自制家用天文台 --- MANDII ( HONG KONG )

[MANDII]

This is the jupitor last night . It's a failure .
Only a bright big cell , no details , no color .
I use the same web cam to shoot it . I tried to reduce the brightness( offset , gain / exposure) but the result is not so much difference . I even tried to use 2X Barlow to make it more dimmer . But samely not so effective . This picture is captured by 2X barlow .

The foucsing may not be so good as well . I think if using some focusing technique( fish-bone etc.. ) , the image can be revealled some of the jupitor details .
However, my main concern at first is that " how come the disc is so bright ?" "and why my webcam cannot make it dimmer ?" Even though I can focus it perfectly , I think the only difference is that there is a little hits of jupitor lines , but the disc is also white in color , so bright samely .



The same setup to shoot the moon surface is no problem . But the jupitor failed .
I guess the web cam is not suitable to use in taking Jupitor image . Because Jupitor is much more brighter than moon surface counted from the same area of lighting .
That's why we need to use those sepcific webcam , or astro webcam in taking the planets image . But my one is just a ordinary one .
But anyway , that is a good test this time .

Better note it down .. .

[MANDII]

Tonight very exciting !!!
I use the DSI . And catch up the JUPITER for my first time successfully , HA HA HA !!

It's the DSI-I . Last night I use my ordinary webcam but failed .
And tonight I tried again the attempt using the DSI indeed .
And when I set the exposure to a very low value ( 0.0085s) , I can see some hits of Jupiter details . Last night my webcam cannot reduce the brightness to such a low value , But DSI CAN do it !! And very good indeed .

Then , of course . I take so many images , about 1600 images . And stack all of them in Registax . Half of the images can be combined sucessfully .

And got this beautiful picture that I had never got one before , Ha ha ha !!

[MANDII]

This is the 3X barlow Jupiter last night .
At the beginning , I tested to cmbine 2X and 3 X ( total 6X) , but the image is very bad .
So finally I choose the 3X , which is still ok . . . But seems already reach the limitation of the scope .

2ndly, this time I combine using IRIS and Registax for those 1387 flames . Because I can only stack 150 flames in Registax , cause the image shifting is too big . As I check the shifting statistic in IRIS , over 150 pixels shifting in average speaking among those 1300 flames . Those , Registax seems cannot handle this situation . Thus , I use IRIS to do aligment first , because IRIS can be controlled much more ( more primitive ) , such that ALL those flames can be alighted proerply even such a big drifting .
And then I combine ALL of them in Registax ( by converting to FITS format from PIC format , which can be supported by Registax ) and do some finaly adjustement in Registax .

[MANDII]

Once again process by IRIS only .
Aligntment , stacking and final image turning .
1528 Flames can be successfully stacked .

[MANDII]

I make a Hartmann mask this morning and try to learn this focusing technique .
Because I want to see if there is any big difference on the final image being affacted by focus matter . Very advance method indeed invented by Mr.Hartmann ! Very sharp raw image I can get ! Before , I was not concernning too much on the focus matter actaully . This photo is the best I ever did so far on the territorial plants .

2ndly, This time I want to try more number of photos , over several hundreds I want to see . Stacked 282 DSI pictures for testing . And do processing in Registax . I found the fact that : when I stack more , the better photo is .
And I can retrive more details by stacking more .

[MANDII]

今日是2010年的10月21日。

颱風“鮎魚”即将于本周未逼近本港，中国国家天文台正式对外宣告评估它为200年一遇的超级颱風。近日人心茫茫，电视收音机不停地广播风暴的最新动向和消息，目前会不会当真于香港登陆，还是未知之数。据美国报道，可能性挺高的。本人实有点坐立不安的感觉。

面临这场或许是世纪本港风災的到来，我最担心的事情竟然会真的来，还来得那么狠，那么撤底。我的天文台是2009年10月31日建好，正式使用的。再过一个星期便满一年了。

