Posts Made By: Russell Horn

That is a very nice image.

Russell

I had the good fortune of clear and steady skies last Friday night while Jupiter approached opposition. It was an awesome sight in the binoviewers. It took me this long to (hopefully) get the color right. My processing skills still need work, but I think I am progressing.

Takahashi FS152 refractor w/4X Powermate
Losmandy G11 mount
Phillips ToUcam
Pro 840k webcam

Russell
www.refractormonkey.com

I was fortunate to have good skies at Comanche Springs, Texas. The subject is M51 using the new SBIG STL-11000CM one shot color camera owned by Three Rivers Foundation ( http://www.3rf.org/ ). It is a combination of 20 eight minute exposures combined in ImagesPlus. I used my Takahashi FS152 @f/8 and Losmandy G11 mount.

Russell

That is a very nice image and processing. I have not had anything close to this with my C9.

Russell

I had a brief opportunity to image with the 3RF TMB 8" refractor just after our star party Saturday night. The clouds rolled in just as I finished an 85 second AVI. Steady skies, but hazy. The moon on the upper left is Callisto. The moon on the right is Io. Imaged in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Russell

www.3rf.org

I had some good luck, decent skies, and caught Jupiter with its GRS nicely placed. Its not very often I have this much come together at once. What a great night. Imaged in Wichita Falls, Texas.

TMB 8" refractor
Astro Physics 1200 mount
TeleVue 3X barlow
Phillips ToUcam Pro 840k webcam
Phillips capture software
Registax 3
PhotoShop CS

Russell

www.3RF.org

Hi, everyone. I haven't made a post in a while, but have been keeping up with your excellent images. I made time to image the solar disturbance 798 with three different filters. The first in the sequence is white light made with a Takahashi FS152/Baader filter, the second was made with a Coronado SolarMax 70 Cal-K, and the third with a Coronado SolarMax 90 H/Alpha (doublestacked). Since all were artificially colored I kept them the same. I am curious about your thoughts on this since most Cal-K images are purple/blue.

http://www.refractormonkey.com/images/solar%20animation%20%209-13-05.gif

Russell
www.3rf.org

I had a good morning with the Celestron C9.25 and Mars. Imaged with a TeleVue 3X barlow and a Phillips 840k webcam.

Russell

I imaged Mars again this morning...only with the Takahashi FS152 6" apo refractor instead of the Celestron C9.25 SCT. This morning was very similar to yesterdays. If there were any difference at all yesterday was very slightly more steady. Even the same side of Mars was captured. This is by no means a scientific comparison. I only did this for fun, out of curiosity, and with hopes to learn a thing or two. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that the FS152 refractor is much nicer visually and can hold power better, but when it comes to imaging the C9 will maintain crisp images with longer focal lengths over the refractor.

Both scopes were used with a Phillips 840k webcam with a Baader IR blocking filter. The factory Phillips software was used for avi capture @ 20 fps. Registax 2 was used for stacking. Adobe CS was used for processing. I used a Televue 3X barlow with the C9 and for the Tak FS152 I used a TeleVue 4X Powermate and a Denkmeier part S.

I do not wish to start a design/manufacture war, but comments are welcome.

Russell

Nice image. You managed to come on top after a challenging session.

Russell