Chris Curtis Web Site

Another first – this time using my Canon 50D attached to the telescope to capture the moon. Much simpler processing – all in Photoshop after combining about 20 images taken one after another with Registax.

The Moon

My first try at webcam astrophotography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7924794@N06/4053057961

Jupiter, Io and Europa

To make this image there is quite a long sequence of steps!

1. Obtain a webcam with a CCD sensor – I happened to have a Philips SPC900
2. Obtain an adaptor so you can remove the webcam lens and fit the webcam into the telescope in place of an eyepiece – the telescope effectively becomes the webcam lens. I bought the adapter from telescope house
   
3. Use some software so you can see what the camera is seeing – I used wxastrocapture (which is free) on my “easy peasy” linux netbook.
4. Aim and focus the telescope and make sure it is tracking so that Jupiter appears to stay still.
5. Use the capture software to collect about 150 frames as an AVI video file – camera settings are trial and error so I varied them (e.g. gain, shutter speed) and did this several times.
6. Use “stacking” software which aligns all the frames then “averages” them to pull as much detail as possible out of the images and make one image from the video. I used Registax which is also free. I ran this on my windows laptop which is much more powerful than the netbook.
7. I took the best image of Jupiter into Photoshop and adjusted brightness then used “Topaz Detail” a great photoshop plug-in I have.
8. There was one image that showed Jupiter particularly well and another where Jupiter was over-exposed but the moons showed well. I used Photoshop layers and a little erasing to assemble one image from the two. Then re-sized the whole thing.

Not quite at Hubble standards yet but worth doing, I think. Much more to learn, but the basic idea worked.

I now own a telescope – a rather attractive Celestron 4SE computerised one. I am delighted with its performance – though the weather has been tricky here with too much cloud to use it for more than a few hours in total so far (I have had it over a week). As well as amazing views of the moon and Jupiter, I have been able to find and observe lots of deep sky objects including the Andromeda Galaxy, the Ring Nebula, the Hercules Globular Cluster and many more.

• Just finished the WWFOR – 5K in 29:12 a new PB. #
• New Workout Done on 2009-10-11 did a 5.16 KM run in 00:29:12 http://bit.ly/4sLG1c #GoWagon #

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I went out this morning to join over 1,000 people all over the planet on the “world wide festival of races“. During this weekend, you either join in an organised race or run the distance using a gps watch (as I did) for the “Kick the Couch” 5K, the “Zen” 10K or the World Wide Half Marathon. Being realistic I went for the Kick the Couch 5K and finished in a new personal best of 29:12 – finally, after literally years of trying, beating the half-hour barrier!

I was not at my best. I have been ill all week and do not feel 100% today, but was determined to get this run in. I stayed dry, but it is grey and gloomy and the rain is never far away. Everything is autumnal in yellows and browns and it is cool – a good thing, really. I set off too fast but after 2K realised I was well under the 30 minute pace so gritted my teeth and kept going. The fourth kilometre was very hard: I was fading very fast and it seemed a long way still to go.

Anyway, a significant target met, even if the run felt scrappy and uncomfortable rather than smooth. Next target – under 1 hour for the 10K.

According to the software, personal bests for ALL the distances up to and including 10K were set this month. I am officially running faster and further than ever before.

• New Workout Done on 2009-10-4 did a 10.57 KM run in 01:15:48 http://bit.ly/TUQA5 #GoWagon #

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It has been hard to run recently. It is dark much earlier in the evenings and this is a very busy time at work. If you miss a run or two, you feel much worse the next time you go out. It is all too easy to lose the running habit.

I decided I had to get out this afternoon and as the weather was calm and pleasant – neither too cool nor too warm – I thought I would run my old 10K route: the first time in many months. I started off gently and let myself have lots of short walk-breaks but also had some good long runs at steady pace. I ran along the pavement for 2K then up a track and through the woods until I came back roadside at about 5K to go through the industrial estate south of Gatwick airport, along a track between the railway and river, underneath the airport itself and back through quiet streets to home.

I was delighted with the run. new PBs for 1K, 1500m, 1 mile, 2K, 8K and 10K. Not threatening any records but respectable “jogger” times – just over the hour for 10K and all the distances now under 3K are at less than 5:30/km. Legs felt great (lack of running recently!) though my nose was runny and I have felt like I have a mild cold for days. Good motivator for more running.