当初不敢建大点的天文台，就是考虑到在天台高处遇颱風时会很危险 ！或遭强风破坏，那不比在平地上建。始终这是自制的东西，不比购买的合乎规格的东西，心里或多或小总会有点不踏实的感觉。

君子不立危墙马，上智不处危以'尧'幸。换现代话，就是说凡事难于开始时下的一个决定，难于开始的估计判断。我并不是什么上智,但我在一开始的确是以安全为第一考虑点,才做这个合适尺寸的天文台来的。上次年中时也打过一次台风，还好没事。但这次可完全不同，绝不轻视之 ！

这一关能不能‘门马’过，就只能听天由命了。。 。
现在我想先把话说在前，我一向都喜欢先说后做，看能不能实现所说的话。而不是先做后说，等做到了才说。如果这回真的不幸避不过这关，过了这次颱風而未见我更新任何论坛上自己的文章的话，那么也就是说我的天文台已遭到破坏/不幸了，而本人撤退业余天文界的时间也同样的到临。


祝各位来自各地的天文同好，身体健康 ！
Clear skys .

MANDII
2010/10/21

[MANDII]

US Astronomy Today :

Dear All people around the every corner of the world ,

Today is October 21,2010 .
I come to say one very bad news on my astronomy observation notes .
I observe a typhoon is comming this time , Ha Ha ! Not really kidding .

The strongest Typhoon “鮎魚” / " FISH" that HK ever had one in history , is comming soon this weekend .China National Observatory say that it is a super typhoon which would probably comes every 200 years for one time .And I check some US weather forecast also revealled that it is quite possibible to hit Hong kong city DIRECTLY .For the time being , it's still hard to judge anything about how much impact can cause by this time's disaster .


Frankly speaking , I am feeling a bit worried right now .. .
My Observatory was completely built on 31 October of Astronomy Year 2009 .
Within one more week time , It will be used for 1 FULL year of time .

If my observatory cannot come over this typhoon , I will definitely quit astronomy hobby at the same time .And I will not update this thread anymore in future . In reverse words , if you can't see any update of this thread after this weekend , it would mean my observatory had been destroyed by the so called 'FISH' typhoon this time .


Old chinese word always says the truth ,
A clever man never ride his horse near a danger wall .
A wiser would never take it easy and pay no attention on a real danger that may comes in underground .I am definitely not a wiser , however, I did think 3 times before doing it , when considering the size of the observatory in accounting to the strong wind affaction , at the beginning of my design stage of the building .

And now the testing time comes !
And even it comes so strongly and fiercely this time for the testing .. .


Take care everybody .


MANDII
2010/10/21

[KH]

今日是2010年的10月21日。

颱風“鮎魚”即将于本周未逼近本港，中国国家天文台正式对外宣告评估它为200年一遇的超级颱風。近日人心茫茫，电视收音机不停地广播风暴的最新动向和消息，目前会不会当真于香港登陆，还是未知之数。据美国报道，可能性挺高的。本人实有点坐立不安的感觉。

面临这场或许是世纪本港风災的到来，我最担心的事情竟然会真的来，还来得那么狠，那么撤底。我的天文台是2009年10月31日建好，正式使用的。再过一个星期便满一年了。

当初不敢建大点的天文台，就是考虑到在天台高处遇颱風时会很危险 ！或遭强风破坏，那不比在平地上建。始终这是自制的东西，不比购买的合乎规格的东西，心里或多或小总会有点不踏实的感觉。

君子不立危墙马，上智不处危以'尧'幸。换现代话，就是说凡事难于开始时下的一个决定，难于开始的估计判断。我并不是什么上智,但我在一开始的确是以安全为第一考虑点,才做这个合适尺寸的天文台来的。上次年中时也打过一次台风，还好没事。但这次可完全不同，绝不轻视之 ！

这一关能不能‘门马’过，就只能听天由命了。。 。
现在我想先把话说在前，我一向都喜欢先说后做，看能不能实现所说的话。而不是先做后说，等做到了才说。如果这回真的不幸避不过这关，过了这次颱風而未见我更新任何论坛上自己的文章的话，那么也就是说我的天文台已遭到破坏/不幸了，而本人撤退业余天文界的时间也同样的到临。


祝各位来自各地的天文同好，身体健康 ！
Clear skys .

