rjkrejci@earthlink.net (Rick Krejci) [26 Dec 00]
I've been busy this month enjoying the night sky here in Arizona. I've had alot of practice with my quickcam VC and have got the process down pretty good now. I mounted the circuit board of the QC to an old Canon lens cover, so I can now attach it to my rear t-adapter mount on the etx90 and flip the mirror between camera and eyepiece...much nicer! I'm also using a 2x tele-extender I had around to double the camera's magnification with excellent optical quality. The jupiter shot was taken on 12/22...a night of great seeing here. I took about 200 straight shots with the QC with 2x tele-extender, chose the best out of them (about 108 shots) and combined them with Astrostack with some post-processing applied. I was thrilled with the results! I tried not to overprocess it too much, although it is so exciting to see the detail come out. The Saturn shot was taken with the same setup earlier in the month on 12/2. About 60 hand chosen shots out of 200 were chosen and combined with Astrostack. Again, couldn't be happier with the results. Thanks for your hard work and incredible site and have a very Merry Christmas!
M&J Bareket (bareketj@inter.net.il) [23 Dec 00]
just another saturn shot I took with my ETX. IDO.;-> *If some one tried any deep sky photography with an LX90 or have any web site regarding this subject please e-mail me, thanks.
igrodroch@enlace.net (Ignacio Rodriguez) [17 Dec 00]
I've been using my new ETX125 for several weeks and I'm very impressed. It is exactly what I expected! I have the Meade tripod and It was a little shaky but I added the Scopetronix clamps with very good results. I have the electric focuser which works fine and helps a lot. I'll give latter more details about this and other accesories I have. At this moment I just want to send an example of a jupiter picture with three of its moons making as triangle. My setup fot this images is: Nexstar plossl 40mm + Meade #126 2X Barlow + Sony HandyCam Hi8 TRV46 in a separated tripod. The focusing is a little difficult but now I know how to align the camera to avoid blackout and find the small visible area. I used the camera 18X optical zoom so the magnification is 48 x 2 x 18 = 1,728 !!! ( is it correct?)
gerald_wechselberger@at.ibm.com (Gerald Wechselberger) [6 Dec 00]
Please find attached an imagesequence of Jupiter with the Movement of the Red Spot, This shot was made with an Olympus Digitalcamera Z2020 attached to the ETX 125EC. Exposure time 1/10 second per single picture, 26mm Eyepiece projection, Homemade cameraconnector, Images improved and combined with Micrografix Publisher. Feel free to put it on your guest ETX-Page. Thanks for providing such a large volume of ETX infos alive und updated all the time.
rjkrejci@earthlink.net (Rick Krejci) [20 Nov 00]
I took these pictures tonight (11/18/00) with my ETX-90EC and Quickcam VC at prime focus. They are a combo of 100 shots using Astrostack (an incredibly useful program). You can also see Ganymede just to the left of Jupiter. Thanks for the incredibly informative site! The params are: Jupiter @ 9:26pm mst 11/18/00 Saturn @ 9:40pm mst 11/18/99 etx-90ec (polar aligned, hand controller), USB Quickcam VC, Astrocap software for capturing, Astrostack for 100 image mean averaging and post processing (unsharp filers and/or deconvolve). I just got this rig 2 weeks ago (previously had a 6" newt. equ.) and am loving every minute of it. I live in Phoenix, so clear, dark nights are the rule, although the atmosphere is not overly steady. Going to try a 2x barlow next, but have to get used to keeping the image centered better before I tackle that.
