From: "centurion40tim" <urgent40@cybertrails.com>

Date: March 19, 2006 2:33:10 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: 1st light webcam

Thanks for the input. I put the image in my photos folder. Will go with your advice

about capturing more frames and stacking the best with the Astro program - once I

learn it a little better.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:

Hi Tim H;

On 19-Mar-06, at 11:38 AM, centurion40tim wrote:

Adventures in astrophotography on a tight budget continue. Ist

light for Unibrain

webcam with Astro IIDC program. I can't fit all this info on this

particular shot of

Jupiter:

Unfortunately the image was not passed on in your e-mail. You can

want to share it with everyone, then please post it to the

appropriate (i.e. Planetary Folder) in the Astro IIDC files section.

Seeing: good but thin high clouds were covering planet

17mm plossl with 2x barlow

About 100 frames.

You should try capturing more frames. For planetary / lunar / solar,

I normally go for a minimum 500 up to 4000 frames and then let Astro

IIDC pick out say the top 100 to 200 frames out of that and stack them.

Using Keith's Image Stacker because I'm not even sure if I can use

Astro IIDC to stack and process. Can I?

Yes. Launch Astro IIDC, select Video Menu -> Stack & Align movies.

You can read about what all the options do by selecting "Astro IIDC

Help..." from the Help Menu. Read pages 12 to 16 for description of

the features.

Using Astro IIDC with a webcam for a live shot of the planet is a

very very cool

experience. Obviously I have a lot to learn. Problems include

getting a closer, bigger

image of the planet. When I zoom, the quality takes a dive. Will

try using my 10mm

plossl and increasing the exposure time, which has a nice

brightening effect on the

live image.

The longer the effective focal length, the more the image is

magnified and any turbulence in the air will also be magnified.

I had been using a Minolta Z1 digital camera attached directly to

the scope. That

setup resulted in some very nice shots of Jupiter, Saturn and the

moon - better than I

am currenlty getting with my webcam. However, it simply will not

image anything dim,

not even m42. Nada, nothing. I am hoping that my new setup will

result in the ability

to shoot some nebulae, globulars and maybe even galaxies. One

limitation is the

tracking on my C9.25 ASGT. The tracking is good but not great so I

can't take

exposures of more than say 1 minute.

Umm, it will depend on which camera your using. The inexpensive

Unibrain / iBot only go up to 1 second exposures, so you'll be able

to capture say around 7th magnitude stellar objects. However you'll

never pick up anything like nebula or globulars with it - they are

just too dim to capture anything significant.

HTH..

Milton J. Aupperle

President

ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting

Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist

#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.

Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5

1-(403)-229-9456

milton@...