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Lagoon and Triffid Celestron C6 Hyperstar4

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Posts Made By: Jason Higley

January 15, 2010 02:46 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Sunspot group 1040 - Jan. 14

Posted By Jason Higley
Here's a shot of sunspot group 1040 I shot this afternoon (Jan 14, 2010)

http://setisociety.org/MVI_1015vdub2242fr.jpg

The biggest spots are larger than the Earth.

Image stats (please consider them when evaluating): 90mm Meade refractor tightly bungee-corded to a Criterion RV-6 mount, Orion Glass Solar Filter, Orion 13% Moon filter, Celestron 96 neutral density filter, 7mm TMB Planetary II EP, AFOCAL Canon Powershot SX100 in video mode, AVI expanded in VirtualDub, 2242 frames stacked in Registax 5, post-processed in Roxio PhotoSuite 5.

Jason Higley

January 27, 2010 01:17 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Afocal Mars & Saturn Jan. 26 a.m. U.T.

Posted By Jason Higley
Afocal Mars in 8" Criterion, probably close to 4 or 5 a.m. UT on Jan. 26 (Bad seeing, could only salvage ~130 frames out of 4400!)

http://setisociety.org/MVI_1070expsaldarkmess.jpg

Afocal Saturn, same date. I way over-estimated the brightness as this was the 1st use of this eyepiece on Saturn, but at least it shows how open the rings are now. In order to even see the rings, I had to increase the brightness so much that what I think might be the hot pixel trail showed up. Not one of my good Saturn's, I just post it here to show current ring angle.

http://setisociety.org/MVI_1131-2770.jpg

Jason Higley

February 9, 2010 08:02 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

My best Mars, 9 Feb. A.M. U.T., Afocal, Canon SX-1

Posted By Jason Higley
I've been waiting/trying for over 2 years to get this shot, and I'm guessing this will probably be my last good attempt (good relative to my previous attempts and methodology that is :^) on Mars until it comes back around again in another 2 years.

http://setisociety.org/MVI_1288expandedregrox.jpg

Mars stats: Mars approx. 10 days after opposition on the night of Feb. 8, 2010 (Feb. 9 a.m. U.T.) at 14 arc seconds apparent diameter.

Image stats: 3782 frames from an AVI acquired via Canon Powershot SX-100 held up to a 7mm TMB Planetary II eyepiece with a Celestron 96 neutral density filter, all held to the scope with the older version of the Orion Steadypix digital camera mount through a Criterion RV-8, VirtualDub to expand the AVI, Registax 5 to stack the frames, Roxio PhotoSuite 5 to post-process exposure and sharpness.

Jason Higley

February 11, 2010 11:13 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars Rotation Movie, Feb. 9 a.m. UT afocal Canon

Posted By Jason Higley
This is from my Feb. 9th a.m. UT run, it is one hour and 17 minutes of Mars rotation
EDITED TO A SMALLER VERSION
http://setisociety.org/MarsRotation1hour17min9FebAMUT-small.gif
By the end of the session my seeing had deteriorated, but I think the last frame was still useable for this brief movie. Each frame was rotated (because the icecap was sideways.) 8" newt, 7mm EP, afocal P&S camera in movie mode, 4 post-processing programs.

Regards, Jason Higley

March 21, 2010 05:51 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn March 20 a.m. Afocal Canon SX-100

Posted By Jason Higley
Here's my almost-opposition attempt at Saturn w/8" Criterion, Afocal Canon SX-100 in video mode, 967 frames (out of ~2700), TMB Planetary II eyepiece:

http://setisociety.org/saturn-MVI_1499-reg5sl2pt5.jpg

This next one was the same night, but a different run with many more frames 3600'ish, and it barely registered at this scale, but Registax is magic!

http://setisociety.org/saturn20march2010regsl2pt7redo.jpg

Regards, Jason Higley

March 31, 2010 05:58 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Re-processed Near-Opposition Saturn

Posted By Jason Higley
After several re-tries on this run (from around a day before opposition) using different frame selection methods, I think this one came out considerably better, so here's the afocal Canon Powershot SX-100 (video mode/no external computer present) via Criterion RV-8, TMB Planetary II EP, Registax 5 etc.

http://setisociety.org/SaturnMVI_1499redo131-2500combo.jpg

Jason Higley

April 2, 2010 08:07 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn April 2nd a.m. U.T., my best

Posted By Jason Higley
I think it's one of my best Saturn's.

http://setisociety.org/Saturn-MVI_1635-slpt6.jpg

The sky/seeing was very good, afocal Canon Powershot SX-100 in video mode (just over 2100 frames after tossing the trash), Criterion RV-8 scope (with newly added cork to the drive clutch I decided to add at the last minute, interupting cool down at mid-point and almost caused me to miss this run), Orion SteadyPix camera holder (the older one), TMB Planetary II EP, Virtual Dub to extract the AVI, Registax 5 to align, stack, and wavelets sharpen, and Roxio Photosuite 5 to process exposure.

Regards, Jason Higley

August 15, 2007 05:20 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

VENUS (57.0") 8-12-07

Posted By Jason Higley
Great shot Dan! Just remember what happened to Icarus!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus

Regards, Jason H.

September 1, 2007 02:03 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Jupiter in Meade Electronic EP

Posted By Jason Higley
I'm adding this Saturn shot I just processed from a DVD I burned earlier this year to this Jupiter-post-thread, that I also shot through the Meade Elec EP.

http://setisociety.org/saturnstack5proc.jpg

I'm posting them here because I've never seen Meade Elec. EP shots posted anywhere that are like these and maybe somebody might have been curious about this device way back in yesteryear when they came out. I didn't rotate Saturn on purpose to show that the very tight cloud bands and spots are a feature on the planet and not an artifact (and I didn't want to re-sample the image and lose more data)

If somebody knows the spectral frequency response of this chip, please point me to that info. It's a stack of 146 Saturn frames (see parent Jupiter post quoted below for other stats.)

Regards, Jason H.

Jason Higley said:

I guess I'm going a little retro here, but here is a 200 frame stack of Jupiter shot with a Meade Electronic Eyepiece from a DVD I burned last April.

http://setisociety.org/jupitermeadeep2roxio.jpg

-Meade Electronic EP (an old analog NTSC format freebie camera that came with a $20 60mm closeout scope; the scope was useless; no barlow used)

-Meade 2080 (8" SCT)

-RCA DVD Recorder (a stand-alone home use dvd/dvr not connected to a PC)

-Post processing software: Registax, Roxio PhotoSuite 5, Cyberlink Power DVD (to capture images from the DVD)

Regards, Jason H.

September 16, 2007 12:33 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Neptune f10 9/13/07

Posted By Jason Higley
Hey Steve, after seeing Neptunes on the internet that are mostly white dots or artificially colored; it's great to see a resolved disk and I love the color (I would love to be able to just catch the color myself with my small setup, but I haven't tried yet because it seemed like such a daunting target, but you have given me hope :^)

And Uranus has nice color too (tee hee hee.) I think the sharpness of your Neptune disk hints that you will have a somewhat sharper Uranus on your next run (and with that beautiful color that would be something to behold.)

Thanks again! Jason H.



Steve Fugardi said:

With my C11 and Toucam pro at f10 with 90% Gain @1/25sec, I captured Neptune in a moonless, above average seeing night as it barely cleared the treeline at its peak. Mirror was 0.6degC higher than ambient. Best 200 frames stacked out of 1500.

Regards,
Steve

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