DavidFunk@mindspring.com (David J. Funk) [20 Nov 00]
Saturn was taken on 11/13/2000 @ approx 9:30 MST. I am using a Quickcam VC with the ETX-90 at prime focus. Jupiter was taken on 11/15/200 at about 9:45 MST. The GRS is visible in the image. Both are cropped from single exposures.
yann.duchemin@free.fr (Yann Duchemin) [15 Nov 00]
I've taken theses pictures yesterday night,with my ETX90-ec and a quickcamVC directly on it, and focused with qcfocus (by P.Chevalley). It's the median addition of 30 pictures from an avi film, stacked with astrostack software. The colors was adjusted with Gimp. Best Regards, Yann Duchemin http://yann.duchemin.free.fr/astro/ email:yann.duchemin@free.fr
M&J Bareket (bareketj@inter.net.il) [12 Nov 00]
ONE OF MY LATEST -IDO Mike here: I cropped this from the original full frame 640x480 image.
paonline1@home.com (paonline1) [8 Nov 00]
Shots taken with an Olympus 3030z Digital camera held to the 26mm eye piece on my ETX 125. I was every pleased to capture Saturn. Next shots I'd like to mess with the manual mode on the camera. I'll send you my findings. 1/4 sec, F2.8, ISO 100, Focal Length 93mm
M&J Bareket (bareketj@inter.net.il) [31 Oct 00]
I took this pic with 400asa film and with meade's 6.7 plossel. shalom-IDO
tompilot@zbzoom.net (Tom Surgalski) [27 Oct 00]
Here is Round Two of my quest to get quality photos of the gas giants from my Olympus 2020Z/ETX90 RA combination. I used Astrostack software to combine 7 pics of Jupiter and 4 pics of Saturn. I am having a ball doing this. My hero is Jim Berry, those pictures are spectacular! Thanks again for all your effort in this site.
M&J Bareket (bareketj@inter.net.il) [15 Oct 00]
Hi, I took the shot at the 8/10/00 film=400asa. hardly processed
jethridg@ro.com (Jamey Ethridge) [12 Oct 00]
[Left] This was my first attempt to image Jupiter using the ETX-90EC and the QuickCam VC. I connected the QuickCam VC to the eyepiece holder of the ETX for this shot. I used PSP 3.11 (free online and about 4 years old) to do some color correction to the image. No sharpening or unmask filters were used. Other than color correction, this is a raw image. [Right] Again, this was my first attempt to image Saturn using the ETX-90EC and the QuickCam VC. I connected the QuickCam VC to the eyepiece holder of the ETX for this shot. I used PSP 3.11 to do some color correction to the image. No sharpening or unmask filters were used. Other than color correction, this is a raw image. [Below] This is a picture of my setup, which consists of an ETX-90EC, a Logitech QuickCam VC (which I purchased on ebay for $19) and a computer I pieced together from spare parts (PII 300/96MB RAM). I purchased a roll-around tool chest/cart from a local department store to house my computer, monitor, and imaging equipment. My main goal was to see how much I could do and see, while using the least amount of money (and equipment). I wanted to get the biggest "bang for my buck", so to speak. You'll notice that I'm using a bare minimum of equipment and software to produce my images with. I have had my ETX since December 1999, and I have always wanted to get into CCD, but the cost has been prohibitive. I discovered a QuickCam VC on ebay for $19, purchased it, and as soon as it arrived, I got to work modifying it. I took a straightened paper clip and inserted it into the QuickCam's clip retention hole which allows the QuickCam to be pried apart using a small slotted screwdriver. After the Quickcam was apart, I removed the focusing ring, which was not needed since the ETX would be doing the focusing. The QuickCam was then re-assembled. I took an old, black 35mm film canister and cut the bottom off of it using a cut-off wheel on my Dremel rotary tool. The canister (which was now just a hollow black tube) was sanded and SuperGlued to the QuickCam in the same place where the focusing ring was before removal. As luck would have it, 35mm film canisters are VERY close to the same diameter as a standard eyepiece (1.25"). The modified canister that is now glued onto the QuickCam allows it to be inserted into the eyepiece holder on the ETX.
jim@emmgraphics.com (Jim Berry) [10 Oct 00]
Although I'm not much of a morning person, I haven't been able to resist getting up early on a couple of occasions to have a look at Jupiter and Saturn. Here is an image of Jupiter and the Great Red Spot that I took recently with my ETX-90/EC and Color QuickCam. To be honest, I'm not sure how much more detail I'm going to be able to squeeze out of the little scope. Buying a bigger one seems like cheating, though...
