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Posts Made By: Joe Baldwin

March 21, 2003 02:03 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Not a composite image!

Posted By Joe Baldwin

I must have one

May 14, 2003 06:36 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

August 27, 2003 01:19 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

New Mars pic from Hubble

Posted By Joe Baldwin

I've been working hard to remove the last bit of blue haze from the edge opposite the polar cap on my mars images thinking that it was a result of atmospheric dispersion. Well obviously,that is not an issue here. What's up????

October 28, 2003 02:34 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Celestar 8 Hand Controller

Posted By Joe Baldwin

Alan,
I lost mine a couple of years ago and simply made one from 4 switches, a plastic soap box and a phone plug I stole from an old telephone. Actually worked better than the original - cost $11. I have a pinout if you are interested

February 16, 2004 03:12 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Registax Frame Limit?

Posted By Joe Baldwin

When I try to input an AVI file created by my Sony digital cam into registax I get an "unable to decompress AVI" type error message. How do you avoid this?

February 19, 2004 04:44 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

IR blocking filter

Posted By Joe Baldwin

I see a slight improvement in the banding on Saturn when using the Baader IR/UV filter. The difference is very subtle.

February 25, 2004 06:35 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Toucam Pro 2: is anyone using it?

Posted By Joe Baldwin

The guys on the QCUIAG Yahoo groups say it is basically the same CCD in a different package. I got mine at scopetronix, about $160 with 1.25" adapter . Image quality is very good.

March 12, 2004 08:23 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Re: good webcam planet under poor seeing condition

Posted By Joe Baldwin

Eric

I would set the gain at about 90%-95% of the max value and then increase the shutter speed until you have a decent signal level ( not saturated but clearly out of the noise). The final value will depend on the relative brightness of the object.
The frame rate only affects the image quality if too high and some data is lost to compression. 5 - 10 fps should work for most setups.

March 16, 2004 07:40 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Help a newbie, please?

Posted By Joe Baldwin

Yes, the focal point will change. On my 9.25 it is a turn or 2 (on the SCT) different between no powermate and powermate in. If you're even a little out of focus it will be very difficult to see anything in the image window. You might try centering the planet first without the powermate in then putting the powermate in the path and adjusting focus. Once you find the focus, remove the camera and carefully insert an eyepiece in the 7mm-10mm range and slide it in and out of the powermate until you achieve focus. Mark this position on the eyepiece barrel. Next time you would center and focus visually with the eyepiece then swap in the camera and Voila! your ready to image.

March 17, 2004 06:44 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

max FL for Toucam chip

Posted By Joe Baldwin

A 5x powermate is too much for fl = 2300mm. The mag is actually closer to 7x and the light is so collimated that every minscule piece of dirt on the ccd window shows up as a donut. The 2.5X does the job perfectly. There is graph somewhere on the web that shows the magnification for the 2.5X and the 5X that illustrates this but I can't find it now