|
|
| Gerald Stelmack is in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and uses a Sony DCR-TRV103/TRV110 digital 8 Handycam afocally with a 5 inch f/8 equatorially mounted (non-driven) Newtonian. He uses a Snappy to capture images to computer and Adobe Photoshop for image processing. |
| MOON - March 9, 2001 - afocal, 26mm Plossl, 8 video frames stacked in Photoshop. |
| MARS - May 11, 2001 - afocal with 10mm Plossl & 2x Barlow, 32 video frames stacked in Photoshop |
| Jupiter and Europa imaged 26 November 2000 with a 5 inch Newtonian and Sony Digital 8 Handycam DCR-TRV103 working afocally with a 12.5 Plossl and 2x Barlow. A Snappy was used to capture frames to the computer, 32 frames were stacked in Photoshop. |
.
.
| Saturn near opposition, 22 November 2000. Shot afocally with a Sony Digital 8 Handycam DCR-TRV103 and a 5 inch Newtonian with a 17.5mm Celestron Plossl and Ultima 2x Barlow. Single frames were captured to the computer with a Snappy frame grabber and image processed with Adobe Photoshop 5. The image is a composite of 64 video frames. |
| 5 inch (f8) Newtonian, afocal image captured
using Sony DCR-TRV103/TRV110 digital 8 handycam. 36 individual frames
captured with Snappy and composited/processed in
Photoshop. Image details: Jupiter and galilean moons Io and Europa from September 13, 2000, 6:45 am CDT. The shadow of Europa's transit is just finishing a transit across the great red spot. |
 |
| Nearly first quarter moon imaged June 7, 2000 afocally with a 5 inch f/8 Newtonian, Celestron 26mm Plossl and a Sony DCR-TRV103/ TRV110 Digital 8 Handycam. Single frame captured to computer with a Snappy frame grabber and processed in Adobe Photoshop. |
.
| Afocal image of Jupiter made with a 5 inch Newtonian and a Sony Digital 8 camcorder. Image was captured to computer with a Snappy and processed in PhotoShop. |
The Great Red Spot -- 22 November 1999
.
 |
 |
| . | |
 |
 |
| . | |
 |
Some comments on technique:
With the camcorder mounted on a tripod, the lens was brought close to the eyepiece and the planet was allowed to move through the field as the camera recorded the image (my mount has no drive system). Prior to recording, the image was focused at the eyepiece and then in the camcorder (manually). Finally, the image brightness was adjusted using the exposure control button on the camcorder. The tape was reviewed and individual video frames of highest quality were transfered to the computer with the Snappy frame grabber and the images processed using Photoshop. The final image represents a composite of between 8-16 stacked frames. Composite images were always combined two at a time (initially, two frames stacked producing a composite image of 2 frames, two of these then combined to produce a composite of 4 frames, two of these combined to produce a composite of 8 frames .... etc., until the final composite was obtained). When merging layers (levels dialog box), the opacity of the upper level image was always adjusted to 50% and the two levels flattened with the merge option set to "normal". To enhace detail of the final composite image, an "astronomical unsharp mask" was applied with photoshop using a methodology similar to that described in Phillipp Salzgeber's website. Finally, the image was processed further using the levels, brightness/contrast, hue/saturation and unsharp mask/noise filters available in photoshop. |
