WebCam Images - Best of Each Subject
Saturn - 20.35UT 15 March 2003
Philips Toucam Pro webcam and 2x barlow on an 8" SCT. Frame alignment, selection, stacking and wavelet processing in Registax. Post processing in PSP7.
Jupiter - 23.02UT 15 March 2003
Jupiter showing the Great Red Spot and Europa.
165 frames stacked from 299 in the a 30 second video captured with a Philips Toucam Pro webcam and 2x barlow on an 8" SCT. Frame alignment, selection, stacking and wavelet processing in Registax. Post processing in PSP7: gentle unsharp mask, automatic colour balance adjustment, automatic colour saturation adjustment, slight brightness & contrast increase.
Shadow Transit of Jupiter 22.30UT 15 March 2003
Jupiter showing the Great Red Spot and a shadow transit of Europa.
94 frames stacked from 145 in a 30 second video captured with a Philips Toucam Pro webcam and 2x barlow on an 8" SCT. Frame alignment, selection, stacking and wavelet processing in Registax. Post processing in PSP7: gentle unsharp mask, despeckle, automatic colour balance adjustment to 7347K, gentle automatic colour saturation adjustment, 1% brightness reduction + 1% contrast increase.
Mosaic of images captured with a Toucam Pro webcam at f10 on an 8" SCT. Mosaic created with iMerge.
Click on the image for the full size uncompressed image but warning - it's 2.2Mb so recommended for broadband users only.
Alpine Valley
Single frame selected from a 30 second video captured with a Toucam Pro webcam at f10 on an 8" SCT.
Click on the image for the full size uncompressed image (124Kb).
Clavius
Single frame selected from a 30 second video captured with a Toucam Pro webcam at f10 on an 8" SCT.
Click on the image for the full size uncompressed image (193Kb).
Western rim of Mare Crisum
Moon 1 Mar 2002, Toucam Pro on 8"SCT f6.3 prime focus, Video captured with Iris at 5fps 1/250s exposure and 10% gain at 640x480 resolution and in black & white mode. Single frame from 15 second video selected, unsharp mask in Iris and brightness & contrast stretch in PaintshopPro.
Schröter's Valley
Philips Toucam Pro webcam and 2x barlow on an 8" SCT. Frame alignment, selection, stacking and wavelet processing in Registax. Post processing in PSP7.
First attempt at the Sun. Thousand Oaks filter on 8" SCT with f6.3 focal reducer, Webcam and 30mm eyepiece using eyepiece projection. 5fps, 1/1000 second, 10% gain, best 20 from 300 frames stacked. Indoor white balance used.
Sunspot regions 9824 & 9825 on 14 February 2002
Webcam at prime focus of 8"SCT (with Thousand Oaks solar filter) using f6.3 focal reducer. 5fps 1/1000 second 10% gain. Auto white colour balance used but this resulted in a greyscale appearance - colour balance restore in paintshop pro - single frame only.
Stack of two 30 second frames with dark frame subtracted.
Perseu Toucam SC in long exposure mode on 8" SCT at f10. Black & white used due to poor transparency effecting colour balance. Gain set to 30%.
Captured with K3CCDTools. Stacked & pre-processed with Registax, final unsharp mask with PaintShopPro.
Globular Cluster M3 (colour image)
Stack of five 30 second colour exposures with dark frame subtracted.
Imaged on 7 April 2003 with a Perseu Toucam SC modified webcam in long exposure mode on 8" SCT at f6.3. Gain set to 50%.
Captured with K3CCDTools. Stacked & pre-processed with K3CCDTools, final processing with PaintShopPro.
M57 Ring Nebula
A stack of 12x15s, 10x30s and 1x60s images all with dark frames subtracted. Images aligned stacked and processed with Registax 2.
Images captured with a Perseu modified webcam at f10 on an 8" SCT.
The Trapezium
The Trapezium in M42. Perseu modified Toucam Pro webcam on 8"SCT at f6.3.
13x15sec black & white frames with dark frame subtracted plus 8x15sec colour frames with dark frame subtracted. Gain set to approx 45%.
Images acquired with QFocus, aligned & stacked with Registax. Colour balance, brightness/contrast enhancement and unsharp mask in PaintShopPro.
Double star magnitudes 2.0 & 2.9 seperated by 2".
Stack of 17 1/25 second exposures - no processing.
Perseu Toucam SC in standard mode on 8" SCT at f10.
Mars imaged at 22.59UT on 4 September 2003. Toucam Pro webcam on 8"SCT at f20 using a 2x balow lens.
The seeing was very poor, the polar cap was hardly visible but some surface markings can be seen. A comparison simulated image is provided by www.calsky.com.
A 60 second video was captured comprising 299 1/50s exposures with 10% gain. 62 frames were selected and stacked using Registax.
Display of Noctilucent Clouds over Birmingham UK on 12th July 2009.
Image taken at 21:45UT
with compact digital camera.
3.2 second exposure at f2.9 ISO64
