Meade DSI - Pics and a question about astro software

Two months ago my friends chipped in and secretly got me a Meade DSI
for my birthday. Weather and work have kept it in the box for those
two months, but last night I had my first chance to try it out, and I
must say: Having never done any type of CCD imaging before, I'm
surprised by (a) how easy it was to use and (b)how nice the pictures
looked. Not research quality, but a very accurate depiction of what I
see in the eyepiece. In some cases, BETTER than what I see in the
eyepiece.

I've put a brief review in the astronomy section of my website
(www.garmachi.com) along with the best of the pics.

I know I have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but this new toy
will be my first step on the long road for me.


ALSO...


I was wondering what software the wise and experience folks of this
group might recommend for stacking, aligning, and processing raw
images?

Thanks!




Gary Sizer
www.garmachi.com

On 5 Dec 2004 17:08:55 -0800, (Garmachi) wrote:

Two months ago my friends chipped in and secretly got me a Meade DSI
for my birthday. Weather and work have kept it in the box for those
two months, but last night I had my first chance to try it out, and I
must say: Having never done any type of CCD imaging before, I'm
surprised by (a) how easy it was to use and (b)how nice the pictures
looked. Not research quality, but a very accurate depiction of what I
see in the eyepiece. In some cases, BETTER than what I see in the
eyepiece.

I've put a brief review in the astronomy section of my website
(www.garmachi.com) along with the best of the pics.


Looks like lots of people are interested in this camera!

The page cannot be displayed
There are too many people accessing the Web site at this time.

(Garmachi) wrote in message . com...
snip I was wondering what software the wise and experience folks of this
group might recommend for stacking, aligning, and processing raw
images?

For your unit, see -

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DeepSkyImager/

- Canopus56

Garmachi wrote:
Two months ago my friends chipped in and secretly got me a Meade
DSI for my birthday. Weather and work have kept it in the box
for those two months, but last night I had my first chance to try
it out, and I must say: Having never done any type of CCD imaging
before, I'm surprised by (a) how easy it was to use and (b)how
nice the pictures looked. Not research quality, but a very
accurate depiction of what I see in the eyepiece. In some cases,
BETTER than what I see in the eyepiece.

I'm not sure what kind of scope you're using, but I think it's
pretty safe to expect that your images will show significantly more
than what you're used to seeing in the eyepiece, at least when it
comes to DSOs. Even simple imaging hardware is more sensitive than
the human eye when you take the ability to make long (or combined)
exposures into account.

I've put a brief review in the astronomy section of my website
(www.garmachi.com) along with the best of the pics.

I know I have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but this new
toy will be my first step on the long road for me.

Some nice shots, you've got there. I'm just starting out on that
road myself, so I know just what you mean! You may want to try M42
without the UHC filter some time - I think you'll pick up a lot more
of the surrounding nebulosity and all those lovely colours.

I was wondering what software the wise and experience folks of
this group might recommend for stacking, aligning, and processing
raw images?

As I said, I'm also a beginner in this field, but I can tell you
what works for me. I'm not sure what the DSI's software is like, but
I wasn't too impressed with what came with the LPI. I find Registax
way better for planets and bright DSOs. I'm still looking for a nice
program for combining frames of the fainter objects.

After stacking and initial processing in Registax, I usually do some
final touching-up in the Gimp or PaintShop Pro. Any decent graphics
software should give you plenty of options to experiment with -
things like unsharp masks, gaussian blurs and "curves" are things
you'll want to get familiar with.

Best of luck with your imaging - I'm sure you'll be making some
great images in no time!

Clear skies,

Steve

--
Steve Maddison
Den Haag, The Netherlands
http://www.cosam.org/

Thanks for your comments! Since then I've downloaded and learned the
basics of Registax. I've also had the chance to get out and take more
pics.

I'm very impressed with the Meade DSI and overall I'm quite satisfied.
I was especially surprised by the differnce in the M1 photos between
the raw image and the processed.

I'm using an 8" Discovery Newt with a clock drive and manual polar
alignment. I put pictures in alt.binaries.pictures.astro and on my
website. (It's not the fastest server in the world, so forgive me if
you get the "too many users" message... someday I'll get around to
beefing it up, but astronomy is a higher priority for me right now!)
http://www.garmachi.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=586
Thanks again for the feedback!

Gary Sizer
http://www.garmachi.com