first go at imaging

Trevor,

I have a sony dv camcorder, I tried to do mars with it but I had a problem with importing the AVI into Registax, did you have a similar problem ???
I have not had a chance to look into it fully.

Nice job by the way.
Addictive isn't it !!

I have not tried the moon with the DV camara, but I think I will give it a go after seen your first attempt.

I plan to get an adapter for the Camera to attach it to the scope and I have a nice little remote control that came with the camcorder that will allow me contol it will causing vibrations.

Good first image Trevor,
there is now no going back, you're clear nights will now be blighted by either observing or imagining to the point where you become an insomniac, then you'll realise you need a more expensive camera, then a bigger scope, then you realise you need a dark sky site, and before you know it, you'll end up spending all you holidays going to remote dark sky destinations during the new moon....... welcome to astrophotography :lol:

Seriously though, it can be difficult to get limb detail and still get the brighter areas, I'd recommend that you turn off any auto exposure feature on the camera (if on) and dim the brightness abit. Also go get an orion steadypix, it will hold the camera onto the telescope lens, it makes life much easier.

Mark, the only time I've seen registax not accept an AVI is if it is too big (frame number wise), I somtimes have trouble if the video is over 1800 frames. If you can cut up the AVI then do so, let us know how you get on.

Dave L - you forgot the mount...

Trevor,

I have a sony dv camcorder, I tried to do mars with it but I had a problem with importing the AVI into Registax, did you have a similar problem ???
I have not had a chance to look into it fully.

Yeah I had similar problems also. Registax cannot accept mpeg files which is what my mini dv (sony also) produces on transfer to pc. I found a piece of software to convert the imported file from camera, to avi, called virtualDub, which is some freeware to convert mpeg to avi. You can process this in registax. This software can also be used to capture the clip also and saves it directly as avi

Thanks for the encouragement lads

Dave L - you forgot the mount...

Doohhh !
and not forgetting the chiropracter fees from damaging your back after sitting in the freezing cold and then slipping a disk trying the lift it back into the garage at the end of the night :lol: