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This site is closed! <<<<<<
Please refer to the Astrostack 2 website !!
(You will be redirected to the new address in a few seconds)
These pages are about astronomy and the way I use video to take pictures with my telescope. You can find out how I work, see some of the pictures I made and download AstroStack, the freeware program I developed to improve my results.
Navigate through these pages by clicking on the 'Home Gallery Software' menu above.
* Telescopes: 114 mm (4.5") Newton and 140 mm
(5.5") Maksutov on equatorial mount
* Standard PAL B&W video camera module that can be fixed to the eyepiece
* Video Hi8 or Digital8 Camcorder to take pictures through the eyepiece or point directly
at the sky
.. Nightshot mode allows recording of stars upto magnitude 8 or 9 without a telescope
* A computer with video capture card
* And last but not least my program AstroStack to
make the raw videos into nice pictures
There is a new version of AstroStack, that can downloaded from its own website !!
| The video camera module: (4x4 cm, sensitivity 0.5 lux) |
My 'good old' 114mm Newton. This was a cheap telescope with a good quality mirror. Most pictures on this site have been made with this telescope. | My new 140mm telescope. The OMC140 Maksutov. It gives much brighter images, which is beneficial for viewing e.g. nebulas but also in planetary photography. | |
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My best photographs, using ordinary film, are easily outperformed by even mediocre 'video'pictures. I can now get pictures close to the resolution of the telescope (approx. 1" arcsecond.).
Video has fixed (relative) short exposure times of 1/25 or 1/30 second. This means how mediocre circumstances are (bad seeing, wind) there is almost always a set of usable frames.
With video it is easier to take a lot of pictures at once and use them.
Mars looks better on video then through the telescope: the video module is very sensitive at infrared and this enhances the contrast on the planetary disc
Saturn looks better (sharper) through the telescope then on video: I think this is mainly because of the insufficient sensitivity of the video device.
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Please tell me what you think about my home page and how I might improve it.
Electronic mail address
mail@astrostack.com