M&J Bareket (bareketj@inter.net.il) [6 Oct 00]
[top] anuther shot i've just scanned. (I think that the red eye is at the left!) [bottom] Hi, this is my last results. the sky was very unstable so I guess the reasolts could have been better...but they certainly not bad. I used an 200asa fuji film with 6.7 eyepiece, with my pentax k-1000 on my 90mm ETX.
Gerald Wechselberger (gerald_wechselberger@at.ibm.com) [29 Sep 00]
Please find attached an image of Saturn, this shot was made with an Olympus Digitalcamera Z2020 attached to the ETX 125EC. Picture made on September 28th 01:39:08, Exposure time 1/10 second, 26mm Eyepiece projection, Homemade cameraconnector, image improved with Micrografix Publisher. If you put this image on your site, despite the quality, this would help my ego. Please find attached an image of Jupiter, this shot was made with an Olympus Digitalcamera Z2020 attached to the ETX 125EC. Picture made on September 28th 01:47:26, Exposure time 1/50 second, 26mm Eyepiece projection, Homemade cameraconnector, Image improved with Micrografix Publisher. You can see and guess the Great red spot a little left of the meridian above the upper belt. If you put this image on your site, despite the quality, this would help my ego again.
Tom Surgalski (tompilot@zbzoom.net) [29 Sep 00]
Attached are my first efforts at using my Olympus 2020Z and the ETX. I have the original ETX model. I have always had binding problems with tracking and finally got the nerve to try and fix it. I basically slathered most everything with Teflon lube and it worked like a charm. These photos were taken with the camera on a tripod "looking" into the eyepiece. I know this sounds very difficult to do, it actually is quite easy because of the LCD screen. I rough aligned the camera just by looking at it from the top and side, then looked at the screen to find the image. I took many shots and found out it was best to slightly underexpose them and then I used PaintShopPro 7 to adjust the brightness. This seemed to bring out the maximum detail. The settings were: Camera set at full telephoto, SHQ mode, ISO 100, F2.8, EV-0 Jupiter - 9mm eyepiece 1/3 sec Saturn - 9mm 1/2 sec A huge advantage of this camera is the remote control.
Brian Straight (brians@mdbs.com) [29 Sep 00]
You might consider these for your astrophotography gallery. Imaged on 9/27/00 @ 11:20 UT. Equipment was ETX90RA, Quickcam VC Captured with Vega 1.1; processed with AstroStack; tweaked with Photodeluxe. Each image is a composite of 25 BMPs. These are prime focus images--no barlow or eyepiece projection was used.
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net) [23 Sep 00]
I took these shots with my dear ETX astronomical telescope and with the pentax k-1000 camera. for the solar (saturn) I used 400asa film, the exposure was 3sec. all the pics and negatives has been developed by me, then scan to my pc with a home scanner.
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net) [20 Sep 00]
HI, my name is IDO. I'm 16.5 years old. I took these pics with my ETX 90 mm diameter astronomical telescope. I used 400asa film. all the pics develope was made by me. the eyepiece I used for all the shots was meade's 6.7 , the date- 16/9/00 at 2.30AM they scaned from the original print (10x15). the camera= pentax k-1000. 6.7 lens 7sec. exposure (for jupiter) I enlarges her (Saturn) a little bit, it doesn't looks like Hubble but she's mine. best regards IDO
Yann Duchemin (yann.duchemin@free.fr) [15 Sep 00]
first, your web site is really great ! Second, if you have a little place I've take some picture of jupiter and i join one of saturn. Theses one was taken with an quickcam VC modified (explained on my site) and an etx90, in town the next week (not far from Rouen in France, sorry for my english). If you have time enough, i'll appreciate your comments . Finally i transmit to you an jupiter picture, it's was taken at the same time of saturn (that's i tranmit you yesterday). The condition was the same, my etx90-ec, laptop computer with a modified quickam vc, a medium sky (between much clouds) during the night of 3rd september. Some digital traitement with Iris (a great freeware by C.Buil). Note: i think io (jovian sat) is a little strange in compare with europa, but i don't know really why ? Best Regards, Yann Duchemin yann.duchemin.free.fr/astro/astro.htm
Guillaume (guillaume@phanie.freeserve.co.uk) [12 Sep 00]
Thank you for your great web site. I hope you will be interested in the attached images of Jupiter. taken in London, the 11 Septembre 2000 ETX-90C , barlow lens 2x with Quick Cam Color. Combining of 40 images, using Astrostack to stack them. Just for information, I obtained the 2 first pictures (left & right), out of 40 bad quality images, like the bottom one. I was amazed by the final result and thought it was interested to stress. My personal Web site is : www.phanie.freeserve.co.uk (Sorry, it's in french, but I recommend the part dedicated to the 1999 Eclipse). I would grateful if you could add it to your links.
