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Terry Wood

Jupiter (clearer) Nov 5th 2023 w/Mewlon 180c

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Posts Made By: Weiman Kissinger

March 8, 2017 06:42 PM Forum: Politics

Just curious....

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Is everyone doing their taxes? No new posts here for 3 days. I look forward to perusing this forum over my lunch hour at work and there's nothing new in the world of politics?

Clear skies anyway...


January 27, 2005 09:08 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn Image 1/26/2005

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Hi Jim,
I've been using a TouCam for about a year now on a laptop that's slower than yours. Have you the set the frame rate to 5 or 10 frames per second? If it's set higher (i.e. 30fps) the camera has to do onboard compression of the images in order to maintain the frame rate across the USB connection. That compression causes degradation of the image quality and also "dropped" frames.

April 22, 2005 03:14 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Is this as good as it gets?

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Hi Mauricio,
The most critical items necessary to achieve good planetary results with a webcam are (in order of importance, first to last - IMHO) seeing, focus, and lastly camera settings.
You can't expect to capture the fine details of Jupiter's cloudbands unless the seeing is 7+, otherwise the details are washed out in the waves of turbulent air. If you monitor this forum for a while you'll see the best photos are from our colleagues in locations that typically have excellent seeing conditions. So, a good piece of advise would be to visit the "Clear Sky Clock" webpage at (http://cleardarksky.com/csk/) frequently and wait for a night of good seeing.
Second, focus is critical. For Jupiter, turn up the gain and brightness control on your webcam and focus on one of Jupiter's moons until you get it as sharp as possible.
Third, camera settings. These are the easiest to adjust especially if you use a free utility like Martin Burri's WcCtrl, which lets you modify the camera settings while viewing the live video. Use 5 or 10 frames per second for capturing. Higher frame rates cause the camera circuitry to compress the images, thereby losing detail.
I've attached a image of Jupiter and Ganymede I took on April 19 under 6-7/10 seeing. I used a Toucam 740 webcam on a Meade ETX-125, a very similar setup to the one you are using. Earlier in the night I was using a 2X Meade Barlow to increase the focal length of the ETX-125 to 3800mm (F30). When I was about ready to quit for the night I decided to try to see if I could even capture an AVI using a TAL 4X Barlow (efl of 7600mm, F60). I had a difficult time keeping Jupiter centered on the CCD chip and had to constantly "fight" the RA drive, due to imperfect alignment. However, I managed to capture 900 frames (90 seconds @ 10FPS) and stacked them using Registax V2, then applied Wavelets and finished up with some unsharp masking in GIMP. This image is reduced in size 25% from the original. I consider it to be one of my best results.
So, keep trying. Even when the seeing isn't the best you can always practice focusing and learning what camera settings will work for you. Then you'll be prepared when one of those "once-a-year" nights of excellent seeing comes 'round.

Clear Skies,
Weiman Kissinger

June 8, 2005 06:36 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Jupiter from Sunday night

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

This is a really great image, John. If you think you're seeing minor artifacts due to Toucam compression, try setting the capture frame rate to 10FPS in KCCD. I believe I've seen documents alluding to the Toucam using hardware compression (to avoid dropped frames) when the frame rate is above 10FPS.

We look forward to more great images from you and your 'scope.

Weiman

June 10, 2005 07:36 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

RegiStax Help.

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Harold,
Changing the processing area to 1024 only effects the size of the area used during wavelet processing, not alignment. I've had some success choosing a 128 or 256 alignment size and then selecting an area on Jupiter's disk that contains contrasting features. Even if the focus is not dead on or the seeing is bad, that's about the best you can do.
Another suggestion (if you're not already doing this) is to click the Framelist tab on the right side of the Align window, then click on "Frame 1" and use the "down arrow" key on your keyboard to scroll through the list of frames. When you see the one that has the best contrast/seeing, move your mouse over the planet disk to choose an alignment area. This may prove to give you better alignment than just accepting Frame 1 as having the best quality.

September 15, 2005 04:40 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

mars 2005/9/13 ToUcam Richard Bosman

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Richard,
Excellent image! Could you possibly bottle-up some of your Holland seeing and send it over to the US East Coast? grin

Clear Skies....
Weiman

September 15, 2005 04:53 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars this morning 9-14-05

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Chase,
There's a lot of detail in that image. I think with tweaking the color and a little larger image scale you'll be achieving top notch results.

Clear skies.

Weiman

September 20, 2005 04:34 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars this morning

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Great shot Jim. Very natural looking color. Thanks for posting.

Weiman

January 16, 2006 05:29 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Best method for planet focusing

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

You can use a bright star by turning up the gain/brightness on the webcam. Also, depending on what software you're using for AVI capture it may support focusing aids using FFT analysis. K3CCD Tools has added a very good focusing window in Version 3.

Clear skies
Weiman

April 3, 2006 03:32 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

First Jupiters at 31 degrees

Posted By Weiman Kissinger

Alan,
Considering the altitude and 'usual' sky conditions we see here in the NE your images are top-notch.

If it weren't for you and the many other fine planetary imagers who post to this forum, the rest of us would have to be bored browsing the i-net for the latest news out of Hollywood... and that never comes close to the show we see here!

Weiman Kissinger