Lunester Lounge 2017.... for ANY topic you wish to discuss

[Mythocentric]

Thanks, Bill.

 

The video capture generates AVIs which are converted to JPEGs. Used it for the first time last night. Sometime in the future I'll buy a dedicated CCD planetary imager, which may involve RAW.

 

The DSLR is set to the highest level JPEG, for the simple reason that I don't have anything that will process RAW files at the moment. I regard everything that's going on for the next few months as "play" - the decent photos should start to appear later in the year once I'm more familiar with things - and the Moon gets to a higher altitude (I'll be out tomorrow morning - at 2am the Moon reaches the grand altitude of 20 degrees again!)

 

I'm happy to set the Canon to generate RAW. What do you use to view them as the Windows browsers don't seem to like RAW (I tried a couple of pics to see what happened). 

 

I used to run Paint Shop Pro back in the 90s. Remember very little about it. Is it ok on Windows 7 - I've heard mixed reports that the latest Photoshop (Elements 13?) is ok with Win 8 but some have had problems installing it on Win 7.

 

I've spent hours today playing with stacking, wavelets etc. Like the good old days of addictive computer games!

 

Jeff

 

I had a look at the CCD imager's as an alternative to using my camera as a dual-purpose machine and keeping it purely for terrestrial work. I must admit I was not impressed by the fact that it would mean another link in the chain by adding a laptop to receive the images and associated (additional cost) cables to link them. After which it would still mean having to import the images to a suitable program to manipulate them unless you get them bang on first time! The thought of having my laptop out in the open with the other gear at the risk of inclement weather wasn't a great selling point either, given that its one of the places I store my artwork (over 300Gb!) and losing that would be disastrous! For the moment I'm going to settle for a Barlow, T-ring converter, red-light torch and dew shield plus a ruddy great pile of books to bring back me up to speed!

Incidentally, you may like to have a look at this guy, Forrest Tanaka, on YouTube who has a series on Astrophotography https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_N3KiUvb4M2-NyKRugXmwI hope I'm not trying to teach granny to suck eggs, etc., but you may glean a few tips about using DSLR's (Canon like you) for the job. As a whole new field for me I found them highly informative but I must admit I was rather disappointed to find I can't do a 'Meridian Flip' like you! (Can't wait to see what Andrew makes of that one!)

 

Regards

 

Bill

 

Edit: Just been outside for a quick peep! Solid wall-to-wall cloud. I can't even see the bl**dy sky, never mind the moon!

Edited July 5, 2015 by Mythocentric

[Physicsman]

Morning lads.

 

Thanks for the websites and RAW-based suggestions. I was out until 3, after the thunderstorms cleared, and got another batch of images. I took a set of whole disc Moon pics, both at max size JPEG (set for max, but they tend to be about 5Mb) and RAW (which are all nearly 20Mb). After a bit of fiddling I used the Canon DPP software supplied to download and view the RAW images (CR2). I'll do the same from now on and process the RAW files when I get the chance.

 

I think it's going to be cloudy tonight. I'm enjoying going to bed after the sun has risen, but I think I need a day off! If only to catch up with processing the 30 AVI vids I took last night!

 

Jeff

[Physicsman]

Bill, you are correct about being outside with a laptop. I'm only in the garden, and everything is organised and plugged-in, but it seems weird - an oasis of light in the darkness of the night!

 

I was imaging for about 2 hours last night. By 3am I had no choice but to stop - everything was soaked in dew (except the front of the scope, protected by its dew shield).

 

Yes, fork mounts and SCT tubes have no problems with a "Meridian flip". It sounds like the kind of thing Mankini man would have to do when the material gets stuck in his crevice! Now there's an image for you - in the RAW!!!!!

 

Btw, it looks as if New Horizons will be ok. As long as the mission operates for another few months, I'll be happy, as it'll take that time to download all the data the probe has taken. Given that Voyage 1, launched in 1977, is still operating at about 4 times the distance of NH, we can hope all will proceed as normal.

 

Jeff 

[Donington Road]

Bill, you are correct about being outside with a laptop. I'm only in the garden, and everything is organised and plugged-in, but it seems weird - an oasis of light in the darkness of the night!

 

I was imaging for about 2 hours last night. By 3am I had no choice but to stop - everything was soaked in dew (except the front of the scope, protected by its dew shield).