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net) [12 Sep 00]
I took these shots using my ETX (90 mm) and a 800asa film, at 8.9.00 time= 1.50AM . the eyepiece was a 6.7 mm (!) and the pics are in the 1:1 size compared to the original print that developed by me ( both negative & the photos themselves). a little blur has done on saturn and contrast on both the planets.you can see pretty clearly jupiter's red eye! p.s- the latest shots I took before this time are 0.5:1 from the original.
Goodshot (Goodshot@email.msn.com) [12 Sep 00]
I used ETX-90EC ,a Canon S-10 digital camera and a scopetronix digital camera adapter. I shot it at 96x using a 26mm eyepiece and a 2x barlow. Mike here: image was cropped from the original.
John Yeh (hwyeh@home.com) [9 Sep 00]
I purchased the Meade DS4504 from my local Costco for $199 (they had a 1 week only $50 off coupon deal). I figured that w/ the GOTO system and 4.5" Newtonian, I can't go too wrong w/ this deal as a first scope. I've since upgraded the scope w/ eyepieces, 2x barlow, coolpix push on adapter, 10x50 finder, red dot finder from www.scopetronix.com and the free 2" to 1.25" eyepiece adapter from meade. Last night I took some pictures of Jupiter and Saturn with the this scope using my coolpix 990 on macro timer mode. Here are the images. I cropped them and did some minor level adjustments in photoshop.
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net) [6 Sep 00]
Hi, my name is IDO. I took my loved ETX astronomical telescope at my front yard at the 30/8/00 in 2.30 AM for the starting of a new planetary season. the timing was just perfect; the atmosphere was stady, not clouds at all and my motor 'wonted' finaly to work a little bit. I used a 800asa film for that series and 6.7 eyepiece! for the following pics. all the film and pics was developed by me. the exposures was: jupiter=3sec. saturn=6sec. I did only little color exchange & sharpness on jupiter but that's it! the images are smaller than the original for about 15% and it seems that my scanner loosed some details. the focusing problem was really hard work but I realy pleased ;) shalom IDO.
Joe Romel (jromel@mediaone.net)
Tihs is my first image of Jupiter and it's moons taken with a ETX90EC and a SACIV Camera at prime focus, 1/4 sec exposure at 640x480 and using the objective of the ETX's finder as a focal reducer.(it fits right in a basic camera adapter) Mike here: I suspect the image is out of focus; note the black dots in the middle of the moon images.
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net)
-it's better late than never- Hi, it's IDO. I took a cuple years ago this enjeculation shot of jupiter & venus. this was really my very first shots thrugh the ETX and they came out pretty good for first shots and for 14 yers old child (I was 14 at that time) with standart equipment. It was at the evening so the resolts are a little bit fuzzy, but I pleased. enjoy!
