Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, MacBook Pros and more. Optical Drives for Apple iBooks, Powerbooks, MacBooks, MacBook Pros in Stock. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

OWC: Big Drives, High Performance - Not High Prices! SATA 3.5" up to 1.5TB. Notebook up to 500GB. FW up to 6.0TB. 1.0TB Drive Models from as low as $97.99 www.MacSales.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Lab Report

Shooting Mars with a Scope and Webcam

- 2003.09.04

This is the best image of Mars I've taken. It was taken on Friday, August 29, at about 1 a.m. Pacific. The equipment and techniques I used were as follows, with references.

The camera was originally based on a QuickCam Express, but since that is a PC-only camera, I removed the guts and replaced them with the parts from a QuickCam 3000 (www.logitech.com), which is cross platform. The camera mount consists basically of a small black project box with a 1-1/4" outside diameter tube attached to a hole in the box; the CCD chip lies in the bottom of the hole, surrounded by black electrical tape to absorb stray light.

The telescope I and a couple of friends, Ray Kuntz and Eric Chamberlain, used was a 10" Meade SCT, specifically an LX200 GPS, which is pretty fun to use. This telescope aligns itself, or nearly so. All you have to do is verify a couple of stars and, presto, you're in business.

Basically I centered Mars, then moved the image down in the field of view until it matched the relative position of the CCD in the tube, popped out the eyepiece, put in the camera, refocused, and started recording. There was a 2x barlow in the light path for this image.

MarsUsing IOxperts' QuickCam driver (http://www.ioxperts.com) and BTV's image capture program (http://bensoftware.com) I made short QuickTime movies in real time of the Red Planet. A sample frame from that movie appears on the right.

When doing this sort of observing, it is important to save your work frequently.

Finally, using a program called Keith's Image Stacker, I selected about 20 of the best frames from the movie, then nudged Marsthem around so they were lined up nearly in the same position. Then the software added the images together and produced a raw image not too different from the picture above. Watching the resulting video is very similar to looking directly through the eyepiece yourself. Keith's Image Stacker does all the thing one learns about in a course in astronomy on CCDs: dark frames, bias, etc.

I intend to register all the the shareware mentioned above soon, so I can run longer sessions without being interrupted by shareware notices.

Have fun!

Jeff Adkins is a science teacher who isn't afraid to state his preferences in computing platforms. In his classroom he has everything from a beige All-in-One to a a G4 XServe, and they all work together nicely. He calls himself the "poster child for technology integration" in the classroom. He was the 2006 Outstanding Educator of the Year for the California Computer Using Educators (CUE) organization. He also maintains a site for astronomy teachers at www.AstronomyTeacher.com.

Recent Mac Lab Reports

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Mac Lab Report copyright © 2000-08 by Jeff Adkins. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.