Moon Pic

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LGray23

Moon Pic

Unread post by LGray23 »

http://www.freesql.org/moonpic1.png

That's my second attempt, a little bit better this time. I captured about 15 seconds of video in an AVI, split it into individual jpegs and opened them with registax. Then I picked a short clip of about 50 frames, aligned and then "stacked" them.

Still lots of room for improvement here. Right off the bat I can see that focusing is an issue. It's pretty sensitive and there is even a little processing lag from when I turn the knob to when I see the effect on the screen. I have to work harder to start with higher quality images.

Second, it was windy and I was surprised how much that affected the frame to frame quality.

Third, ugh, there's an onboard green LED inside the webcam. Light pollution on a tiny scale.

Finally I can see that there is a real data management problem here. I can easily end up with thousands of files all with unintuitive names.

Registax is more of an art than a science, at least to me, but it's a lot of fun!

Gary
Dan Chieppa
Posts: 524
Joined: Thu May 26, 2005 10:18 pm

Unread post by Dan Chieppa »

Hi Gary,
I see the improvement over your first posted image. You've run into the same focusing problems I've encountered. It just takes some practice. I try and image whenever the sky is clear. I've used my Meade DSI Pro with my Stellarvue 80mm and my two Meade ED refractors. I have yet to try it with the 10-inch SCT.
Keep at it and good luck! :)
Clear skies,
Dan
Bruce D
Life Member
Posts: 5624
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2003 6:10 am

Unread post by Bruce D »

Hey Gary,

Nice craters! I had a similar problem with an LED inside the camera, a piece of black electrical tape solved that problem. Focusing is difficult, just a suggestion that might be worth trying... set the scope up in the daytime with the camera and focus on a distant object, it might be easier to focus in daylight. Then either mark the focuser somehow so you can return it to that same exact focus, or leave the camera on and don't touch the focus until night and use your finder to get on target. I'm not sure if that would help or not but it might be worth a try.
Bruce D
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