Last nights observing

hi guys! Was out from 8-12 last night observing! It was a lovely clear night sky! I got both scopes out aswell as both cameras! I observed:
1: saturn through both telescope withevery eyepiece(40mm,25mm,20mm,12mm,9mm,+2 4mm)! saw the beehive cluster right beside saturn aswell!
Also, i noticed mars and plaeides were close aswell!
Then i saw the orion nebula again through every eyepiece!
1 question! do you need a filter to see the colours?

Had the camera attached to both scopes!
Now i have lots of questions and problems! Ill need lots of feedback!
1: i couldnt focus on saturn with the 4.5" scope and the camera! Focal lenght 910mm by the by! Anyone no why?
I shot all images in raw mode and some sort of non-auto white balance mode! Now i cant view these types of files on my computer! There thm files and crx files or sumtin like that! There are nice photos of saturn and the beehive cluster, mars and plaeides, plaeides etc. on the camera but now i cant get them back on my computer(deleted them by accident!
HELP!!!!! Also i cant fous the 40mm on the 4.5" scope! The focuser hits the tube!

Although i did get some images on my trusty sony cybershot!
Managed saturn! Too depressed t givedetails!





Now heres the scopes and cam!




Please anything you think could tell me it!!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!!
It was a great nights observing inspite of the cam!
Matthew C

P.s I saw my first aurora yesterday! Whole north of sky was green!
YEY!

Ouch! That saturn image looked much better on my camera!

Hi Matthew,
Dont get too disparaged, its hard work breaking into the world of astrophotography.
Raw files from the toucam are not recognised by windows, it cant open them.
As for colours, you wont see the red colour in the orion nebula, some see it as greenish, but this is an "brain/eye" effect, the colours are only "visible" in photographs.

I'd recommend imaging with the toucam in its normal avi state, if you've already modified the webcam, then so be it, but if you have a webcam thats unmodified, it would be easier to learn the tricks of the trade using that. I find focusing with the RAW modified webcam much more difficult compared to the unmodified webcam.

As for the focus, it sounds like the focus for the webcam is "inside" the tube of the scope, maybe using a barlow will extend the focus so the webcam can focus. If that doesnt work, short of some major surgery where you move the focuser and secondary closer to the primary mirror, there isnt a whole lot you can do

Its actuually a canon eos 300d!

Fair enough, I presumed with such a field of view that the image was with a canon.
I never use the canon for planetary shots, it just isnt up to it, the ToUcam does a much better job of it.
the canons raw files are also not recognised by windows, experiment with the normal jpegs first, it much easier to see whats happening with then as windows does recognise them.

www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/sat.html

The above link is where you can join a yahoo Saturn ALPO group. You then get e mails from other group members who are astrophotographers that specialize in taking images of Saturn. You can just enjoy the often superb images produced by these talented people or you can join in technical e talks on problems associated with imaging the wonderful planet Saturn. This is a group associated with the American Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers.

I find it very interesting as the images and information are up to date and I enjoy seeing what people can do with their imaging systems.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Saturn Observation Campaign
soc.jpl.nasa.gov/participate.cfm