 

Yes, fork mounts and SCT tubes have no problems with a "Meridian flip". It sounds like the kind of thing Mankini man would have to do when the material gets stuck in his crevice! Now there's an image for you - in the RAW!!!!!

 

Btw, it looks as if New Horizons will be ok. As long as the mission operates for another few months, I'll be happy, as it'll take that time to download all the data the probe has taken. Given that Voyage 1, launched in 1977, is still operating at about 4 times the distance of NH, we can hope all will proceed as normal.

 

Jeff

 

 

Beat the dew

 

http://www.dewbuster.com/dewshield-laptop.html

[Physicsman]

Andy has asked me to tell everybody that his lack of posting is because he currently has no internet access. This is the result of the recent thunderstorms and the problem may take a while to clear up.

 

The same applies to Peter BB who lives nearby.

 

Jeff

[Mythocentric]

Bill, you are correct about being outside with a laptop. I'm only in the garden, and everything is organised and plugged-in, but it seems weird - an oasis of light in the darkness of the night!

 

I was imaging for about 2 hours last night. By 3am I had no choice but to stop - everything was soaked in dew (except the front of the scope, protected by its dew shield).

 

Yes, fork mounts and SCT tubes have no problems with a "Meridian flip". It sounds like the kind of thing Mankini man would have to do when the material gets stuck in his crevice! Now there's an image for you - in the RAW!!!!!

 

Btw, it looks as if New Horizons will be ok. As long as the mission operates for another few months, I'll be happy, as it'll take that time to download all the data the probe has taken. Given that Voyage 1, launched in 1977, is still operating at about 4 times the distance of NH, we can hope all will proceed as normal.

 

Jeff 

 

You do realize that because of you and John I'll probably never be able to sleep again don't you? 

 

Thanks for the info regarding Andy. I was beginning to suspect that lot in Wales had kidnapped him! :no:

 

Regards

 

Bill

Edited July 6, 2015 by Mythocentric

[sp1]

You do realize that because of you and John I'll probably never be able to sleep again don't you?

 

Thanks for the info regarding Andy. I was beginning to suspect that lot in Wales had kidnapped him! :no:

 

Regards

 

Bill

You thought Andy had been kidnapped by sheep?

[emt_911]

Andy has asked me to tell everybody that his lack of posting is because he currently has no internet access. This is the result of the recent thunderstorms and the problem may take a while to clear up.

 

The same applies to Peter BB who lives nearby.

 

Jeff

I thought that it was quiet

[Peter Kazmierczak]

 

Andy has asked me to tell everybody that his lack of posting is because he currently has no internet access. This is the result of the recent thunderstorms and the problem may take a while to clear up.

 

Jeff

 

 

 

Thank heaven for small mercies. Only joking Andy..................

 

Those electric storms we had last Friday night were something special. There was that certain stillness, then flashes and rumbles in the sky. A few drops of gentle rain, then it sheets down.

 

Earlier in the day the temp gauge on the car had reached 34 Celsius.

 

It was also my sons graduation, so a memorable day all round. Perhaps it was all a dream after champagne and canapes.

 

Wonder what Stone Age Man (and woman) thought about it all?

[Physicsman]

It appears that the New Horizons "glitch" was a result of an overload from simultaneous incoming commands and outgoing pre-programmed actions. All seems well and the latest closeR-ups, 7 days from closest approach are now online.

 

Here, for example: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

 

Jeff

[Donw]

The storm that killed 3 people on Pen y Van passed over us earlier rather glad we were off the hills from our walk before then.

Don

[Jock67B]

Afternoon Jeff,

Been following that link for a while now! It's interesting to read the positional data on New Horizons - almost the same distance from Earth (31.83AU) as it is from the Sun (32.85AU) and, more important, only 0.06AU from Pluto! The passing speed, 13.78Km/S, will make clear images difficult, but no doubt NASA's computers are geared up for that? I think the countdown data really brings home to you just how incredible this mission is - the combination of science, technology, electronics, computing and engineering and the original concept of accelerating the spacecraft using the gravity of Earth and Mars is astounding!

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Mythocentric]

Har Har! You may recall that a good few posts back I mentioned that those regularly spaced 'spots' would have the CT's claiming that Pluto was actually an alien ship!

 

Applause please for SecureTeam10 who have now decided that the spots on Pluto prove that it is indeed an alien ship! Sorry guys, but you'll have to get up earlier than this to beat the Lunester Asylum Crew. Humm! I wonder if we can sue them for intellectual copyright theft?

