The Suffolk Sky » neximage

Jupiter on a Hot Night

Hersey — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:01:52 +0000

Friday night, July 24, 2009 was the first clear night we have had in a good while that I was able to get the scope set up. It was a clear night, but very hot and VERY humid. I was out from about 10 to midnight and I took a few images of Jupiter using my NexImage camera but I ended up with only one good capture before the dew got the best of the scope.

A 3 minute capture of 900 frames through a 3x barlow.

Jupiter NexImage/3x Barlow 3 minutes - 900 frames stacked

The image is not that great, but I hope to get a few more tries at it over the next month.

Observation Log – 1/24/2009 – Saturn

Hersey — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:59:19 +0000

The nights plan was to take some images of Saturn with my Celestron NexImage imager. It was cold and a little windy, there was also a lot of light pollution – the neighbors’ security lights stayed on the whole time I was out.

I started observing just before 10:00 PM and Saturn was already high enough in the eastern sky to see and was very easy to view with the 25mm Plossl eyepiece. The 25mm with the 3x Barlow brought out even more detail. The rings are edge on and I think it is cool how you can see the thin shadow across the planet where the rings cross. Several of Saturn’s moons were also visible.

I made several attempts to get some images Saturn. Trying several different capture programs and a variety of different settings. With the 3x Barlow and with out it. With the 3x Barlow I had a lot of problems trying to get good focus, I think the 3x may be pushing the magnification too much unless the seeing is really good.

I actually did get some pretty good AVI video of Saturn, but after processing they just did not turn out well. With the rings being edge on, you can see the shadow across the planet but you can not see the edge of the rings on each side of the planet.

I learned a lot about the camera settings with the different software and PCs (I used both my ASUS eee PC running Linux and my Dell Laptop running Windows XP more about that in another post) and I am looking forward to getting another chance to image the planet again.

I stopped observing just after midnight. There was still a lot I had planned to do and I probably could have taken some better images but I just got over being cold so I called it a night.

First Picture of Jupiter with the C8

Hersey — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:00:38 +0000

Took several one minute 5 frames/second images of Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon earlier tonight. With my C8S-GT scope using the NexImage and the Celestron UV/IR Filter. Just did a quick process of one of the Jupiter images with RegiStax 4 and here is what I ended up with.

Jupiter 11/01/08 18:43

Not too bad.

I was out from just after sunset till a few minutes ago. It has been a long day, so I will have a look at the others I got tomorrow.

Getting to know the NexImage

Hersey — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:35:15 +0000

I know it has been awhile since I have posted or even since I have been out to do any observing at all. Between weather, work, family, and life in general I have just not had the time to pull the scope out and do any real observing. Besides going out a time or two with the binoculars I have not even really looked up in the last month.

Lastnight the weather was good and the sky was clear. I set the C8 scope up in the early afternoon and decided that the focus of this session would be getting myself familiar with the Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager.

I spent a couple of hours in the early evening viewing Venus and Jupiter. I also spent a lot of time practicing focusing on the planets while the camera was attached and trying different configuration options in AMCap, which is the capture software that comes with the Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager, to figure out what works best. I did not get any images lastnight and I was not really trying to, but I did learn alot about the camera and the settings.

I also found a great quick set up guide with some basic instructions on configuring AMCap to use with the NexImage and I have stored it locally here Quick Guide to Capturing Images with the Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager. The originial document can be found at http://www.nexstarsite.com/download/ImagingWithNexImage.pdf

If the weather is nice next weekend I hope to get out an actually get a few images of Jupiter. Then I will be able to have a go at processing them.