Another iPhone photo of Saturn processed by Tim Dey in photoshop

I took this last night through the c14 with about a thousand power on the eyepiece. The image looked fuzzy and offered no more detail to the naked eye than a lower powered view.

Here is the result of that photo.

We will be able to do better with the Stellacam and a dazzle card in the future.

Handheld iPhone photo through Televue 8mm and Meade 2x Barlow. At 3911mm focal length configuration for c14 giving 977 power at the eyepiece.

Considering the amount of cold frost and moisture in the air the images were incredibly stable last night. Possibly due to a very calm sky with very slow moving thin clouds.

Eyepiece views actually seemed to show more band gradient detail, meaning cloud band variations in detail when looking through thin clouds late in the viewing session. This means I needed to use a filter to cut down the light exposure to get a better naked eye view through the eyepiece.

At times the view improved if I covered half the front of the c14 with the shutter half exposing the sky. This would almost be the similar to using an offset mask to cut down on the telescopes front aperture. Perhaps an aperture mask would have improved the c14s viewing by cutting down on the brightness at the eyepiece. Perhaps ill make a quick aperture mask for future viewing. These are often referred to as offset masks and were used by astronomers with Newtonian reflectors to get good unobstructed views of a planet with a Newtonian reflector. But that is another story.





Quick description: Saturn, iPhone handheld shot, auto exposed, at 977x at eyepiece, photoshop work by Tim Dey.

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Tonight, this morning, I went out to the observatory and looked at Saturn

I looked at it for about four hours and took a lot of photos. I didn't have the Stellacam, but kept taking stills through the eyepiece using my Canon Eos, Sony Hdcam and my iPhone. I was using extremely high power. Conditions were not perfect, but viewing was pretty good. I could throw an 8mm and get a pretty sharp image of Saturn. Actually the 10mm was about the limit for visual and the 15mm looked a lot sharper. The 25mm was amazing. I also put a 2x Barlow on many of the eyepieces. I tried taking photos through various combinations and filters as well. The 2x Barlow and 8mm lens gave some interesting almost full screen views of Saturn when coupled with digital zoom on the iPhone. The image was fuzzy at that high power to the naked eye but still looked okay in a camera shot. It was a challenge to get a goo steady shot because I was holding the camera up against the eyepiece, handheld requires ore time and more shots to be taken. The cold air at times would chill my hands and make steady photography difficult. We were way beyond theoretical viewing limits of the system when you take into account the digital zooming.

At times I just shot through the 8mm eyepiece, which was a challenge. I zoomed in as well digitally with the 8mm eyepiece on the c14 and tried getting some nice shots.

I actually took a few decent shots, but nothing like a real Stellacam and avi clip coupled with processing could give. I sent some of the iPhone photos to club members. This was late at night. Tim Dey sent back one of the iPhone photos I sent him after touching it up a bit with filters and processing in photoshop.

Here's what he sent me back. Not bad for a photo through an eyepiece with an iPhone.

He said he'd give me a much better photo if I'd take some footage with the Stellacam. I need to hook it up to a pc however and record the output using an avi recorder so it can be processed. We don't have a capture card in the computer for the Stellacam. Once we get a dazzle setup for HJRO we will be able to use the Stellacam, because it's sending video out.

I can record the video into my Macintosh, but the QuickTime recording doesn't import into a program we'd use to process the avi movie. We tried converting a QuickTime video to avi, via the Macintosh and the common software we'd use to process the movie would not read the file.

At the end of the evening, nearly 4am Saturn started looking better through the eyepiece. I looked up and realized I was looking through part of the shutter with the c14 and there was a thin layer of cirrus clouds. I would never thought Saturn could look so good through thin cloud cover. The thin clouds actually filtered the light and made it look better with more contrast and more gradient levels of cloud patterns visible. The sky was vary stable and fairly transparent.



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Opening up HJRO again tonight

I'll be returning to the observatory in Lincoln park to open it up at 9:45.

I saw and attempted to take more photos of mercury tonight.

Couldn't see Mercury until 8:30 and it was low on the horizon.

More details later, it was a nightmare in some cases with little last minute setup issues and battery power problems with my nexstar 4se.

What can I say, the little 4se battery compartment and cheap switch issues can be a nightmare.

Plus the finder wasn't working.

It was comedy night in the field now to get back to serious observing with a better setup.

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 28, 2011, at 4:07 PM, "Gregory" wrote:

I'll be observing the sun at the observatory at about 4:45pm.

May continue observing there until about 6pm.

Then plan on taking a break and traveling to taco bell parking lot at the Allen park mall on the hill near best buy and meijers at sunset about 7:15pm to view Mercury as it sets during twilight.

Perhaps after that time I will return this evening to HJRO Hector J Robinson observatory. I'll put another post if I return for evening viewing.

I'm viewing Mercury from a hilly area near outer drive and Southfield road where the elevated mall is to see the low horizon. This is a good local viewing spot. It will be cold out there so visitors should dress extremely warm for cold weather.
Children under 18 need to be accompanies with an parent or guardian.

Greg

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Observing the sun through solar telescope at the observatory today

I'll be observing the sun at the observatory at about 4:45pm.

May continue observing there until about 6pm.

Then plan on taking a break and traveling to taco bell parking lot at the Allen park mall on the hill near best buy and meijers at sunset about 7:15pm to view Mercury as it sets during twilight.

Perhaps after that time I will return this evening to HJRO Hector J Robinson observatory. I'll put another post if I return for evening viewing.

I'm viewing Mercury from a hilly area near outer drive and Southfield road where the elevated mall is to see the low horizon. This is a good local viewing spot. It will be cold out there so visitors should dress extremely warm for cold weather.
Children under 18 need to be accompanies with an parent or guardian.

Greg


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Open at 10;45 am

There's some clouds out but I will try to do some solar observing for two hours at HJRO.

I may look at the moon and Venus as well. Adult visitors are welcome.

I will be there until 12 noon




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Saturn tonight

Through a 15mm eyepiece 2x Barlow and 3x zoom into eyepiece with c14

Just a photo no processing. I think this was at 3200 iso setting.




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I'm out T the observatory very early in the morning

If any staff happen to be up late at night and you want to bundle up and stop by before 4:20am you should come by for a really nice clear view of Saturn.

It looks really good this morning.

You should call the number I posted in the previous post before arriving to allow me time to unlock the gate.

This late night and half asleep invitation is to school staff or Faac members only at this time. Some basic through the lens photos to follow.




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