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SX530HS and Tripod Moon

CHDK AstroKam, Moon Comments Off

Mar 072020

The image above was captured using my SX530HS at 50x zoom on a standard tripod. The camera was running a CHDK script which locked it in continuous shooting mode to capture 1400 frames over 17 minutes. All frames were ISO100, f6.5 and 1/250s with autofocus on. I needed to nudge the camera now and then to keep the moon on screen.

Grayscaled and cropped in PIPP, stacked in AS!3 (75% best), wavelets in Registax6 and polished in MS Photos. Not as detailed as my previous 100x shots but much more convenient to capture. I can just pop out when I see a gap in the clouds. Next stop – try same method on the Sun.

And here is another captured in 15 minutes using the method above.

Moon without Telescope

CHDK AstroKam, Moon Comments Off

Mar 042020

Below is a shot of the Moon I took with my amazing little Canon SX530HS camera.

Click for full size image

This was made from 400 jpegs shot at 100x zoom, ISO100, 1/160s, f6.5, AF-on which were captured in CHDK AstroKam. PIPP then grayscaled and culled this to 327 images based on brightness which were stacked in AS!3. Wavelets were applied in Registax 6 and final processing in MS Photos.

I also did some captures with jpegs at 50x zoom and 60sec videos at 100x and 200x zoom to discover the best resulting image. Below are crops of each method and I decided that 100x jpegs are the way to go in future.

And here is my latest Moon shot with my SX530HS at 100x zoom.

Click for full size image

200x Zoom Moon

CHDK AstroKam, Moon Comments Off

Feb 072020

I just shot this with my Canon SX530HS at 200x zoom.

15x 60sec video clips captured in CHDK AstroKam, grayscaled in Virtualdub, processed in AviStack, stiched in ICE and inverted in Paint.NET. Focus was a bit off but still not bad for a second hand camera with no scope.

£10 Camera Tracker – First Light

CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky Comments Off

Jan 132020

I just built an astro camera tracker with bits costing around £10 and tried it out with my Canon SX230HS. It seemed to track very well and here is a shot of Orion made up of 35 exposures of 150 seconds stacked together in DSS and processed in StarTools.

Click for full image to check tracking accuracy

M42 by CHDK AstroKam

CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky Comments Off

Dec 232019

Another shot taken with my £95 SX530HS. Software = CHDK, Astrokam, ASPS, PHD2, DSS, StarTools and Paint.Net.

I am a member of the Powershotters group who asked for some details on how I processed this image. Here is a light image:

Original light image. 180sec, 1600ISO, full aperture, 50x optical zoom.

and here is a dark image

The 48 light and 15 dark images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker along with 25 flats and 15 offsets to produce the FITS image below. This was then processed in StarTools to give the final result above.

AstroKam Flame and Horsehead Nebulae

CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky Comments Off

Nov 302019

Here is a shot I took with my SX530HS PowerShot at maximum optical zoom. Captured in CHDK AstroKam, guided by PHD2, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in StarTools and Paint.NET.

Not bad for a second hand camera with no telescope?

M42 and M45 by AstroKam

CHDK AstroKam Comments Off

Nov 182019

Took these using my Canon SX530HS controlled by AstroKam. Other software used: CHDK, PHD2, ASPS, DSS and StarTools.

CHDK AstroKam Overnight Test

CHDK AstroKam Comments Off

Sep 242019

I left AstroKam running overnight with my SX530HS recently and it worked great. I had set up an 8 target observing list in Cartes du Ciel and imported it into AstroKam with 60 minutes per target and 300 seconds per exposure. Darks and biases were set at 1 per 5 lights.

AstroKam automatically controlled PHD2 autoguiding and plate solved each target using All Sky Plate Solver to provide spot on aiming.

The next morning I used the sort module to remove any duff shots and satellite trails and then generate Deep Sky Stacker project files. These were then batch processed in DSS and processed in StarTools. Final touchup in Paint.Net and I got the results below.

These were all shot at 25x zoom so I can still zoom in to 50x for more detail.

Canon SX530HS First Light

Deep Sky Comments Off

Sep 022019

Here is my first attempt at deep sky with my new (second-hand) Canon SX530HS compact camera. I shot this with a beta version of AstroKam that I hope to release soon. I only used about a third of the optical zoom range so there is plenty of scope (pun) to chase smaller targets.

Still messing with settings for it but I think it compares well with a similar shot I took with my Canon 1100D below.

Dave’s SpeedCam

Uncategorized Comments Off

Jul 252019

Here are the first results from my upcoming SpeedCam app which turns any camera capable of shooting video into a radar speed gun. The graph below is a summary of traffic speed in my street over a 7 hour period. SpeedCam also saves a picture of each vehicle with its speed printed.

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