First Light!

LGray23 · Unread post by **LGray23** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:29 pm

Well, not so much "first light" as First Pixels:
http://www.freesql.org/moon.jpg

No this is not an amazing photo at all, but as my dad would say "it's not the fact that the monkey paints well, it's the fact that the monkey paints AT ALL". I'm pretty pleased with myself for (finally) getting this working!

As suggested in this forum, I bought a ccd webcam today and removed the lens as required. I was surprised that I actually had a plastic film container hanging around and it sacrificed itself to be an adapter. Then I took on the software challenge.

While I'm not anti-Microsoft, I have far more linux resources than Windows. I only have linux laptops. I've never worked with third party USB drivers, or Video4Linux as required to get this working in X Windows. It killed the afternoon and I learned a lot (plus I can stream mpegs wirelessly now to this laptop, but thats just gravy

)

Next will be mastering equatorial tracking and image stacking and maybe I'll have something to really crow about !

Gary H.

Dan Chieppa · Unread post by **Dan Chieppa** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:54 pm

Hello Gary,
I remember my 1st image obtained with a Meade LPI camera. Very exciting to see the image on my laptop and then being able to "capture" what I was seeing. Very cool stuff. Keep at it!

Clear skies,
Dan

Bruce D · Unread post by **Bruce D** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:26 pm

Hi Gary,

Nice work, put's my first attemt to shame! The software out there can be a big help in producing a final image. We have a couple of members who are experienced in this type of imaging, maybe they can be persuaded to give a talk at a meeting on what they do and how they do it. What camera did you get, and what scope do you have?

LGray23 · Unread post by **LGray23** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:33 am

We have an ETX-90 scope and the cam is a Logitech quickcam pro 5000.

I used the driver from Berlios and a simple utility to capture images to a file. I also found that Registax runs very very well under wine in linux.

Paul D · Unread post by **Paul D** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:20 am

Gary,

That image is a lot better than I can do. As Bruce mentioned there are a few astro photographers in the club that could give you some great tips and suggestions. I am always amazed to see peoples astro images and thanks for sharing your moon shot with us...

Paul D...