 

Regards

 

Bill

Edited July 7, 2015 by Mythocentric

[Physicsman]

Bill, Jock - are you getting excited? NH's passage past Pluto will finally confirm it's the homeworld of the meerkats..... Well, that's another CT theory!

 

Anyway, Bill - question for you.

 

I have the last set of DSLR images stored in both RAW and JPEG format. My image stitching programme (for which I had to degrade RAW to TIFF to allow it to work) ends up working in 8-bit at the JPEG level. Does Paint Shop Pro allow the manipulation/layering/combining of RAW files, maintaining 16-bit integrity?

 

Jeff

[Mythocentric]

Bill, Jock - are you getting excited? NH's passage past Pluto will finally confirm it's the homeworld of the meerkats..... Well, that's another CT theory!

 

Anyway, Bill - question for you.

 

I have the last set of DSLR images stored in both RAW and JPEG format. My image stitching programme (for which I had to degrade RAW to TIFF to allow it to work) ends up working in 8-bit at the JPEG level. Does Paint Shop Pro allow the manipulation/layering/combining of RAW files, maintaining 16-bit integrity?

 

Jeff

 

Yes and I don't know Jeff so I'll go and find out! To be honest I doubt it. The idea behind RAW format is that you are working with the image data exactly as the camera captured it. This allows you to work on the image to achieve the result you want before you convert to one of the more commonly used formats. I know it will produce panorama's but they are a different kettle of fish to mosaics. You can determine the bit level at which it works but that would require your stitching program to be capable of matching it. Probably the reason it's reducing them is because it just doesn't have the processing power to handle them. There are high end programs out there but they come with a price to match. I'm off to experiment so watch this space!

 

A quick note: TIFF is a 'lossless' format so you don't get any degradation of the image even if you use a high compression rate as you would with JPEG, which makes it eminently suitable for processed images. The only time I convert to JPEG is for a final image which does not need any further work and only if it's going to be uploaded to the web.

 

Regards

 

Bill

 

PS: Meercats?

Edited July 7, 2015 by Mythocentric

[Physicsman]

Right, had a quick look on Amazon and now I'm TOTALLY confused!

 

We have Paint Shop Pro X7 at £35 or in Ultimate form at £45.

 

We also have Paint Shop Pro Photo in X2 and X3 forms.....

 

So what do I go for?

 

I WILL buy a package like this - imminently. I've caught the astrophotography bug big time and need something with a bit more processing power. Everyone seems to use Photoshop - the books refer to it. 

 

Jeff

[paul2001]

Afternoon everybody a couple of shots taken with my phone camera of the sunset the other night

 

 

 

 

Not bad for 23:30 on a Saturday night. I think that's a couple of planets visable in the last one.

[Physicsman]

Paul, that's the benefit of being in the box at Kirkby Stephen - nice and dark out there. I've sometimes stopped during my drive over from Cumbria (tend to drive at night) near to KS station - the "gravel dump" area on the corner just up the hill from the terraced houses being a good spot for a spectacular view - if it's clear!

 

Very atmospheric photos.

 

Jeff

 

Edit: Yes, Jupiter (left) and Venus (right) in the background.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Physicsman

[Mythocentric]

Right, had a quick look on Amazon and now I'm TOTALLY confused!

 

We have Paint Shop Pro X7 at £35 or in Ultimate form at £45.

 

We also have Paint Shop Pro Photo in X2 and X3 forms.....

 

So what do I go for?

 

I WILL buy a package like this - imminently. I've caught the astrophotography bug big time and need something with a bit more processing power. Everyone seems to use Photoshop - the books refer to it. 

 

Jeff

 

Hi again Jeff!

 

I just had a quick check myself and it appears that the Photo appendage has been dropped! X2 and X3 are old versions which you can dismiss. In all honesty I'd spend the extra tenner and get the X7 Ultimate version which does look like it has everything you'll need. It does everything that Photoshop Elements can do and with a lot gentler learning curve, which is something Paint Shop is rightly praised for! To tell the truth, now that I've seen it I suspect I'll be upgrading to it myself after I've had a more in-depth read!

 

On the same subject, I've just taken delivery of a large, brown box from FLO so the experiments with PSP might take a bit longer than I thought! I only hope it isn't as big as the box suggests or I might have to buy a van to move it!

