My manic solar system 24 hours!!!!

[Mac]

Use a Celestron C14 with a very sensitive camera and make sure you're in Barbados   

[Carole]

However you might have dust in the optical path

Yes, I have got a dust bunnie, I photoshopped it out of the Moon shot.

Use a Celestron C14 with a very sensitive camera and make sure you're in Barbados

Ha ha!! 

Thanks for all your advice.

Carole

[Mac]

I've just noticed on your Jupiter you seem to have a ghost image about i/16 of the distance below Jupiter, its probably this
that has been mis-stacked and caused your loss of detail,

have a look at re stacking to see if the mis alignment goes,

also have you tried eye piece projection to increase the size of Jupiter

Mac

[Carole]

you seem to have a ghost image about i/16 of the distance below Jupiter

Hi Mac, I have seen this too, but I think it's more to do with hasty grafting of Jupiter upon the Moons layer, the Jupiter below was more expanded in order to show the Moons.  I did it hastily as I realised I had orientated Jupiter incorrectly in relation to the Moons and changed it quick before any-one noticed.  I will go back and take a look at this though. 

I have since gone back and done a re-stack of the lower 25% of frames on 3 of the AVI files (There were 5 but Registax just freezes when I try to input two of them).  There is a definite miniscule improvement.  I hadn't realised how to select the best frames in Registax before and had to find the manual, so that's something new I've learnt thanks to you.

Eyepiece projection, I've never done it but read about it, don't you need a special gadget to attach to the eyepiece in order to fix the camera onto it?

I've still to try a Barlow, so I think I'll start with that first.

Thanks for your continued efforts.

Carole

[mickw]

You certainly have been busy.
Jupiter has come out well and I like Uranus but it looks a bit fuzzy to the left, would that be the clouds ?
Nice spotty sun, the moon looks a bit out of focus though but plenty of detail

[Carole]

Hi Mick,

the moon looks a bit out of focus

Yes I had already done my Bahtinov Mask focus and didn't want to interfere with it, I gather the Moon focus is fractionally different.  My main object of the evening was Jupiter, but took the Moon while I was waiting for it to rise.  Then I realised Uranus might be possible, so again did this while I was waiting for Jupiter. 

Uranus but it looks a bit fuzzy to the left

You're quite right Mick, I don't know what caused this, but the stacked image was a lot worse than the one above which I have had to process to get it to look less fuzzy, really don't know as it only seems to have affected the left side. 

Must have a "go" at these again with a barlow, but MUST get some sort of finderscope for the ETX125 it was a nightmare trying to align and find the object without.  Thus my E mail to you today.

Carole

[Mac]

MUST get some sort of finderscope for the ETX125

cable tie a cheap laser pointer to the scope, thats all i use now, since i melted my old one,
its rough and ready, but very easy to use.

Mac

[Carole]

I find laser pointers unreliable Mac.

OK, I've had another "go" at Uranus as a couple of people suggested the collimation might be out on the ETX as Uranus was smudged to the left (it was stacked in K3 on my laptop, Registax would not align on it).  However I managed to stack it in Registax today on my desktop, and this is the resulting image (cropped), you can see how lines from the webcam are accross the image and it is a tiny object, so perhaps using a Barlow next time might help.



I then did some photoshop on it and increased the resolution.  I think this is a better result than the first time and hopefully means my collimation is not out after all, but I will still check it.



I'm going to have another "go" and Jupiter as well.

Carole

[Carole]

....and Jupiter re-done.  This time using 25% of the best frames and re-doing the composite more carefully this time 



Carole

[The Thing]

That's a vast improvement Carole. Keep dumping those duff frames!

[Carole]

Thanks Duncan,

Keep dumping those duff frames!

Yes will certainly do that in future.
I downloaded Avistack, but am still trying to work out how it works, will get there eventually.

Carole

[Rocket Pooch]

Did anyone see the one I did with the society ETX125?

[Carole]

Do you mean this one Chris, taken in 2004?

[Rocket Pooch]

That's one, another below, just for comparison, I think this was with a Tal barlow, I could be wrong but I think this was with the ETX.




Jupiter-20040301v1 by chrissuddell, on Flickr

[Carole]

Yes good comparison, shows more detail with the Barlow:

This is what you put:

Meade ETX125, 2x Meade Barlow, 490 Frames at 5FPS, 0 Gamma, 50th Sec exposure 50% gain. 434 frames stacked in registax.

Carole