Posts Made By: Chris Woodruff

Hello,
I first want to say hi. I am new to this group and kinda stumbled upon it. I had wondered where everyone from the Google groups went, I think I found out! I am posting this image to get feedback on what you think the issues with the elongated stars are. I am guessing that it is vignetting. The setup on this image is a 10" LX200 f6.3,
an additional Meade 6.3 focal reducer, JMI focuser and ST7E w/CFW8.
Thanks!
Chris Woodruff
www.ccwoodruff.com

Would it be an upgrade to go from an LX200 platform to a CI700 w/Skywalker Goto? I want to image around 1500mm. With my LX200 it is almost impossible to get consistent results and I can pick up the CI700 w/Skywalker for pretty cheap. I'd be using the Meade 10" f6.3 from the LX200...
Thanks for any info!!
Chris Woodruff

Hello,
I just thought I'd post this image I took last weekend at the Polaris site in the Lockwood Valley of Southern California. Not too bad considering it only made up about 10 degrees above the horizon. Anyways, the specs were:
AP 105, EM-10 Mount, ST7E NABG guided 30 min LRGB.
20x60sec 1x1L, 3x60sec 2x2R, 3x60sec 2x2G, 4x60sec 2x2B
Had some teaking to do color wise but came out OK I think.
Chris Woodruff
www.ccwoodruff.com

Hello,
I have been imaging for about 4 years now but up until this time I had never invested in an excellent mount and scope combo till now :-) I sold off 4 scopes and 3 mounts to purchase my new to me (bought used on Astromart) Tak FS-128 OTA and a Tak EM-200 with Temma Jr. All I can say is WOW!! I am very happy! With my old 10" LX200 I thought that my local seeing was holding my images back. The best resolution I was able to get was about 4.5 arc secs per pixcel. Now I am not sure what my limit is! Anyways, I have had this setup for about 3 weeks now and attached is one of my better images so far.
M27 40min
L25min x R4min x G5min x B6min using a TeleVue .8 reducer
From my backyard in suburban Los Angeles.
(Thanks for the mount Ron!)
BTW, does anyone know if the FWHM value translates exactly to arc/sec per pixcel seeing? For instance, in this image I was shooting at f6.48 and with my ST7E this gives me 2.24 acr sec / pixcel. When I focused the FWHM was averaging about 1.5 or so. So would that translate to 3.36 arcsec seeing? Hope I asked that right :-)

I had really good seeing the other night and got this M20. The light frame is from my FS-128 using the new Optec .62 reducer which works very nicely! IDAS Light polution filter and IR blocking filter (Are these redundant?). From my backyard with 4.5 mag skies. The color info is from a previous image.
Chris Woodruff
www.ccwoodruff.com

Hello,
I haven't seen very many images of this Dark Nebula so I figured I'd post my first attempt here. It is a VERY hard Nebula to capture from my mag 4.5 skies in suburban So Cal! I need to try it again this next new moon from a dark site. Anyways, this is a combination of 30 x 5min light exposures using an ST7E & CFW8 camera through an AP130 shooting at f3.72 (or so, F6 scope with AP .75 reducer AND TV .8). Can't wait to get some color info!
Thanks for looking,
Chris Woodruff
www.ccwoodruff.com

Hello,
I have a new ToUcam Pro and installed it on my Pentium
333 Laptop. I am running XP. If I use the the software that comes with windows to run the camera it works just fine (except the windows software won't allow you to do use it in video mode), if I try to use either the software that came with the camera or K3ccd my system hangs! Any ideas?
Thanks!
Chris

You won't be able to. It turns out that because the secondary is so fast you won't be able to do any better than f5 total and even that is marginal. I used an ST7 with a CFW8 could only use the TV .8 reducer (which gave me approx. f5 or 6.3 x .8) and even then I got some vingeting in the corners... If I used it without the CFW8 (about 1" wide) then most of the vigneting went away. Turns out that you probaly could make it work IF you had the F10 version and went down to f3.3! Hope this helps...
Chris Woodruff
www.ccwoodruff.com

Hello,
I finally got a chance to use my ToUcam in combination with my AP130 f6 and 4x TV Powermate. I had to use the Philips software (for some reason as soon as K3ccd started to save the .avi file it would hang) which was OK. I then processed using a combination of Registax (this software should cost $100!!), Maxim Dl/ccd for color alignment and Photoshop for final production. Seeing was ok, and by the time I got everything working Mars was only about 60 degrees above the western horizon but it was fun! I have been doing deep sky forever but never really got into doing planetary, but now who knows :-) This next dark sky weekend my buddy will have his 14.5" starmaster so I may be imaging Mars with my webcam more than deepsky objects with my ST7E! Anyways, if you've read this far, thanks!
Chris Woodruff
www.ccwoodruff.com

Mars 3:45am 8/15/03 Valencia, CA (My backyard)
AP 130 f6 & TV 4x Powermate
Best 431 images out of 1500

Hello,
This is my best Mars so far! This is really getting fun! I still need to work on my processing though. I just picked us a "new to me" C9.25 to compliment my AP130 and this is the first light :-) Thanks for all of the great posts and help going on in this group!!!
Mars 082503 2am Pacific Time
C9.25 & TV 4X barlow or f40
1131 out of 1600 images stacked in Registax

Chris Woodruff
www.ccwoodruff.com