

Telescope: Meade ETX 90EC
Camera: Vesta Pro
Barlow: Yes (2x)
Time: 12:45am
Date: 08/27/03
Seeing/Tranparency: 4 out of 10 for Seeing and 5 out of 10 for transparency
Used Registax to align and stack 120 out of 300 selected frames.

I hope you like it. Suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Around 7:00 pm tonight, I went out to pick my daughter up from basketball practice and was greeted by a very bright red Auroral display to the North (below Casseopia). I know people along the border states of the U.S. probably do not get very excited, but in North Carolina they are not at all common.

After picking my daughter up, we headed for Falls Lake (about 2 miles from my house) to get a better view (fewer city lights). They were so bright, you could see the reflection of the lights in the lake. They extended about 30 degrees horizontally across the sky and about 25 degrees from the horizon upward. Mostly red with hints of green along the bottom and top. You could see streaks of color on the outer edges.

After I returned home, I got my wife outside to see the faint red glow that remains in the sky. My eight year old girl and 5 year old son were interested, but nearly as impressed as I was at the sight. Perhaps in a few more years they will appreciate the beauty of the event.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

Last night, I was finally able to get out with my Meade ETX90EC telescope and photograph Saturn. The weather has been horrible for the past couple of months and last night was the first clear night in a couple of weeks.

I used a Philips Vesta Pro webcam and no barlow. The seeing was very steady, so I got a lot of good frames to stack. This picture is composed of 350 frames, stacked using Registax 2. I think it turned out really well for a first effort and for such a small aperature scope.

Enjoy !!

Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

Tonight I had more time to set up the telescope (ETX 90EC) to image Saturn. I was able to get pictures with and without a 2X Barlow. I was surprised how good the Barlowed view of Saturn turned out (considering the small aperature of the scope). Slight banding is evident in the picture.

I am posting the Barlowed picture. It is made up of 250 (out of 500) frames, aligned and stacked with Registax. Seeing was not real good when I was taking the pictures, so focusing was difficult. I used a Philips Vesta Pro camera.

Enjoy!!
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

Here's quick, unprocessed frame of the Venus transit. I took this picture at Emerald Isle, North Carolina this morning. Conditions started off very cloudy, but the sky cleared right as the sun became fully visible on the horizon. There was one brief period (five minutes)when the clouds covered the sun, but the rest of the time the skies were great.

Equipment:
Meade ETX 90EC
Philips Vesta Pro with Steve Mogg adapter and 0.6 Field Flattener (arrived yesterday)
Baader Solar Filter

Enjoy and clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

Michael,

I highly recommend SkyTools software for session planning. It also has logging capabilities as well as the planning functions. I have used it for the past three years and would not think of using anything other program. I used Deepsky for a while and while it is a nice program, I find SkyTools offers better charting than Deepsky and the finder charts are perfect for star-hopping.

If you have any more questions about Skytools, you should check out the Skytools Yahoo Discussion Group. The author of the program is very active on the site and he is very willing to answer your questions.

I hope this helps.

Clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC

David,

Sorry to hear you are having problems with the Megastar 5.0 trial. I downloaded it and tried it out for 30 days and did not have any problems.

I have been using Cartes du Ceil for almost two years now and can highly recommend it for charting. I tried the Megastar demo with an intention to upgrade if it seemed to be better, but in the end I decided to stay with CdC. One word of advice is to use CdC for a while before fully judging it. There are a number of features you have to get used to and and tweak to get the display the way you want it. In the end, I think you will enjoy it. I have not tried CdC's scope control, but I do know it is available.

By the way, if you are interested in observing planning software combined with a good atlas, I highly recommend Skytools v2. I have used DeepSky in the past and found Skytools to be much better at generating observing charts and it's sky atlas was much better. Telescope control is starting beta testing and will be added later in the year by the program author.

Hope this helps and clear skies,
Steve Murphy
Raleigh, NC