Certainly did Sir, and pleased to see you here. I tried Registax and that worked well, but my error was converting D2X RAW files to tiff. My pc nearly had a nervous breakdown sorting and stacking 36 70mb tiffs. :) Took ages.

I am still trying to work out wavelet sharpening as opposed to high pass for moon shots.

Don

Those are very nice pictures.

I'm sure you know this, but I'll mention this for anyone here of a DIY pursuasion. (I know Don fits that category.) A cheap home made alternative to an expensive driven mounting is the Haig Mount, also known as the Barn Door Mount, or the Scotch Mount.

http://www.astronomyedinburgh.org/pu...otography.html


I remember the article appearing in Sky and Telescope about 30 years ago and I made one when I was (just) in my teens.

The link explains the principle, but it is no more than two squares of wood, joined by a hinge along one side, with a screw thread passing through one plank, and pushing against the other. The trick is to align the hinge with the Earth's axis, and then turn the screw thread once a minute, thus forcing one of the planks to rotate about the Earth's axis, countering the motion of the stars. The result is that a camera mounted on the moving plank will track the night sky. I think the inventor tried a 200mm lens but it really excelled with wide angles.

I have toyed with the idea of making another one, but the problem is the drive. Mine was digital (I used one finger to push a clothes peg attached to the drive rod). But ideally it should use a stepper motor with associated circuitry and a battery. If anyone knows a good source of the electronic items I would love to know.

And another link:

http://home.comcast.net/~dmiller5879..._animated.html

There are many developments which aim to reduce the tracking error which increases rapidly with time in the original version.

Saturn emerging from behind the moon this evening.

400mm lens and 2x and 1.4x converters.

I think I have beaten Dave to this. ;) :) :D

Don

Yes you have. I did watch it through my 12 inch (300mm) scope but made no attempt to photograph it. I just enjoyed the view together with a number of neighbours.

Excellent picture Don.

Dave

Star trails
 

Following on from my star trails post yesterday, last night was clear so I gave that program a go. The first picture is as it happened. The house is overexposed because my neighbour's security light came on for around two minutes so I ran the program again but missing out the four guilty frames.
Now , of course, there is a gap in the star trails but it illustrates what the possibilities are. There were 43 frames altogether each 30s long set on iso 800. It was so simple to do as I was able to leave the camera running and the use of the program is very straight forward. It gives the facility of taking dark frames which I did (i.e. 6 frames with the lens cap on).

One other nice feature in the progam is that it can make a video of the set of images which is quite fun.

Dave

The view through a spotting scope was really impressive. Better than I have shown here. I kind of rushed the pic processing just to get it posted so I will revisit the origional later.

Don

I have now revisited the file from last night. Stretching the boundry a bit as this image is 1200 x 911. Probably my best challenge to Sassan yet as with the TC201 added image is way soft. Perhaps I need a 600 prime lens at the front end. :rolleyes: :D :D

D2X, 400mm f5.6 IFED AIS lens, Kenko 2x + 1.4x converters. Exposure 1/15 sec wide open at 5.6 ISO 400.

Don

Thats amazing clarity Don with those stacked converters, a brilliant photo.
I missed out on getting saturn so close, well done on this one.

Yep, excellent going there, esp with it being untracked. I bet it took some skill to line that shot up :)

I built a barndoor mount 2 years ago, but I didn't work very well. Might have another go someday, it was easy enough and the maths is dead simple.