Replacement 19 day moon for MoonPhases page

19 day moon

12/31/2004 -- I've been wanting to replace the 19 day moon I've had since Aug 2002 for quite a while. The terminus just wasn't very good. It looked like the morning of New Years Eve would be a good chance, but the evening of the 30th it started clouding up. I set my alarm for 3:30am anyway and found the sky crystal clear. Now I had to rush around and set up my scope, etc... since I hadn't wanted to put it out in the weather. This is never a good thing to do at 3:30am in the morning. It has taken me a while to process the image, but it was worth it. The terminus on this shot came out really nice. To see more moon images, goto my MoonPhases page.

The image was created by stitching together 40 images using Paintshop Pro 8.1. Each image was created by capturing AVIs with a Philips Vesta 690k and using K3CCDTools. I preprocessed each image using Registax 3, stacking about 100 frames. The telescope used was a Meade LX-90 (8" SCT, f/10).

Saturn -- Two weeks after Opposition.

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2/3/2005 06:00 UTC -- Attempts to image Saturn around the 2005 opposition have continued to be tough. The weather in Seattle has offered up few clear skies and fewer still ones. This night started out extremely clear and still, but the breeze and haze picked up before Saturn reached the zenith. These pictures were taken before the clouds came in. The second image is not very good due to the turning weather. The third image is from the same AVI as the first, but sampled at 2x when stacking. (Click on the images for full sizes)

Taken with a Philips Vesta Pro 690K webcam. I unscrewed the lens and mounted a The Universal WebCam Adapter so that it fits into a 1.25" eyepiece socket. The telescope used was a Meade LX-90 (8" SCT, f/10). Pictures were captured with K3CCDTools and stacked using Registax 3. Further processing done with Paint Shop Pro 8

New Blog

In an attempt to start putting more of my images up on the web, I've started this blog. I had been hand creating a blog from about 2001 to 2003, but didn't keep it up. I've transfered all of those posts to this blog and plan on back filling to create a chronology of my pictures. After that, I will look into a new design for displaying my images by category.