From Frank J MELILLO
@
. . . . . . . . . . Date:
From: FrankJ12@aol.com Subject: Webcams
Dear all planetary observers-, I
would like to congratulate Damian Peach of the Canary Islands, Eric Ng of Hong Kong
and Tan Wei Leong of
Singapore for their excellence work on planetary imaging using the webcams. The Sky & Telescope of upcoming June 2003
issue is featuring an outstanding article on 'Shooting the Planets with Webcams' pg. 117 - 122 by Michael Davis and David Staup. Certainly, three of them have been mentioned for
their planetary work.
Especially in 2002, there has been an
explosion of web- cams users. Of course, we have recognized Damian, Eric and
Tan of their incredible work here in this group. I believe they are pioneering
their work for advanced techniques in webcams. They
have found a new way of capturing the planets that we have never seen them
before.
Being as a Mercury coordinator for ALPO, I have seen it too on Mercury.
Especially one person Erwin V. D. Valden of
www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/mercstuff/recobs.html
Using the webcams,
there are possibilities of discovering new features on Mercury. Especially one
feature which is a crater once that was imaged by Mariner 10. Erwin had
captured a possible Crater Kuiper as a white blotch
nearly to its location. Of course, it is not confirmed yet. But another
apparition of Mercury coming up could identify its true nature of this 'white
blotch' as a suspect of the Kuiper crater. Hopefully,
the webcam users out there can take advantages of
imaging Mercury while the entire surface is still not explore yet and perhaps
you can fill in the gap!
Today, you can appreciate the high-resolution
and perfomances of the webcams
and we can all see it here. I am hoping to see more about using the webcams in the 2003 ALPO convention coming up. Once
again I am congratulating you guys and for those who are willing to use the webcams in the future to keep up with this exciting
planetary imaging we all enjoy!
◆･･････Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 09:31:53 -0700
From:
Tim Parker <timothy.j.parker@jpl.nasa.gov>
To:
FrankJ12@aol.com
Subject:
Re: Webcams
Frank: Like I
said to Kelly Beatty last month, I think it's the webcams
that are going to steal the show with planetary imaging. Not video cameras, not digital still cameras,
and certainly not expensive cooled astronomical ccd
cameras.
I sent this to Dave Moore this morning about
my tests with an IBM PC Camera Pro that I had bought a couple of years ago (new for $30). I include it here for possible feedback from
others, as I would like to know about other webcam
possibilities, particularly in the
Dave: I decided to try out my IBM PC Pro webcam over the weekend. Turns out, it must have the Sony ccd similar to the Toucam in it. I
noted it was more sensitive than the 3com, but didn't realize what the
exposures must have been until I opened a 1 minute .avi
and saw that it was 600 frames! Now I
also know why it crashes my computer so much. I've got a 400Mhz
AMD with only 64 megs of ram, but with an 80GB HD. It also crashes a lot when I try to process
one of these videos with Registax, which takes a half
hour or 45 minutes anyway, when it works!
The IBM camera software is very limited. You
can set the contrast and brightness, sharpness, and either "normal,
backlight, or night" modes, but you have no control over the exposure
time. I had to use the backlight mode and turn the contrast and brightness all
the way down. Jupiter is about 200 pixels pole to pole on my screen at the prime
focus of my 12.5" f/23 Cass, and I'm still close to saturation. I have yet to
figure out what processing options work best in registax.
I seem to have some good raw video potential,
but I have no idea how you guys get the detail and color balances you get with
the Toucam and registax. Any tips??
Tim PARKER
◆･･････Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 23:51:21 +0100
From:
"Damian Peach"
To: <FrankJ12@aol.com>,
Subject:
Re: Webcams
Hi Frank, Thank
you for your kind comments. I have been very pleased personally at what the webcam is capable of producing. I also believe that the webcam has allowed images of the highest resolution to obtained on a more regular basis then ever before.
I certainly expect to see some ground breaking
Mars images come opposition from webcams (Maurice Valimberti has produced fine images already from Austrailia using a webcam.) Come August we
should all be in for a real treat :)
Good
luck to everyone. Best Wishes
Damian PEACH
@ . . . . . . . . . .Date: Thu,
From: FrankJ12@aol.com Subject:
Re: Mars - May 01, 2003
Dear Dave-, Great shot! I guess I should start
imaging Mars too. But I'm just a little lazy to get up in the morning before
sunrise!
I have a same problem too with different
monitors. Sometimes by looking at the planetary images, they look different
especially my office monitor and the one at home. I guess each one of them have
different level of brightness and contrast. But which one
telling the truth? Both monitors are top brands!
◆･･････Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 22:18:42 +0000
From:
Donald Parker
To:
FrankJ12@aol.com
Subject:
Re: Mars -
Hi Frank, If you have Photoshop, go into the Control Panel and you
will see an icon called "Adobe Gamma." This is a great little program
that takes you through steps to calibrate your monitor. I believe even old
versions of Photoshop have this -- check it out. I just found out about it, and
it
makes a
big difference. Best,
Don PARKER
@ . . . . . . . . . .Here are
my first two Mars images on
(19 May 2003 email)
Frank J MELILLO
(
FrankJ12@aol.com
ALPO
Mercury Coordinator
