Gotta Love That Registax Software!!

So this evening I have been playing around with the Software I downloaded the other day.

I must say, very impressive for FREE software.

I decided to re-process my images from Saturn earlier this year.

This one is a stack of 20 images out of 95.

This really brings out the detail. You can see the Cassini Ring better, and really notice the shadow on the back side along with the large band on the planet too.
I really can't enlarge it much more without it looking very grainy. I'll need to install photoshop again to see if I can clean it up a bit more. Unfortunately, my disk space right now is limited.
Sorry.

New and Improved.

This is what it looked like before:

So that's it for now. I wish you clear skies and a good night!

My processed image of Jupiter.....

Ok, after spending a bit of time this morning using Registax (see link to right), I have managed to improve on the image my last night out observing.


It's not bad in my opinion. In fact, if you really enlarge the image, and brighten it up, you can see some of Jupiter's Moons to the right and left.


So, here it is:




I'm going to try and improve on the image from Satrun earlier this year and see what I come up with. If it's any good, I'll upload it here.


Clear Skies and blog with you soon! :)

Yet Another Cold Night!

As I type, my fingers are still numb. :)

But I did have a pretty good night. No viewing, just imaging.

My first attempt this evening was Jupiter, yet again. But I did manage get some better images.

Now these are pre-processing. I'll update with some post-processed images later.

This one was the 1st attempt this evening:

This was attempt #2: I call it Jupiter-2. Not to be confused with the Space Ship from Lost in Space. :)

No bad, eh?

So after these I thought I would try something a bit different and went for the Andromeda Galaxy.

I tried for sometime, and although I could see stars, I could never get the Galaxy in the FOV (Field of View) of the camera.

So after many attempts, I decided it was just way too cold (somewhere around 45-50 degrees), that I would just pack it in. Packing up I did. Now I don't know what made me look, but I took my flashlight and took a look at the lens of the scope.

Even if I did manage to see it, my images would have been a waste of disk space. There was way too much dew.

So good thing I quit.

Now too warm up. But the scope is pretty set, that I may just try the galaxy again tomorrow.

This time I'll use my focal reducer so I don't need to keep swapping my camera for an eye piece, I can jus us the flip mirror.

Check back again soon. I may just have some new images!!

Clea Skies and Good Night!

Tonights Observations - September 10, 2008

So this evening I thought I would try and image Jupiter. That's my goal. I really would like to share what I see and what a fantastic hobby Astronomy can be.

But, as they say, the stars where not in my favor. Just couldn't get a good focus. Was able to better adjust the color, but with the heat rising off the surface of our wonderful planet, there was no way I could get a good focus.

So, rather than give up, I took the guided tour and did see 2 things I never saw before:
Messier 13 - http://www.raben.com/deepsky/m13-2007-05-27.jpg
Messier 92 - http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/science/messier92s.jpg
Now these images are not mine. I just Google them so I could show you what I was looking at.

Both are globular clusters (a bunch of stars), but great to look at.

Since I put the camera away, I wasn't able to try and take pictures. But, I also made it a point that I would try and get some images of planets or other near by objects before I attempt anything like this.

Oh, going back, while I was trying to re-align the scope with Jupiter, this object (I don't know what it was) just "zipped" through the view (eyepiece). I was surprised. I stood up and said "What the F*&^ was that?". It really took me off guard. :)

Also, where the heck did the summer go? It was sooooo cold out. My computer tells me it's 58 degrees out, but it's got to be colder than that. My hands are still cold/stiff while I'm typing here.
Ok, so that was tonight. I really want to get some good images to share with you all (all 4 of you), so when I do, I'll be sure to post them here.

Clear skies and Good Night!!