Chiacchietta Claudio (golf@village.it)
Image from Jupiter (left): ETX + Mx512 ccd camera exposed for 4 seconds at direct focus. Software PixM5 & Paint Shop. Image of Jupiter (right:): Etx + Mx512, direct focus, "double sized" with Paint Shop software. Best regards! Chiacchietta Claudio Golf@village.it Genoa (Italy)
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net)
Hi, my name is IDO i'm 16 years old. I took the pic with a 1600asa film a few weeks ago. the sky/atmosphere was very draft so the resolts could have been better. mars was very very low at the sky so he didn't came out like I wished to, here is the resolts: enjoy ;-) mars- 26 plosell+x2 plossel
Chiacchietta Claudio (golf@village.it)
Image from Saturn: ETX + Mx512 ccd camera exposed for 5 seconds, elaborated with PixM5 & Paint Shop.. Best regards! Chiacchietta Claudio Genoa (Italy) meltingpot.fortunecity.com/nebraska/302
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net)
I took this saturn pic at the same night I took my last jupiter shot. again-I used 800asa film, the object exposured was 2sec. enjoy ;-) IDO. p.s: I did some digital proces with make the shot just super (I think...:)
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net)
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net)
My name is IDO. Im 16 years old. I took that picture of jupiter with 800asa film with pentax k-1000 camera. the time exposure was 1.5sec. the pic was digital process, jupiter's moons has taken with ather exposure: about 4sec. and then combined togethar to make the photo you see. ;-)'' if you will look closely you will be able to see the colors of the moons(!!)
Shawn Rakestraw (shiz@bellsouth.net)
I borrowed a friend's Canon EOS and attached it to my ETX-90EC. With it I snapped this Point of Focus shot of Jupiter and two of its moons. I was using Kodak MAX 400 film and exposed it for about 6 seconds. Any suggestions on how to take a better shot would be appreciated. Mike here: Pretty good first shot. Next time try several exposures, at difficult exposure lengths. Also, watch out for induced vibrations; use the "hat trick" method.
r r (jerrya@cyberhighway.net)
Bill Ramsey (ka8wtk@raex.com)
Over the Christmas holiday break I bought a couple of "board" CCD video cameras (less than $150 for both). One is color and the other black and white. After placing the cameras in an enclosure, I bought a Snappy to grab images. The other night was the first clear sky I have been home for since then. The shots are not great, but these are single frame images. The cameras were just placed into the eye piece holder of my ETX-125. Looks like a good starting point. When I have more time it will be interesting to gather several shots and combine them. Have yet to try the black and white camera.
Mario Roberto Carraro (mrc@keycomm.it)
Ecco quello che sono riuscito riuscito a fare nella prima serata d'uso con una tlecamera da video-conferenza modificata(una quickcam Pro della Logitech).Tutte le immagini sono fatte con un Meade Etx a focale allungata (circa 1450), al fuoco diretto per quanto riguarda quelle della Luna, con una Barlow Vixen Deluxe per quelle sui pianeti... Preciso che la Luna era sorta al massimo da due ore (molto bassa sull'orizzonte...)...Il tutto in una serata dal seeing decisamente mediocre!!! finale.jpg Somma di 15 immagini meno darks elaborata con photoshop....Si puo' fare di meglio!!! giove.jpg Somma di 45 immagini corrette dai darks...Meglio di prima!!! saturno.jpg Anche questa e' una somma di 45 immagini meno darks...Ho forzato troppo con l'unsharp masking, ci sono artefatti nell'immagine. I've posted photos with an italian caption...I'll translate to you!!! All the photos were taken with a Meade Etx and a modificated quick cam pro. The pictures of the moon were taken at the prime focus, the planets ones with a 2X Vixen Deluxe Barlow. This was my first night with such a camera...Note that the seeing was nothing special, and the moon was rised just by two hours!!! The border of the moon was boiling like oil with chips.... finale.jpg (left) An averange of 15 images (corrected from dark frame) assembled with Photoshop. giove.jpg (center) An averange of 45 image, corrected from dark. saturno.jpg (right) Also is an averange of 45 images. Note that I've exagerated with unsharp masking...
M&J Bareket (bareketj@internet-zahav.net)
Hellow to al ETX users! :) My name is IDO, I'm 16 years old, I took that photo of jupiter with 1600 asa film (AGFA I think) the pic photographed with ETX astronomy telescope. , it was exposured 1 sec. The motor was working, I also named 2 of jupiter moon's for you. I have took all my pics with pentax k-1000
Bill Snyder (wsnyder@gateway.net)
This scope continues to amaze me with what it can do. The attached image was with the ETX-90RA, using a SACIV imaging camera, 10mm eyepiece with barlow (250x), and #80 blue filter. Not bad for a beginner with a ETX. More info on the ccd imaging camera ($209) and more images at members.xoom.com/sonfest/ .