Author Archives: james

Our own little deluge

Posted on December 7, 2012 by james

I feel desperately sorry for those people in the south west and Wales caught in the recent flooding. The pictures from the news are shocking. We didn’t suffer quite so badly, merely having the road past the end of our … Continue reading →

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Registax v6 vs. Autostakkert!2

Posted on December 7, 2012 by james

I’ve had some discussion with a few people about using Autostakkert!2 instead of Registax for stacking planetary images, and potentially using AS!2’s drizzle function as well so I decided to reprocess some of my recent Jupiter images So, here are … Continue reading →

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SPC900 webcam brightness setting

Posted on December 7, 2012 by james

It has been said that the brightness setting for the SPC900 camera affects only what appears on the screen and not what appears in the capture file. Having read the code for the Linux SPC900 driver I wasn’t at all … Continue reading →

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SPC900 vs. Xbox Live cam vs. Lifecam Cinema

Posted on December 7, 2012 by james

“What webcam can I use if I can’t get/afford an SPC900?” seems to be a common question now the SPC900 has become difficult to get hold of, but there doesn’t seem to be much empirical evidence on which to base … Continue reading →

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Hot Shoe Red Dot Finder

Posted on November 15, 2012 by james

Having taken a few wide field images with my DSLR on the EQ3-2 now, I’ve realised what a pain it is getting the target area in the field of view when much of it is too faint to see, let … Continue reading →

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Perseus wide field

Posted on November 15, 2012 by james

Taken the on the same night as my earlier image of Cassiopeia, here’s Perseus. In the top right corner it’s just possible to see the California Nebula starting to emerge.

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Cassiopeia wide field

Posted on November 15, 2012 by james

I spent an evening playing with my new Canon 50mm f/1.8 “nifty fifty” lens and taking some long exposures of constellations near the zenith. This is Cassiopeia. The keen-eyed will spot the double cluster at the centre of the right … Continue reading →

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Another Sunspot Image

Posted on October 10, 2012 by james

This is a full-size crop of my solar image for 4th October. Very pleased with the detail I’m getting here. The image was a “white light” full solar disk taken using a Canon 450D and 127 Mak using Baader solar … Continue reading →

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Sunspot Imaging with the Lifecam Cinema

Posted on October 3, 2012 by james

I was out doing some solar imaging recently and tried to get my son a bit more interested in the world that exists outside various electronic games devices by getting him to get some sunspot images using my modded Lifecam … Continue reading →

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August 2012 FIT payment

Posted on October 3, 2012 by james

At the end of August our latest FIT payment arrived covering the late Spring/early Summer period. Obviously given the weather this wasn’t as high a figure as we’d been hoping for, but means that 8.6% of the installation cost is … Continue reading →

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