Posts Made By: Eric Todd

Attached is a first run composite of Archimedes captured during the week of July 17th.

C9.25 @ F33
DMK21AF04 @ 30 fps
captured in Astro IIDC
hand picking 415 of 15000 frames in Keith's image stacker
five alignment points
mild wavelets in Registax 3
final assembling in Photoshop

Seeing morphed quite a lot even in the best of frames. I am going to add 3-4 more alignment points for possible improvement.

Enjoy,
Eric

Hi Guys,

I am now posting the final version of Archimedes. Many thanks to Alan Friedman for providing a processing tip. The image on the right is the final one.

C9.25 @ F33
DMK21AF04 @ 30 fps
captured in Astro IIDC
hand picking 415 of 15000 frames in Keith's image stacker
five alignment points aligned in KIS
(17 alignment points aligned and stacked in Iris)
mild wavelets in Registax 3
final assembling in Photoshop

Enjoy,
Eric

Here is Eratosthenes, NOT Aristillus, from the July 17th session. Higher resolution with this one.

C9.25 @ F33
DMK21AF04
33 mS @ 30 fps
best 601 of 15000 frames
captured in Astro IIDC
aligned and stacked in Iris
final adjustements in Photoshop
distor command used for turbulence correction in Iris

**The image has been updated with one of better contrast. Further experiments with a 17 point MAP compared with Iris distor showed little, if any, difference between the two final images. It isn't always that way as distor can be unpredictable, but in this case the map method didn't help with enhancement. ET 7/29/06**

**Thanks to Phil Houston for the kind correction of identification!**

Eric

Finally caught up with some more processing from the fair/ good seeing sessions I had in July. Here is the Alpine Valley, captured in mid-July. The center cleft is just visible.

C9.25 @ F35
DMK21AF04
30 fps @ 1/33
best 244 of 3000 frames
captured with Astro IIDC
aligned and stacked in Registax, 8 alignment points
assembled in Photoshop

Enjoy,
Eric

Hello all:

This is the final version of Copernicus. Captured in July 2006. C9.25, F30, 29 alignment points Registax 4. 600/ 10,000 frames stacked.

Best,
Eric Todd

A recent reprocess from 2004 with surprisingly good results. Originally acquired with Toucam Pro 740 under fair/ good seeing. AVI frames upsampled to 32 bit fit, processed in Registax 4. Best 600 frames stacked. Post processing in Photoshop, mostly 32 bit mode. Long time, no post. Hope you like it.

C9.25 @ F30
Toucam Pro 740
best 600/ 1000 frames @ 10 fps
Spring 2004, 47 deg altitude
seeing 6-7/10

Eric Todd

Another reprocess, this one reveals a lot of detail that was hidden originally. Originally acquired in May 2004.

C9.25 @ F30
Toucam Pro
seeing: 8/10
best 400/ 600 frames @ 10 fps

I again converted all AVIs to FITS, aligned at 6 points in Registax 4, reprocessed at 32 bit followed by 32 bit Photoshop processing.

Enjoy,
Eric

Mars reprocess from Sept 11, 2003. Mars never reached a good altitude here during that opposition, so instances of good or better seeing were few. This was one of the better instances.

C8 @ F30
Televue 3x
Toucam Pro 740
Baader IR filter
best 800 frames @ 10 fps
Reprocessed at 32 bit, 4 alignment points in Registax 4
Before and after images included.

Enjoy,
Eric

Best Jupiter out of the sequence of AVIs captured in Spring 2004. Again all imaging resampled to 32 bit processing whenever possible.

C9.25 @ F30
Televue 3x
Color/ B&W Toucams
10 fps
LRGB
Registax 4/ Photoshop 3

Enjoy,
Eric

Lacking suitable planetary imaging targets this year, I decided to take up birding using the digiscoping method. After some trial and error last week, working out both stability and optics issues, I have finally obtained the start of what I think will be some decent future shots. Attached is an Osprey, taken with an ETX-90, Scopetronix 14mm wide angle eyepiece, and Samsung S630 digicam. I tried some initial shots last week with a 10x50 monocular instead of the ETX, but the nest location was just too far away from the closest I could get, which is about 500-600 feet. That plus a Kmart tripod just proved unstable. The tripod used this time is a Majestic and heavy duty offering enough stability to get these shots at the distant range. This was taken in the evening at sunset and the camera was facing somewhat towards the sun, which was a big disadvantage because it reduced the image's initial contrast. I plan on returning some morning when the sun will be at my back and greatly illuminating this large bird.

ETX-90
Majestic heavy duty tripod
Scopetronix 14 mm wide angle
Samsung S630, 1/ 15 sec, custom white balance, 3x optical + 1.2x digital zooms
ISO400
postprocessing in Photoshop- cropping and reducing, color noise reduction, contrast enhancement

Enjoy,
Eric