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 Moon, Planets and more - WebCam Images Experiments

WebCam Images of the Moon

I bought a Compro PS 39 WebCam in April 1999, which has a quite good resolution and what is very important: You can remove the lens and mount an adapter to 1-1/4". Additionally you may switch to a manual exposure mode and you may be able to expose up to 1/4 second.

It seems to be a good issue to use the non-interlaced mode of 240*320 pixels. I got the best results with this resolution sor far. But the 640*480 moon image is not bad either.

Some images here are in "stamp" size. By selecting the image you will get a higher resolution.


klick image to enlarge

My first ever webcam image through a telescope

  • Instrument:Compro PS39, Maksutov 1000mm/f10
  • Film: Digital 640*480 pixel, Black&White mode
  • Exposure time: 1/30 sec, guiding
  • Date: 18 April 1999 19.20 UT
  • Note: Best image out of a row of five. Bad seeing and high clouds were present. I made NO further processing on the image.

MARS Opposition 1999

Best images are obtained in color-mode and 320*240 pixel resolution. I found out that all higher resolutions suffer from interlacing. For image processing I do use the GIMP package (LINUX) with some plugins. Results are similar to "Photoshop" in Windows. A good program seems to be "Picture Window" especially for combining images.
Both the scopes, my Newton and the GvA Schiefspiegler have need to be adjusted very carefully again.
The images of MARS below are cropped from the original frame.

MARS

SSP = Schiefspiegler of GvA Observatory Kiel; 200 mm / f =4m + okular projection. Images by Christoph Petermann (me) and Dirk Westphal.

Jupiter and Saturn Opposition 1999

MARS

Jupiter

  • Instrument:Compro PS39, Maksutov f/10 f=1000mm, 18 mm Ocular projection
  • Film: Digital 320*240 pixel, B&W mode
  • Exposure time: 1/4 sec, guiding
  • Date: 15 November 1999
  • Note: Four combined frames with PictureWindow
MARS

Saturn

  • Instrument:Compro PS39, Maksutov f/10 f=1000mm, 18 mm Ocular projection
  • Film: Digital 320*240 pixel, B&W mode
  • Exposure time: 1/4 sec, guiding
  • Date: 15 November 1999
  • Note: Four combined frames with PictureWindow


More WebCam experiments

CASTOR

Gemini : Castor

  • Instrument:PS39; Newton f5 / 750mm
  • Exposure time: 1/4 sec, guided
  • Date: 11 May 2000
  • Note: Castor in GEMINI as seen with the webcam
CASTOR

Gemini : Castor ZOOMED

  • Instrument:PS39; Newton f5 / 750mm; eyepiece projection
  • Exposure time: 1/4 sec, guided
  • Date: 11 May 2000
  • Note: Both components of Castor are separated 3.9" and they are clearly visible.
Plejades

Plejades Composite

  • Instrument: PS39; f/4 f=300 mm Zeiss objective
  • Film: Digital 640*480 pixel, colour mode
  • Exposure time: 1/4 sec, guided
  • Date: 15 November 1999 ca. 20.00 UT
  • Note: Stacked 6 images

Saturn and Jupiter 31 October 1998 / FilmScan with WebCam

  • Instrument:F90 NIKON, Maksutov f10/1000mm !
  • Film: AGFA CTX 100; Scanned with COMPRO Webcam mounted to slide duplicator; Digital 320*240 pixel, Black&White mode
  • Exposure time: 1 sec, guided
  • Date: 31 October 1998
  • Note: I processed the image with AstroArt: unsharp masking. See the left Jupiter image is the original.
  • Note: ed. 15 Oct 1999.

Alkor and double star Mizar in UMa

  • Instrument:Compro PS39, Newton 150mm / f =750mm
  • Film: Digital 320*240 pixel, Black&White mode
  • Exposure time: 1/4 sec, guiding
  • Date: 19 April 1999 20.32 UT
  • Note: Pushed the contrast. The Mizar components are spaced 14.4". The star in between is magnitude 9.0

Venus

  • Instrument:Compro PS39, Newton 150mm / f =750mm + okualar projection
  • Film: Digital 320*240 pixel, Black&White mode
  • Exposure time: 1/36 sec, guiding
  • Date: 19 April 1999 20.01 UT
  • Note: Pushed slightly the contrast. Venus appeared at about 14.5" diameter.
VENUS

Venus

  • Instrument:Compro PS39, Newton 150mm / f =750mm + okualar projection
  • Film: Digital 320*240 pixel, COLOR mode reduced to black&white
  • Exposure time: 1/36 sec, guiding
  • Date: 29 April 1999 22.00 UT
  • Note: I combined two frames.
 Text and All Images are Copyright by Christoph Petermann DF9CY

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