Seeing and Saturn

The environment really makes a difference when it comes to planetary imaging. Here are two images of Saturn; the first from a windy night with poor seeing, the second from last night--calm and good seeing.

Windy, Poor Seeing

Calm, Good Seeing

The differences are dramatic. With better conditions the artifacts at the ring-tips are gone, there's more ring structure, Saturn's limb and cloud belts are better defined, and the polar vortex can be seen. Contrast is higher, too. (Differences in color balance are due to processing, not the conditions.)

Now imagine if the seeing had been excellent. Maybe some day I'll have a third image that illustrates that.

(Both images were created using a Point Grey Chameleon, Celestron C925 XLT, and TeleVue 2X Barlow, FireCapture and Registax 6.)

Clouds, WOW, Focal Reducer

The abysmal spring of 2013 continues with clouds, clouds and more clouds. My plan to attend the Wisconsin Observers Weekend this weekend has fallen through because of weather. The first night is being clouded out as I type this, Tomorrow night is forecast to be partly cloudy (at best) and Saturday night is forecast to be rainy (50% chance) and cloudy.

Worst. Spring. Ever.

But anyway, I did manage last week to shoot some test images with my .63 Celestron Focal Reducer.  I fiddle with my adapters until I got a spacing of about 104mm (I think), and here's what I got:

Flat Field test

This is taken using a Celestron 925 XLT and Celestron 0.63 Focal Reducer/Flattener. The camera is an SBIG-ST8300M with filter wheel (total back focus 38mm). Spacing was provided by a Celestron SCT-to-T adapter #93633-A (about 58mm).

The above full-field image is six 10 second exposures (2x2 binned) aligned and stacked, then given a stretch by Images Plus. The scope was not even roughly polar aligned and was unguided. I was also shooting through overhead power lines. Yechh.

I think it's fairly flat, at least flat enough to make me happy. Some vignetting is present, but it's about the same as found when imaging without the FR. I will probably tinker with the spacing in the future.

What's nice is that this setup gives a much more solid connection between the scope and camera. I look forward to using it SHOULD THE FREAKING SKY EVER CLEAR. Really, no, I'm okay, but thanks for asking.

Messier 3 from April

One advantage of long periods of cloudy weather is the time it gives you to catch up on processing. I've had a shot of M3 sitting around for almost a month. I never processed it because it was an "end of the evening" afterthought. Low priority compared to getting my new planetary imager. Now that that's settled I took a look at it today. My first pass at processing it left it too yellow, and my in my second attempt I may have overcompensated.

Messier 3. Click image for full size.

Image details are here. 

The way things are going in terms of the weather I may not be able to resume my imaging Messier marathon project until the Wisconsin Observer's Weekend in early June.

Third Light with PGR Chameleon: Saturn

First light (5/12): I was using FlyCapture software distributed by Point Grey. The software behaved terribly, crashing repeatedly, but PG support was great in helping me to get the camera online. No .avi files were worth keeping.

Second light (5/13): Now using FireCapture software, which took some work to get going. The creator of the software is an active member of the FireCapture Yahoo group, and he responded to a question I posted almost immediately. Amazing support from both PG and FireCapture. Unfortunately, the night was really windy and the seeing was terrible. No .avi files worth keeping.

Third light (5/14--yes, three semi-clear nights in a row!): Everything was rolling, and the night was a little less windy. Seeing was still not at all good, but I did take some videos. Here's the "first light" f/20 image with my C925:

Saturn, the planet with those big bright rings

Awfully fuzzy, isn't it. And those rings look pretty shabby. Oh well, I'll blame the seeing.

And so another learning curve begins. I have a lot to learn about using FireCapture to optimize my imaging. So far Firecapture is far better than FlyCapture, Both in terms of stability and utility.

Point Grey Chameleon ready for action (clear skies?)

A long time between updates, but the weather has been incredibly awful. Clouds, Clouds, snow, Clouds.

But it was good for indoor activities like learning how to sell on eBay. My comic book sold for $300, and that along with other sales got me up to what I needed to get the Chameleon, a GSO Crayford focuser for my C925, and a nosepiece so that the Chameleon could use the focuser.

Getting the new camera to work was a brief bit of effort. The camera works well with FlyCapture software, also available from Point Grey. I made a mistake of downloading the latest beta of FlyCap, and it acted like a beta version: no video. As soon as I replaced that with the latest stable version everything worked great. The Crayford will give me zero image shift as I focus. Shift was obviously going to be a problem; the few times I tried video at f/20 it was hard to keep the target in the field of view.

Everything about Point Grey was superb. The camera was shipped via Fed Ex box in box in box; it works great, and when I wrote them asking for advice about the missing video their response was fast and professional.

Last night was the first one with the Chameleon under the stars. FlyCapture software is less than adequate, as it crashed repeatedly, and the GUI is clunky (in my opinion). I'm going to start searching for alternatives.

New camera deferred

Last time I wrote about I comic book that I intended to sell in order to raise some cash for a new video camera:

I submitted it as worth between $300 and $1000. 

I should have my estimate within the week.

Silly me. The grade for the comic came in today, and it was lousy. If I'm lucky I might be able to sell it for enough to pay for the grading and shipping.

Comic Relief

Since I purchased a Celestron 9.25" SCT I've been thinking about upgrading from my ToUCam to something a little better. Right now I have my sights on a Point Grey Chameleon. The Chameleon is based on the Sony ICX445 and offers small pixel size, USB 2 compatibility, and a low price. It's frame rate is a little low at 18fps, but that's certainly acceptable. Reviews have been solidly positive.

Yes, there are GigE, firewire, and USB 3 alternatives that could be made to work with my laptop, but those models tend to be higher in price.

But even at $375 (+$20 or so for a 1 1/4" nosepiece), where will the money come from?

One source is an old comic book I have. I'm not a collector, but by coincidence I have one comic that is possibly worth some money--as much as $600, I hope. Not knowing a thing about comics, I have decided to get it professionally graded.

I shipped it to CGC Comics at the end of February. They will grade its condition so that a potential buyer can have confidence in what they are getting, seal it into a container and ship it back.  It's been sitting in their queue since March 1, and today was scheduled for grading. CGC charges for this service on the basis of the comic's estimated worth. If the comic is thought to be worth more than it was submitted as, they will increase the initial grading charge. I submitted it as worth between $300 and $1000. I would love to hear back from them that they plan to charge more!

I should have my estimate within the week.