 

Regards

 

Bill

[Physicsman]

Have fun with the telescope!

 

I'll buy PSP Ultimate, good idea. Assuming - and I'm sure it does - it works on Windows 7.

 

Interesting thing with the Moon photos. A one-off shot with a DSLR can - atmosphere allowing - produce stunning results. But 100 stacked frames from a 1000 frame AVI, under awful conditions (the air was as turbulent as the sea last night) is producing better results (the stacking rejects the majority of poor frames). An enjoyable technique. Isn't astronomy fun?

 

Jeff

[aberdare]

All this talk of stargazing and night photography made me want to get out and have a go myself as it has been quite a few years since I did anything like that, at this point I should post the results but that is not to be. As I have to go up the hill to get above the valley to clear the tree line and be out of the house during late evening I couldn't do it, Linda has been confined to complete bed rest for another two weeks and I need to be here all of the time, Oh well I'll just content myself looking at all your excellent shots instead.

 

I also thought it had scuppered my chance of getting to Goathland to see Jason and Chris with the Mill, but I have been told "You are going", well who am I to argue with the powers that be , apparently I need the break so it looks as if I will be there on saturday afternoon, looking forward to it.

 

Jock, I enjoyed reading about your day at the 'relay for life' and look forward to reading your post about it again next year.

 

That's it from me for now, all the best to one and all.

 

Jim

[Jock67B]

Very kind Jim, thank you - I'm determined!

Jeff, YES! Really looking forward to it. There was a programme on Rosetta on Sky tonight but I had to record it as we were out - wonder if anyone saw it and if it's worth watching?

Happy stargazing, and other non railway pursuits!

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Mythocentric]

A quick update! I opened the large box I received earlier and found myself in possession of a GoTo telescope. Unfortunately the GoTo had absolutely no intention of going anywhere so it's all back in the box awaiting return. It appears the problem may be with the handset which has no readout and a communication fault with the GoTo, i.e. Turn on the power and the handset lights up then goes off again, the slew buttons occasionally work but the motor doesn't stop when you release them or more often, doesn't work at all! A pity because there were some very heavenly bodies on the beach today, not to mention that the sky is clear tonight for the first time in a week! All in all a bit of a bu**er because it's a lovely piece of kit but it would be even lovelier if it actually worked! Quote:" Isn't astronomy fun?" Three guesses as to my current answer!

 

Jeff. I'm assured that PSP Ultimate will do everything you need with regard to layering, manipulation, etc. Besides RAW it will also now handle HDR (High Dynamic Range) images which is particularly useful for me because I have to convert the background images I use in my work to HDR (for use with light probes and similar esoteric stuff) using a separate program at the moment. It comes in 32 and 64 bit versions so check you computer to make sure you get the right one. Indeed, I'm so impressed with it I will be popping into Lancaster at the weekend to get myself a copy!

 

Jim. My best regards to you and Linda! Keep the faith Bud!

 

Regards

 

Bill (a.k.a. Disappointed of Mordor Morecambe)

[Physicsman]

Sorry to hear bout your woes, Bill. I had a similar experience with the NexStar5 a few weeks ago (not the recent one). When the box was delivered (from Amazon), I found it had previously been sent to someone else - though not opened. I opened it up to see the delights of the machine, but - concerned that the previous recipient (who'd sent it back) had discovered something dodgy - had to pack it all up and get it replaced.

 

Once you've handled one of these beasts you don't want to let go!

 

Btw, might seem a silly question. How do I know if I need a 32-bit or 64-bit version? What aspect of my laptop sets the criteria? My machine is a 2012 Core i5.

 

Jeff

[Physicsman]

Very kind Jim, thank you - I'm determined!

Jeff, YES! Really looking forward to it. There was a programme on Rosetta on Sky tonight but I had to record it as we were out - wonder if anyone saw it and if it's worth watching?

Happy stargazing, and other non railway pursuits!

Kind regards,

Jock.

 

Morning Jock.

 

There are a couple of good Rosetta documentaries doing the rounds at the moment. Neither went beyond the "Philae bounce", but maybe you've found one with a more current update. They are worth watching to listen to the extrovert Dr Matt Taylor - tattoos and all - who is a comet version of Colin Pillinger (Beagle 2).

 

A recommendation, to one and all. If you are interested in the Moon, go on to Google and download a copy of the free "Lunar Virtual Atlas". A superb piece of software.

 

Jeff