Yes, the time on this post is correct. Tonight was my first night out with my new telescope-adapted webcam, and I feel like a nerdy kid in a science education store. A very tired one.

I got what I think are a few good images of the moon and Mars. One was easily recognizable as the Red Planet, even if it was somewhat less detailed than the Hubble photos you’ll see on TV.

Webcam astronomy actually produces AVI files as its raw data, which must then be laboriously processed to make worthwhile stills. Most of the heavy lifting is done by a freeware tool, but I still have several hours of image processing ahead of me before I have anything worth posting. You’ll see it here first when it’s done. Membership has its privileges.

• 
• Posted by Tim on Thursday, August 14, 2003 at 2:46:54 am PDT
• Category: Miscellany
• Comment RSS Feed