Latest AstroKam Captures

 CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky  Comments Off on Latest AstroKam Captures
Mar 062022
 

Here are a selection of my latest captures taken with my £90 Canon SX530HS. Click on an image for full size original.

Flame and Horsehead Nebulae
M51
M45
 Posted by at 1:24 pm

Moon with £12 Camera

 CHDK AstroKam, Moon  Comments Off on Moon with £12 Camera
Dec 222020
 

I took this with a second hand, grade C Canon A810 camera I got for £12 looking thru the eyepiece of my Nextar 4SE. Capture of 54x 30sec videos done in CHDK-PTP, stacking in AviStack, stitched in MS ICE and polished in Paint.NET.

Click for Full Size Image (3200×4400, 6MB)
 Posted by at 2:42 pm

DSSR+AstroKam Moon

 CHDK AstroKam, Moon  Comments Off on DSSR+AstroKam Moon
Jun 022020
 

These images were taken using my Canon SX530HS with its zoom set to 100x (2400mm EFL). Capture was controlled by CHDK AstroKam and autoguiding by DSSR. Best 500 of 1000 jpegs were cropped in PIPP, stacked in AS3! and wavelets in Registax.

100% detail
Click for full size image
 Posted by at 2:07 pm

AstroKam Spring Collection

 CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky  Comments Off on AstroKam Spring Collection
Apr 302020
 

Scotland had a great spell of cloud free weather in Spring 2020 and below are some of my deep sky captures. All were captured on my Canon PowerShot SX530HS superzoom camera using CHDK AstroKam, stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in StarTools. Click an image for full size.

 Posted by at 12:28 pm

CHDK AstroKam M101

 CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky  Comments Off on CHDK AstroKam M101
Apr 182020
 

M101 captured with a Canon SX530HS at 50x zoom in CHDK AstroKam. 50x200sec lights at f8 and ISO 1600 with 15 each darks and offsets. Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, processed in StarTools and polished in Paint.net.

 Posted by at 1:48 pm

58 Galaxies from SX530HS

 CHDK AstroKam, Deep Sky  Comments Off on 58 Galaxies from SX530HS
Mar 222020
 

I took a shot of the night sky with my SX530HS and submitted it to nova.astrometry.net for analysis. They returned the result within a few minutes, including a copy of the original image with deep sky object labels superimposed. Below is a detail of that image.

Click image to see all 58 galaxies

Pretty good for a point and shoot camera and a great service from http://nova.astrometry.net.

 Posted by at 10:34 am

SX530HS and Tripod Moon

 CHDK AstroKam, Moon  Comments Off on SX530HS and Tripod Moon
Mar 072020
 
Click for full size image

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.

Click for full size image
 Posted by at 3:06 pm

Moon without Telescope

 CHDK AstroKam, Moon  Comments Off on Moon without Telescope
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.

Best quality single jpeg at 100x zoom
Stacked jpegs at 100x zoom
Stacked jpegs at 50x zoom
Stacked video at 100x zoom
Stacked video at 200x zoom

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

Click for full size image
 Posted by at 10:40 am

200x Zoom Moon

 CHDK AstroKam, Moon  Comments Off on 200x Zoom Moon
Feb 072020
 

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

Click for full size image

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.

 Posted by at 10:47 am