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Posts Made By: Mike Clemens

November 3, 2006 05:27 PM Forum: Bad to the Bone Autos

Brand New Mustang! and it's NICE!

Posted By Mike Clemens

This is a bit painful to watch for you new Mustang owners (Roland!)
http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=19463#49474

This video is marked Not Safe For Work because the "S word" is said once.

November 4, 2006 11:49 PM Forum: Home Observatories

We are go for rollback.

Posted By Mike Clemens

Rolled back my skyshed for the first time today! I've got a few more slight tune ups to do but I think its operational.

http://www.pbase.com/mclemens1969/image/69701810

The trees are to the NW->N->E, the E->S->NW views are clear.

Mike

November 5, 2006 08:22 PM Forum: Eyepieces

mr. rogers explores automated optics production

Posted By Mike Clemens

This is neat

http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=19751

I wonder how modern this is. I like the typical shop environment. As I understand it, places like LensCrafters keeps a ton of blanks on hand with curves cut into one side already.

Mike

March 15, 2007 03:33 AM Forum: DVDs and Music and Books That You Recommend

RUSH R30

Posted By Mike Clemens


The R30 Overture when those guys first take the stage is a near religious experience : ) All Rush fans need to see it.

March 20, 2007 08:20 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

saturn

Posted By Mike Clemens

This is my first Saturn image that looks recognizable : ) I quit trying (for !%@% forever) with my EOS DSLR which was simply an impossible goal I suppose. This was a Toucam ?840k? with K3CCD through my TEC160. K3CCD did all the challenging work and I optimized the RG and B channels individually in Photoshop. It's really little I know, but small steps.. small steps.

I guess I'm going to need some discipline to get better, writing down frame rates and resolutions and gain settings etc.


March 21, 2007 06:08 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Solar Maximum 2011

Posted By Mike Clemens

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm


March 25, 2007 07:57 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

160ED Saturn questions for you journeymen

Posted By Mike Clemens

OK, this was my third night working with a webcam, and I am seeing some problems.

1) I found a significant problem, about 1/2 my frames have a lot of electrical noise in them. I think it's when the hard disk runs in the little Dell laptop. This totally blows the mind of the "quality frame picker" of K3CCD, it likes the noisy frames. I tend to blame this on poor shielding of the camera circuitry versus laptop, but I don't really know. I am thinking buying a higher quality camera would probably nip this one since it would be undoubtably different in shielding and operation.

2) I am wishing the Toucam ran faster (I am usually at 40 ms frames) so that it would get around the seeing better. I have tried shorter frame times, and the frames look sharper on screen. Unfortunately the image gets really noisy due to the loss of brightness.

3) Looking through R,G and B channels, B looks awful, noisy, and quite a bit dim comparatively. Is this a Toucam sensitivity issue? Also, would the lesser color correction of the TEC160 ED versus (for example the fluorite version) be noticable in the quality of this blue frame?

Is this a "Buy an $80 webcam and get $80 webcam problems." story? How much would a Lumenera or DMK type camera go towards alleviating points #2 and #3 above?

And unrelated but problem #4) I guess I would need to get a standard workflow established for processing, so they all come out the same color. : D

April 2, 2007 09:34 PM Forum: Pictures of Me and My Telescope and........

Re: Parallax HD200C GTO is born!!

Posted By Mike Clemens

mm m m m mmMMMMM MONSTER Mmmm mMMM MOUNT !

May 13, 2007 05:19 AM Forum: Astro-Physics

Re: AP telescope cases

Posted By Mike Clemens

You have a pair of 152/12? Your signature says 150/12, is that a typo or is one of those a 150/12? The photo makes them look f/9 to my eyes for some reason. Do you have more photos of your AP I could see?! Those are beautiful.

Thanks
Mike Clemens

June 11, 2007 07:43 PM Forum: Refractors

Re: More portable than you think (FS128)

Posted By Mike Clemens

Thats pretty cool. Now call Art at TNR and try and buy another FS128 dewshield (they're pretty cheap.) Then have it turned down to be just 1/2" taller than the lens, then get a machinist buddy to turn and thread a rear screw-in cover for the counter-cell. Then you can put the big dewshield around the tube in your other container and your lens will be smaller than a Big Mak hamburger.