MANDII
2010/10/21

這個颱風結構扎實，外圍環流結合鋒面已經讓台灣的宜蘭某些地方3個小時降下超過250mm的雨量，進而宜蘭縣已經宣布全縣停工停課
也讓台灣北部下了1個星期的雨了

看來颱風的暴風半徑會掃過香港
還請MandII兄多加保重

[Alan]

Mandii 大佬，香港颱風一樣多，下次考慮建成金字塔型，就無有怕了，看埃及的金字塔屹立數千年。

[MANDII]

谢谢大家的提醒和意见 。
你们也是，多加注意，我也是经常听说台湾台风多。

[MANDII]

No.8 )

Dear Joe ,

I see . Thanks for your care

So the wind last night had passed and left .
I had found a chance to take a moon photo last night .
It's the Mare Imbrium , a large oceanic area on the moon .
You can check several apparent areas as well from the moon map I provided , I had bold it in Red blocks .

The FOV of this picture ( DSI plus 2X barlow ) this time is about 12" , according to the indication on the moon map software . Starting from now, I can use this software to physically measure the FOV of any telescope imaging system . And I can even measure the distance between two points on the moon directly . In the old time , I can only calculate ( i.e. estimate ) the FOV , but now I can measure it directly and PHYSICALLY with the help of the actual moon crators , this is very important to me .

I am not using a web cam this time indeed .
282 flames is collected in about 5 minutes from DSI .
Comparing to webcam , Just several second can be collected for such number of flames in a video format . The shorter the time , the less the requirement from the mount's tracking . So DSI surely can cause more shifting in image than the web cam . However , such image shifting can be recovered easily from any image-process software . And DSI is more sensitive than my ordinary web cam , ( even the price is more exspensive ) , thus , I may use DSI to take moon photo in future , and totally replace the use of a web cam . Because DSI is more generic in my situation .


Clear skies everybody .

[MANDII]

No.9)
The moon is rising up the hill , behind a tree .
This moment leaves silently and fastly .

The picture was shooted at 7:00p.m tonight , within less than 10 seconds time .
I focus on the tree , and let the moon become a blured background .

[MANDII]

我的另一样爱好，是改装邮轮模型做摇控电玩。
我们一班老发烧友每个星期日早上都要放船的。 
建设天文台的其一重要目的，就是白天可以在里头搞模型用，也能放不小的模型用具。
上星期日第一部于天文台里造好的是这部邮轮-“铁达呢”号，有一米那么长，正式下水 ！哈哈！
我花了一共3个月的时间把它从刚买回来的模型零件，到做好模型，油7，再改装电控摇控。
下一部计划明年要做的Queen Mary 2 ,也有一米长那样。

[MANDII]

<<中国牧夫 >>

Canon20da : 2010-12-1 23:07

i am in hong kong now. any chance we can get together? i would love to see your observatory if you have free time. you are a little famous in china already. he he
you might remember that we chatted before. i am an american living in chengdu, sichuan. i have a meade dsi camera also.
do you know of anyone who is selling a used (second-hand) Meade ETX telescope? also, i am interested in buying the book Photoshop Astronomy. someone on the hong kong astronomy club's forum webpage was trying to sell this book but i am unsure how to get ahold of him ()
http://www.hkastroforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=18701&sid=c39394d1422d3abdc8d8deee0a8e5fd4
. i would apprecaite your help! mike (canon 20da) mikezele@hotmail.com



MANDII : 2010-12-2 09:55

Well Canon ! long time no see ! your message 哈哈!
Pls check my PM , I leave my phone no. there .
Also , about the 2nd hand ETX telescope and the magazine ,
I may do something for you , let's see it .

[大瘋起嘻]

月上樹梢很有復古風