He is a unique observer among our circle. He has been using several kinds
of Video Cameras to take the pictures of the planets. On the occasion of the
great opposition in 1988, the Ci-20R became available and he used it by a
combination with a 25cm spec to take Mars; the Red light images on the
monitor being quite detailed. Since then he contributed continually to us
each apparition. Ci-20R is a small camera attached to the eyepiece, but he
learned around 1994 that a collimated Video Camera also yielded the nicer
images of the planets.
CMO colleagues at a ticket gate of FUKUI station
left to right: Dr.MINAMI(Mn), Mr.HIGA(Hg), MURAKAMI(Mk)
HIGA's Saturn image used Sony VX1000
Recently when a 3 CCD Digital Camera VX1000 was sold out by Sony he readily
obtained it and from April 1996 he began to use it to take the surfaces of
the planet. At the same time, by a combination of a Macintosh and an
available software, he started acquiring a lot of good still images from the
moving images, and summing them all up to a final image processed by use of
Photoshop. Thus he now submits us a great sets of R, G and B images in
addition to the coloured images. He takes great care to obtain a smooth and
clear images.
He has not thus followed the current of the times to use the Cooled CCD
Cameras, but he believes we need diverse methods to approach to the
planetary observations.
He writes he was very inspired by the work by Gianni QUARRA with whom he met this January on the occasion of the meeting at Fukui. He wishes he obtain the images of quality similar to Gianni's in pursuit of HIGA's original way in the next season.
(Ed)