Post by Dragon Man on Aug 29, 2014 15:10:35 GMT
It was our Club night tonight, but due to the freezing temperatures and lots of fog only one other member turned up. I don't blame the others for not coming, the weather is woeful.
But to get to the point, Australians in general aren't interested in Video Astronomy. I have spent the last 3-4 years showing video to others, broadcasting with Aussies watching, pushing it at Astronomy Camps etc, all with no interest from others.
There's only about 5 or 6 Video Astronomers in the whole of Australia!!!
But tonight, the member that turned up was setting up for his night of Imaging through fog as frost developed around our feet
He was struggling to get his star alignment correct, his software wouldn't work properly, his kids knocked his mount, his guiding camera stopped working and his EQmod Game Controller was sending the mount in weird directions
After letting out a few well chosen words he asked me if I had any solutions.
About 2 years at it and he still hasn't managed to get a half decent image yet. And he doesn't even know what dark subraction is, or how to stack images.
All I could say was "see why I gave up Imaging a few years ago"
He said "but you still need Guiding and stuff", to which I happily say "nope, not with Video"
BINGO!!! Got him hooked Out come all the questions: "see through fog???", "don't need Guiding???" "in only 20 seconds???"
I noticed he had a Phillips SPC900NC webcam (Modified too) so I said to him "plug that in and I'll show you how easy it is".
He had never used his Phillips webcam. He bought it as a spare guide camera but it sat unused for the last year or so.
He plugged it in, then I put it on Saturn for him. He was excited and asked more and more. I told him that he could broadcast that live view of Saturn and people would watch it. He was amazed. He also excitedly showed his kids, and they were excited to see it.
Then I switched on my laptop and showed him how he could grab DSO's in his Webcam with WebcamMax or Manycam and broadcast them too (the modified SPC900NC will do DSO's nicely).
We spent the rest of the night talking about how he can get started and he is coming back in a few nights to watch me do it from start to finish to see how simple it is and how exciting it is to see DSO's in colour in seconds.
He said he will spend up to about $500-600 on a camera to get started and I'll give him one of my Focal Reducers to keep and he can borrow my scopes to see which one he prefers.
I haven't seen anyone get so excited over Video Astronomy before!!! He is definitely hooked
I don't blame him when here we were looking at a nice sharp live view of Saturn, in all it's lovely colour, through fog!
But to get to the point, Australians in general aren't interested in Video Astronomy. I have spent the last 3-4 years showing video to others, broadcasting with Aussies watching, pushing it at Astronomy Camps etc, all with no interest from others.
There's only about 5 or 6 Video Astronomers in the whole of Australia!!!
But tonight, the member that turned up was setting up for his night of Imaging through fog as frost developed around our feet
He was struggling to get his star alignment correct, his software wouldn't work properly, his kids knocked his mount, his guiding camera stopped working and his EQmod Game Controller was sending the mount in weird directions
After letting out a few well chosen words he asked me if I had any solutions.
About 2 years at it and he still hasn't managed to get a half decent image yet. And he doesn't even know what dark subraction is, or how to stack images.
All I could say was "see why I gave up Imaging a few years ago"
He said "but you still need Guiding and stuff", to which I happily say "nope, not with Video"
BINGO!!! Got him hooked Out come all the questions: "see through fog???", "don't need Guiding???" "in only 20 seconds???"
I noticed he had a Phillips SPC900NC webcam (Modified too) so I said to him "plug that in and I'll show you how easy it is".
He had never used his Phillips webcam. He bought it as a spare guide camera but it sat unused for the last year or so.
He plugged it in, then I put it on Saturn for him. He was excited and asked more and more. I told him that he could broadcast that live view of Saturn and people would watch it. He was amazed. He also excitedly showed his kids, and they were excited to see it.
Then I switched on my laptop and showed him how he could grab DSO's in his Webcam with WebcamMax or Manycam and broadcast them too (the modified SPC900NC will do DSO's nicely).
We spent the rest of the night talking about how he can get started and he is coming back in a few nights to watch me do it from start to finish to see how simple it is and how exciting it is to see DSO's in colour in seconds.
He said he will spend up to about $500-600 on a camera to get started and I'll give him one of my Focal Reducers to keep and he can borrow my scopes to see which one he prefers.
I haven't seen anyone get so excited over Video Astronomy before!!! He is definitely hooked
I don't blame him when here we were looking at a nice sharp live view of Saturn, in all it's lovely colour, through fog!