From: "Alan Friedman" <alan@greatarrow.com>

Date: May 22, 2005 11:36:58 AM MDT

To: <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: First real videos

Reply-To: <alan@greatarrow.com>

I think you will be excited to try the stacking routines

available in AstroIIDC version 2.0 once it is final - but will let

Milton have the pleasure of talking more about that one when he is

ready.

best,

Alan

---------- Original Message

----------------------------------

From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Reply-To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 17:28:17 -0000

<tt>

Hi Neale:

I got some more decent videos last night. Mostly, I'm fiddling

with the best setting for

exposure, number of frames/movie, and I'm still just beginning

to explor the stacking and

averaging options in Astro IIDC to figure out which works best for

me.

I've used Registax extensively with my ToUcam and various

scopes (8" f/6 Springfiled

Newt., 12.5" f/23 Cass, 6" f/10 Jaegers refractor, Orange C8, and

now the C9.25), and

have become pretty comfortable with it.

Alan: Your step by step of how to best use KIS is going to be

great. Problem I had was

figuring out the first thing to do. All my results were just a blur,

so it must have been

stacking without aligning. So, I'll try your suggestions out.

This morning, I downloaded Quicktime Pro so that I could export

avi's and process with

Registax in Virtual PC 6. I've just started processing one of the

videos, and it seems to be

working (though I'm having to use an old version of Registax

because version 3 is giving

me an "access violation" message with the video I chose).

Converting from the .mov to the

.avi file takes pretty long (several minutes), so it would be better

if I didn't have to do that.

On my PC, I was able to acquire a 2 minute - 1200 frame avi of

Jupiter and process it in

registax fast enough (5 or 10 minutes at most) to be able to

throw away the .5gb file and

acquire another video - thus keeping hardisk space usage to a

reasonable level.

-Tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "neale_monks"

<nmonks@b...> wrote:

Tim,

My article at Cloudy Nights (which I am fairly certain

you've

seen...) does at least outline

the options. Keith's Image Stacker is powerful, but very difficult

to

use (in my opinion) in

part thanks to a bizarre interface. Astro Stack is impressive,

but

again doesn't work like a

"normal" Mac app, and the sequence of steps required is a

bit

strange. I have a great

fondness for Lynkeos, which works quickly and easily, and

while less

powerful that the

others is at least simple to use. Sadly, I think Registax probably

is

the best processing app

out there, but on my PowerBook at least running it on Virtual

PC 6

poses no problems at

all. You don't mention Lynkeos, and I suggest that of them all,

it's

the nicest choice for

just getting your feet wet.

<a href="http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?

item_id=1044">http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?

item_id=1044</a>

Although aimed at absolute beginners, the webcam imaging

chapter in

my book is pretty

detailed, and you may want to take a look at a copy. As far as I

can

tell, I'm the first person

to write a book explaining step by step what to do, and

perhaps

equally importantly, why.

At least, that was my aim; I'll let others decide if I managed to

do

that well!

<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/books/

books.html#astro">http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/books/

books.html#astro</a>

It isn't clear in your question whether or not you mean you

have no

idea what to do now,

or rather know what to do, just can't do it with Keith's

Image

Stacker. If the latter, I

apologise for going over "Astronomy 101" stuff here! I do have

a

basic knowledge of KIS,

and am happy to post that here if needs be.

Cheers,

Neale

</tt>

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