Saturday 26 January 2008




2 clear nights in a row!!!!! That very rare ,lol. Managed to get some more avi's of Saturn but after an hour the clouds started to roll in so i turned my attention to the Moon. Grabbed hubby's K850i and spent another hour trying it out on different settings. With mobile phone cameras you do have to spend time just mucking around with the settings to see what works best with that particular model, can take a while but the reward is soooo good :-)).
The mosaic was 4 images stitched together, a 26mm ep and set on ISO200. Can't tell you the zoom ratio as the phone doesn't tell me. Not great, had problems with the last image at the bottom, just wouldn't match in contrast n brightness no matter what i tried, but i'm very happy with it being it's a mobile phone mosaic!!!.
The full shot was again 26mm ep and the 3rd was using a 2x barlow. All were run through Gimp2.4 to adjust the contrast and brightnes.s

Friday 25 January 2008

First Saturn



Got one of them rare things last night......A clear sky!!!!! After getting loads of avi's of the moon(trying for a full mosaic) i turned my attention to Saturn. Sitting quite close to the Moon and just about high enough for me to view over the trees. Don't think i quite got the focus right but didn't have alot of time to fiddle to much. Grabbed a few avi's at different focus and fiddled about with the exposure settings. Only stacked n processed 2 very quickly, got over 60 avi's in total inc the Moon, gives me something to do while it's cloudy,LOL.
Equipment used: Celestron 4 SE @F13, 2x barlow, Toucam pro. 1050 frames stacked and then processed in Gimp2.4. 1st image is 150%, 2nd is 100%.
I changed the fps from 15 to 20 when i started with the Moon and i think it gives a better avi, less noise. Will find out when i get around to stacking n processing them and then comparing to other images.

Saturday 19 January 2008

Pekaboo Plato n Copernicus



Really started to get hooked on this mosaic Lark and decided to get the Plato region. 3 Images stitched together using my Celestron, Toucam pro, around 500 frames each stacked n processed in Registax4 then twicked in Gimp. Once stacked and processed i used a free program called i-merge to stitch them together.
Copernicus crater was taken with the same scope and webcam , just used a 2xbarlow to get in closer.

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Terminator Mosaic



My 2nd attempt at a Mosaic. Only had 30 mins of clear skies and the wind was starting to pick up but still managed to get a handful of decent avi's. Used my Celestron which was set up in 2 mins(love this scope!)and my Toucam pro. All frames between 500-600 frames, stacked in Registax4 and processed in Gimp2.2.
I'm pleased with the result considering it's only my 2nd go.
Here's a link to the full size version, click on the image....http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u304/karah75/fullversion.jpg

Saturday 12 January 2008

Mars 7th Jan


As you know i have been having problems with my laptop. It's got to be sent off once again, keeps crashing, freezing amongst other things. Around 50 avi's were taken between 5th and 9th Jan via laptop, stacked and processed as well. Looked fine, nice and bright. Backed everything up to load onto desktop only to find that all avi's and images are BLACK!!!!!! Something is wrong with the graphics(going insane with all this!). Managed to save one avi taken on the 7th in gale force winds(well, very windy). USed my Celestron @F13, 2xbarlow and my Toucam pro. 350 out of 1000 frames used. Lost most due to the wind.