Image of the day

Captured by
Arthur Hogan

Heart and Soul Nebulas

About Astromart

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Posts Made By: Maurice Clark

March 13, 2003 09:33 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

ST-8 Download time

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Joe,

I would imaging it would depend on what computer you have, but for what it is worth it takes about 3 minutes (!) on my old P233 laptop. Binning 2x2 brings it down to a more manageable 45 seconds.

Cheers,

Maurice

March 19, 2003 06:34 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

jupiter image 19th March 2003 - lucky shot.

Posted By Maurice Clark
That is some processing to get that much detail out of the raw image. Would you care to post your technique?

Cheers,

Maurice

March 20, 2003 10:05 PM Forum: Film Astrophotography - Imaging and Processing

Basic Astrophotography Scope?

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Chas,

This is a real can of worms, but I will give my thoughts. I have used a variety of scopes for astrophotography, and my favourite has always been my 5" f/5 refractor. This is largly because I do not like diffraction spikes on my images and because I like the wide field for comet and deep-sky imaging.

Newtonians are good if you are on a budget and do avoid any hint of chromatic abberation. (This can be avioded if you can afford an APO)

Personally I do not like Schmidt-cassegrainians for photography. I find that their images always look 'soft'.

Whatever optical system you choose however, make sure you get a top-quality mount! This is by far the most important consideration when contemplating astrophotography. In fact, I would go so far as to look at the best mount you can afford and then look at what ota you can put on that mount.

Regards

Maurice

March 27, 2003 04:43 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Inexpensive auto-guider for LX-200 classic?

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Mike,

My feeling would be that the finderscope would not have the focal length for accurate guiding. Howecer I have only ever used the ST-4 as a seperate autoguider, in my case with a 3" refractor as a guidescope. Perhaps someone else who has had experience with the newer autoguiders could comment on how good they are with short-focus guiders. Personally I do not like off-axis guiders as it can be very difficult to locate a suitable guidestar, however I do know that many observers do like them.

Hope this helps,

Maurice

March 27, 2003 04:51 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Scanner question

Posted By Maurice Clark
Hi Rick,

The college where I work has a Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 for slides/negatives. I do not know how much it cost but it does an excellent job, and the digital ICE routine for removing scratches works wonders. (See my example on the Astrophotography forum)

They also have some Epsom transprancy scanners which I am using to scan wide-format negatives, but it is not as good. A shame that the Nikon will not take 2.5x3.5 negatives. :-(

Cheers,

Maurice

March 27, 2003 11:31 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Why do countries we saved treat us so shabbily?

Posted By Maurice Clark
"The French seem to crave some kind of leading role in the EU and to this day refuse to adopt English as the universal language, and most of their diplomats and ambassadors do not even speak English. It supposedly kind of pisses off the EU, since everything has to be translated into French, just for the French."

Even the Olympic games have everything repeated in French. Why????

Maurice

March 28, 2003 04:00 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Home Obsevatory

Posted By Maurice Clark
I would recomend a roll-off roff observatory also. Not just for the cost, but also because it lets you see more of the sky and from my own experience, the seeing through a dome slit is generally very poor.

Cheers,

Maurice

March 28, 2003 04:16 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

The world gone MAD!

Posted By Maurice Clark
Very good! LOL!

Maurice

March 31, 2003 05:08 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Opportunity of the 'Season'

Posted By Maurice Clark
'It was either my scope or my family, and I opted for the latter.'

And you call yourself an astronomer!!!?????? Good grief man, get your priorities right!!!!!! :^)

Glad you managed to get some clear skies, and were able to make use of them. Saturday night was great where I am but I had another engagement during the early evening. No prizes for guessing what it was like when I finally reached home! :-(

Cheers,

Maurice

April 2, 2003 04:27 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

NGC5566 and a few friends

Posted By Maurice Clark
Ah one of my favourite galaxy groups! Nice to see what it looks like in colour.

Cheers,

Maurice

Funding Member

Sponsors


View all sponsors

Search