I was listening to podcast #108 where Martin dabbles in a little astrophotography. Up until I joined this community, my photography experience was limited to astrophotography. I had free access to a small observatory with a LX200 telescope (2000mm f/10), which I no longer have access to (moved). I thought I would put together a few basic tips for anyone interested in this fascinating type of photography. As I like to say, it’s all about the light. Gathering photons on that sensor.
Believe it or not, planets and the moon get boring pretty quickly–the real action reveals itself in galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. For the first time in history, anyone with a DSLR and even a low-range telescope can access vast expanses of our universe, full of color, shape, form and all of the other wonderful things that make up good photographs. But, occasionally, and especially to start, the moon is a nice target. Also, the preferred method of capturing planets is video! Don’t ask me why, but it is pretty much a hard fast rule. The idea is to get the planet in the viewfinder and roll HD video at 60 fps. The hard part of astrophotography is focus. Even if you get just 5 seconds of video, that’s 300 frames to choose from–and as the camera autofocuses, it inevitably nails a few frames spot on. You just go through the frames and find the best focused shots. Here’s an example of Jupiter–though not particularly in great focus
Here’s an example of a moon shot grabbing the camera straight out of the bag with no telescope or insane telephoto lens (I can’t remember which lens–probably 50mm):
Here’s another shot of the moon–this time with a tripod and a 300mm zoom lens. You can get pretty close with a 300mm lens and a tripod. Tip–white balance off the moon itself.
And finally, here is a shot with aforementioned telescope (2000mm f/10). Know that this telescope could optically get way down to inside of a tiny crater and fill the frame. Again, focus is the key–and shooting HD video at 60fps.
I’m going to update this post with some of my own images when I can get into my archives–so the next part about “deep sky” images (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, etc.) will have some examples I just grabbed off of google images.
Deep Sky
Martin had mentioned in the podcast that he couldn’t get a particular shot because the stars were moving too fast. Indeed, they move faster than one might think. The closer they are to us, the faster they move–so the moon, planets and local objects move faster than say, the Orion nebula, which is millions of light years away. What many of the mid to upper tier telescopes do so well has to do with “tracking”. They have motors on them that move the telescope imperceptably to keep the subject in the frame in the exact same place as it moves across the sky. Have you ever seen star trails in photographs? No tracking system is used in these photos–so you’re essentially looking at the subject as it moves from east to west across the sky.
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Keyword: sensorI used the old Visible Dust brush for a while, then I got tired of the whole compressed air deal and started bringing my cameras to a local shop to be cleaned. The thing is, 3 cameras once a month at $50 each is becoming pretty expensive, and sometimes I don’t feel like they do the job perfectly.
I’ve seen the Visble Dust kit came a long way from when I used to use it, is it easier and more effective now?
What do you guys use, and why? Any special tips?
Successor to the two year old 50D, the EOS 60D offers a number of key highlights, including an 18 megapixel CMOS sensor, 3 inch vari-angle LCD screen, Full HD video capture with manual controls, etc. Just like the 7d and 550D / Rebel T2i models, the EOS 60D offers a choice of 24, 25 or 30fps when recording Full HD video clips, and 50/60fps when shooting at 720p or VGA resolution. Regardless of 1080p or 720p, Canon EOS 60D DSLR records its movies as MOV files using variable bitrates H.264 compression.
To the EOS 60D users who would like to burn EOS 60D Videos to DVD for viewing thru a DVD player hooked-up to your HDTV, you may need to convert EOS 60D MOV video to MPEG-4 compatible with DVD burning tools such as iDVD. Now I will share you the solution about convert EOS 60D Video to iDVD with high speed conversion.
Preparation: Install and launch Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac.
After downloading the converter, install it on your iMac/Macbook and then run it. The software interface will appear in front of you.
Step 1: Pull Canon EOS 60D videos into Brorsoft EOS 60D Converter.
Connect your Canon EOS 60D DSLR with your Mac, copy all the MOV videos in Canon 60D to a file folder. And then click the “Add” button to pull them into the converter. All the video clips will be listed in the imported file field.
