This is my first picture I took using my newly arrived Televue 3X Barlow lens. This picture is kept on this page so that other people new to astrophotography can see what my first results looked like.
Webcam astrophotography is not a case of point-the-camera, click and then upload your images to your website.
Each picture on this website was built by extracting 100s or 1000s of frames from AVIs captured with a Logitech Pro 4000 webcam.
Only the best frames are selected and then stacked.
The stacked images are processed further using Photoshop.
| Date: 15 July 2003 | Telescope: 10 inch SCT | AVI: 1/10 sec for 60 seconds at 5 fps |
| Time: 00:49 (GMT + 2h00) | Camera: Logitec Quickcam Pro 4000 | Processing: 200 frames stacked |
| Observatory: Hartbeespoort | Magnification: 3x Tele Vue Barlow | Software: K3CCDTools and Photoshop |
Significant improvement on the first picture already, but still not good at all.
This was my best one for the night - using the 3x Barlow lens.
I only learned later during July that 60 seconds is HOPELESSLY not enough time to capture detailed AVI frames about Mars. During the last week of July 2003 I nearly always captured AVI frames for 300 seconds. This made a SIGNIFICANT improvement in image detail possible.