Posts Made By: Vincent Bert

where are you located? 5139 is spectacular, of course it may be so low on your horizon that it is difficult to detect. It is easily a naked eye object from mag 5 skies in southern CA.

Very cool Chris! Ganymede looks almost 3D. Just incredible. Could you enlarge that with the original file and post it? Great work Chris, Vince

Hi Ron. Like you I too fancied myself a die hard visual oberserver with my 4" refractor and my 20" Dob. I thought i would never be interested in any kind of imaging but got additcted to webcam imaging very quickly. I am by no means an expert but here's my 2 cents. I would get the Toucam with adapter. I use the old toucam and capture using the supplied software, process in Registax. If you feel the need later you may want to look at the Lumenara cameras which are quite a bit more expensive, or the Monochrome DMK 21BF04 firewire camera. Several folks on this forum have done incredible stuff with those cameras. IMO the cooled SAC cameras do not really help S/N on the planets since the exposure time is so short. With 4" of aperature you will be limited with respect to resolution but should still get some fine images, especially of the Moon. Also I would think that a 5X powermate would be just fine giving you a FL of around 4400mm. At 4400mm you might be somewhat limited in the light gathering department, but maybe someone who has experience with this combo could chime in. I use my webcam with my C8 and 2X barlow which gives me 4000mm and I would not want to image the planets with anything under about 3000mm. Much less than that and your image scale would be pretty small especially on Mars. But beware of the dark side, for it will suck you in and there is no coming back. I started off webcamming planets and the moon and got the itch for imaging DSO's also. So i took the plunge and bought an ST2000 which I use with my 4" Tak and GM8. 4 or 5 inches will show a wealth of detail on the larger DSO's, in fact I am still amazed after my very first DSO imaging session last month. Forgive me for posting an image a off topic for the forum but it gives you an idea of what a 4" scope is capable of even with my inexperience with imaging. the great thing about CCD's and autoguiding is that after I set up a 2 hour shot and let the magic plug away, I am back to hunting obscure dim fuzzies with my 20 incher until its time to set up another shot. Good luck, and caution...imaging is VERY addicting. 8)

I believe so, I have to use it with with my ST2K and non-goto GM8, but I could be wrong......Even if you dont think you need it, it will protect your mounts electronics.

Thats a great image Ralph!! I love HA more than RGB. What filter are you using?

Nice. I'd be happy to get an image like that anytime! So I guess we are all gonna crash Damian's party in Barbados for the next few years

Amazing image Wes, better than I got from the 03 season at opposition! Yeah, I think the dark area in the polar cap is from all the shrubbery in bloom this time of year If I was a plant living on Mars thats where I would want to be.

Thanks everyone. This was the first time I used my new Ha filter....and I like it! It was kind of a way for me to put off buying a color filter wheel and filter set. 8)

Hey Enrico! The heck with the focal reducer, given the quality of your short exposure first light data I say you should listen to your buddy. Go for it, capture some big data on small objects that are out of the reach of many of our setups. I bet you get stuff as good or better than the big bucks RC's! I look forward to you next images.

Nice Rig! Better move it out of the kitchen before your wife comes home.