Friday, June 9, 2017

#89 - Friday, June 9, 2017 - Back at it!

I know I am crazy – only a little over a week after my jaw surgery, and I’m back outside!  But the sky was clear, and I couldn’t resist!  I wanted to try out the ZWO with Saturn.  But first, downstairs neighbor Rhonda’s grandkids were visiting, so we looked at the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter.  The seeing was pretty decent, but not spectacular. 

            
For imaging, I used Miqaela’s five-slot filter wheel, since I’d found the piece I needed to attach the camera.  The B channel looked fuzzy, so I re-focused and tried again.  I took 2-minute videos on each channel.  I had to use VirtualDub to convert them to an AVI format that RegiStax likes, but it took it then without complaint.  I followed some instructions online where you process each channel, save out a FITS file, and then stack the three FITS files.  You just have to add _R, _G, and _B to the end of the filename (or also _L if you do luminance), and RegiStax will color them appropriately for you.  I ended up not using the L channel because the result was weird.  It worked great, and the result is awesome!
Date: 8 June 2017
Object: Saturn
Camera: ZWO ASI120MM (Miqaela's)
Telescope: Celestron C8
Accessories: ZWO five-slot filter wheel with L,R,G,B filters
Mount: Celestron NexStar SE
Guide scope: N/A
Guide camera: N/A
L frames: 1836 (ended up not using)
R Frames: 1416
G frames: 1357
B frames: 871
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Sooooo much sharper than my DSLR images.


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