Anonymous
Unregistered
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OK everybody,
This is my personal best. The seeing was better than all the other times I've been out before and the wind was much weaker.
I know this doesn't compare to some of the pictures you guys have posted, but I feel it is quite an improvement over my past stuff.
LOOK MOM...NO DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Alright, I got so excited that I forgot to let you all know how I did it.
- You all know the scope, if not just read my signature.
- 10mm (yes, 10mm not 25) eyepiece and barlow 2X.
- Nikon Coopix 4300 @ 3X, 1/30 and f4.9, shooting with the help of the timer.
- 18 pictures stacked with Registax and processed using Astra Image.
- Tongue sticking out of the mouth pointing towards Mars and left index finger in left nostril, rotating slightly back and forth.
- And, best of all...NO DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!
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Charles
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/12/03
Posts: 4111
Loc: Enterprise, AL
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OUTSTANDING NEME
Charles 
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 63466
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Cool! I'm getting a better image on the computer - when my eyes average out the wobble, than what you have there; but I can't seem to to transfer that to the final file like you can.
Received a few hints and suggestions so I'm experimenting. Seeing was pretty good - for here anyway, around 9:30 but fell thru the floor at 10. I'll try again later tonight.
Good to see you back in the saddle - with no drive!
Ron
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Ron
NS11GPS
Pronto
16" dob
127mm F9 Surplus Shed/Crawmach kit scope
Coronado SolarMax 40 on a Celestron 102 Wide Field
Best of ATM
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Steve Landry
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/25/02
Posts: 609
Loc: Graham, Washington
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Outstanding Neme!!
I know what you mean about no drive. My little 80mm refractor sits on a manual one also. I feel like I'm missing a couple of limbs trying to keep everything centered long enough to snap a pic.
Great Job!!
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Orion ED80
Orion ED100
Celestron C4R
Orion 120/F5
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Bird
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/07/03
Posts: 3866
Loc: Murrumbateman, Australia
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The bar is raised a bit higher each post...
That is a really good result - you would have had to manually capture, align & stack them, not taking the easy way out like us webcam scammers :-) :-)
cheers, Bird
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Deep Sky Optics 16" f/4 composite
Royce 16" conical f/4
Royce 14.5" conical f/5
Deep Sky Optics 13.1" conical f/5.5
PGR Grasshopper Express / Flea3 / Dragonfly Express / Dragonfly2
RedHat Linux + Coriander
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/
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Gary BEAL
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 1330
Loc: New Zealand
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Hey Neme,
I'm back, well sort of. Been away for a couple of days, and in some respects it is good to get away from this cursed computer.
I even recall our revered elder saying once that "I post too much". I know what he means.
Mars downunder has been very spectacular, and I just wish I had a few more months of practice before it got here.
Couple of quick shots from the weekend. Seeing the volcanos etc is becoming standard practise now.
Plan of the day is to image as much as possible this week, although having just seen the long range forecast for the week, maybe not.
Regards,
Gary
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Gary BEAL
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 05/10/03
Posts: 1330
Loc: New Zealand
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And one more
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Visit my homepage: http://www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/
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Stacy
Star Partyer
Reged: 09/15/02
Posts: 3321
Loc: 48.0153° N, 122.0625° W
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I was all excited about mine, then I saw yours. Excellent! But I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I just stuck the camera to the EP with a Steady Pix and took the picture. Some kind of burst thing. It said 3 fps. 
Stacy
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Cool Gary,
Good to have you back, especially showing the quality stuff.
I was about to send you an e-mail to check on you. Thought your chopper broke away from home and you had a hard time finding parts  .
Hopefully the weather will be good tonight again. It's been weird lately. Clouds come and go throughout the day.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Thanks Steve,
I was all excited about the picture because of the "impedances" I've had. You know how much fun it is to keep something centered in your scope manually while trying to take pictures. That's brings some extra value to your results.
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Charles
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/12/03
Posts: 4111
Loc: Enterprise, AL
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Gary that's some really neat/great pictures! You down-under boys definitely have me beat on the polar ice cap focus. Maybe tonight if I wake up by then I'll wear my glasses when I focus.
Charles
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Hey Bird,
Thanks.
Yes. Every single frame has to be centered and cropped to the same size, and then brought into Registax.
Even if I use a webcam, the absence of a drive makes it tricky to keep the object centered while shooting.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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>> Every single frame has to be centered and cropped to the same size, and then brought into Registax. <<
Hi Neme!
You might already know this but Windows Paint is a good program to use to do this. You just open the file,cut & drag the subject to the upper left corner and then set the IMAGE>ATTRIBUTES to the frame size you want.
The good thing about Paint is when you do this it performs a simple cropping operation and does not alter or scale the part of the frame that you're keeping in any way.
After you've cropped it, you can then grab and drag the object to the center, and use the "paint" tool to fill in the resulting part of the background sky that got white when you moved the subject to center it.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Frankie,
To tell you the truth, I didn't even think about Paint. I'll certainly give it a shot.
I've been using Photoshop instead.
Thanks for the tip. I'll try it today.
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 63466
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Stacy;
Hey! I remember getting those shots with the Nikon 4300! Nice looking Valencia or is it a Navel?
I got disgusted which cost me a ton of money for a laptop and web cam. Hope you fair better!
Ron
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Ron
NS11GPS
Pronto
16" dob
127mm F9 Surplus Shed/Crawmach kit scope
Coronado SolarMax 40 on a Celestron 102 Wide Field
Best of ATM
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Charles
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/12/03
Posts: 4111
Loc: Enterprise, AL
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Stacy, I wish I had your steady hands. You have to have the steadest hands I ever seen to take pictures of Mars utilizing the hand-holding method.
Charles 
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Hi Stacy!
I tried that once and bumped the eyepiece with the camera lens. That was the last time!!!! I'm still not sure if I nicked the lens [it's been 3 years now!] but it still bugs me that I MIGHT have. Every so often I take a magnifying glass and check it out under a strong light. Sometimes I think I see a nick, and sometimes I don't.
"Intense" you say? Moi? Intense? Obsessive maybe, but not intense. [Not TOO intense anyway.] 
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Stacy
Star Partyer
Reged: 09/15/02
Posts: 3321
Loc: 48.0153° N, 122.0625° W
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Hey Charles!
I used a Steady Pix thing (a clamp assembly that holds the camera to the eyepiece) from Orion. I also cropped out the fuzzy “glow" around it. I think I need a different kind of camera or something, one with more options. I also need to learn a lot more about it! IE stacking, software and etc. 
Do I need (or would it help?) a wedge for this method? 
Stacy
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Steve Landry
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/25/02
Posts: 609
Loc: Graham, Washington
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Hey Stacy,
You don't need a wedge for Planet pics, only if you plan on taking long exposures of the fuzzies.
Here's the web addres for Registax.
http://aberrator.astronomy.net/registax/
I downloaded the newest version, but it overloads my old P-II/400. Sandy keeps laughing at me cause she knows I'm going to have to buy a new computer soon!
What EP did you use to take that pic?
Steve
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Orion ED80
Orion ED100
Celestron C4R
Orion 120/F5
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