Alright, this is for sharing of your observation experience. Or, if you are arranging gatherings, star-gazing expeditions or just want some company to go observing together, you can shout it out here.
weixing wrote:Hi,
Want to join you guys, but I need to attend my friend wedding dinner on that night, so too bad...
May be you can organize a SingAstro star party somedays to get everyone down...
Hi Weixing,
Seeing that you always lurk here after midnight and all the cool stuff appears around this time, why should a wedding dinner stop you from joining us?? unless you all want to "nao dong fang" after the dinner?
anyway, you would like to digest the food and what better way then to go to dempsey to join us? I am itching to have a look at your helical focusser.
:roll:
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R United Federation of the Planets
Hi,
The problem is the wedding dinner is in Malaysia, wonder when will I be back?? May be I can try to drop by if I come back early, but never been the dempsey site before... is it along the holland road ??
Yang Weixing "The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."
Airconvent wrote:
Hi,
What scope are you using? I noticed some colour fringing which should not happen unless you use a lower quality eyepiece or a short FL achromat or took Saturn low in the horizon.
For focussing, Sam Chng (now in BMT) thought me a technique to help on this. Make use of your maximum optical and digital zoom on your camera. It may look pixelated but should be large enough for you to focus. Once done, you can switch back to optical zoom only for the improved quality.
cheers!
I'm using a Nextstar 4. I'm not sure if the fringing is because of image manipulation. The photos numbered with letters are actually "photoshoped" to (atttemp to) contrast the rings. Took the shots at around 3am when Saturn is near mid-sky. I was a little lazy and took that from my bedroom with the windows closed :oops: Perhaps you can figure out why the images are rather poor now. :oops:
As for the maximal zoom... I tried zooming in, but the planet seems to disappear some how. And given our poor skies nowadays, I had a small window period to work with. So I stuck with what works... ie, using the macro setting, which has limited (only optical) zoom. Thanks for the tip though. Maybe when my friend is free in the wee hours, I shall try capturing it with a digital cam. His cam has a much larger zoom.
weixing wrote:Hi,
The problem is the wedding dinner is in Malaysia, wonder when will I be back?? May be I can try to drop by if I come back early, but never been the dempsey site before... is it along the holland road ??
yes. at the old cmpb camp. check out cc's post on how to get there.
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R United Federation of the Planets
retro wrote:
I'm using a Nextstar 4. I'm not sure if the fringing is because of image manipulation. The photos numbered with letters are actually "photoshoped" to (atttemp to) contrast the rings. Took the shots at around 3am when Saturn is near mid-sky. I was a little lazy and took that from my bedroom with the windows closed :oops: Perhaps you can figure out why the images are rather poor now. :oops:
hi ,
you aren't by any chance be using Samuel's ex-Nexstar 4 and you are Choon Guan's frienf? :roll:
Else this would be the second N4 I came across here. The scope is generally ok, so I do not expect the colours to come from it. Maybe your eyepiece?
BTW, don't expect hubble quality pics. there is a limit on what a 4" Mak plus a normal digital camera can do. Check out www.weasner.com.
This is a Meade ETX website but there are alot of pics taken using the ETX scopes and you can see what is the best you can achieve using the N4.
Unfortunately, not too ideal but the satisfaction is derived from you imaging Saturn using your own scope and camera!
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R United Federation of the Planets
Airconvent wrote:
hi ,
you aren't by any chance be using Samuel's ex-Nexstar 4 and you are Choon Guan's frienf? :roll:
Else this would be the second N4 I came across here. The scope is generally ok, so I do not expect the colours to come from it. Maybe your eyepiece?
BTW, don't expect hubble quality pics. there is a limit on what a 4" Mak plus a normal digital camera can do. Check out www.weasner.com.
This is a Meade ETX website but there are alot of pics taken using the ETX scopes and you can see what is the best you can achieve using the N4.
Unfortunately, not too ideal but the satisfaction is derived from you imaging Saturn using your own scope and camera!
rich
Actually I got this scope from someone else. It's under the brand Tasco, which I understand is now defunct. The actual model is starguide 4. And nope, I do not know Choon Guan. Thanks for the links.
retro wrote:
Actually I got this scope from someone else. It's under the brand Tasco, which I understand is now defunct. The actual model is starguide 4. And nope, I do not know Choon Guan. Thanks for the links.
now it looks like matt's starguide!
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R United Federation of the Planets
retro wrote:
Actually I got this scope from someone else. It's under the brand Tasco, which I understand is now defunct. The actual model is starguide 4. And nope, I do not know Choon Guan. Thanks for the links.
unless you all want to "nao dong fang" after the dinner?
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." 
And nope, I do not know Choon Guan.