Tips: If you want to get only one single editable file, you can use this mac EOS 60D converter’s “merge into one file” feature. Load all of your separate H.264 MOV files to the program; check the box “Merge into one file” on the main interface with only one click.
Step 2: Set the output format as “MPEG-4” compatible with iDVD.
Click the “Format” drop-down list below the imported file field. Then you come to the output format menu, where you can choose a right output format. In the “Common Video” section, select “MPEG-4(*.mp4)” as iDVD friendly format ). Set the output routine in the “Output” box so that you can easily find the converted videos.
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XV102 arrived at Bruntingthorpe today, I’ve alot of shots but a lot of dirt on the sensor too it seems, i’ve cleaned a few up to post.
We got 2 fly throughs and a very short landing roll out and a burst rear main wheel, you can see the fire crew checking it out after it was shut down,
XV107 was also due but went tech
anyhoo……..
Hello slempke,
please add this Chipmunk.def file to the github version (Seems that is the correct def file for next chipmunk version (6.0.4)
_cpSpaceIsLocked
_cpSpaceGetCurrentTimeStep
_cpSpaceGetStaticBody
_cpSpaceSetUserData
_cpSpaceGetUserData
_cpSpaceSetEnableContactGraph
_cpSpaceGetEnableContactGraph
_cpSpaceSetCollisionPersistence
_cpSpaceGetCollisionPersistence
_cpSpaceSetCollisionBias
_cpSpaceGetCollisionBias
_cpSpaceSetCollisionSlop
_cpSpaceGetCollisionSlop
_cpSpaceSetSleepTimeThreshold
_cpSpaceGetSleepTimeThreshold
_cpSpaceSetIdleSpeedThreshold
_cpSpaceGetIdleSpeedThreshold
_cpSpaceSetDamping
_cpSpaceGetDamping
_cpSpaceSetGravity
_cpSpaceGetGravity
_cpSpaceSetIterations
_cpSpaceGetIterations
_cpSpatialIndexReindexQuery
_cpSpatialIndexQuery
_cpSpatialIndexSegmentQuery
_cpSpatialIndexPointQuery
_cpSpatialIndexReindexObject
_cpSpatialIndexReindex
_cpSpatialIndexRemove
_cpSpatialIndexInsert
_cpSpatialIndexContains
_cpSpatialIndexEach
_cpSpatialIndexCount
_cpSpatialIndexDestroy
_cpSegmentQueryHitDist
_cpSegmentQueryHitPoint
_cpSlideJointSetMax
_cpSlideJointGetMax
_cpSlideJointSetMin
_cpSlideJointGetMin
_cpSlideJointSetAnchr2
_cpSlideJointGetAnchr2
_cpSlideJointSetAnchr1
_cpSlideJointGetAnchr1
_cpSimpleMotorSetRate
_cpSimpleMotorGetRate
_cpRotaryLimitJointSetMax
_cpRotaryLimitJointGetMax
_cpRotaryLimitJointSetMin
_cpRotaryLimitJointGetMin
_cpRatchetJointSetRatchet
_cpRatchetJointGetRatchet
_cpRatchetJointSetPhase
_cpRatchetJointGetPhase
_cpRatchetJointSetAngle
_cpRatchetJointGetAngle
_cpPivotJointSetAnchr2
_cpPivotJointGetAnchr2
_cpPivotJointSetAnchr1
_cpPivotJointGetAnchr1
_cpPinJointSetDist
_cpPinJointGetDist
_cpPinJointSetAnchr2
_cpPinJointGetAnchr2
_cpPinJointSetAnchr1
_cpPinJointGetAnchr1
_cpGrooveJointGetGrooveB
_cpGrooveJointGetGrooveA
_cpGrooveJointSetAnchr2
_cpGrooveJointGetAnchr2
_cpGearJointGetRatio
_cpGearJointSetPhase
_cpGearJointGetPhase
_cpDampedSpringSetDamping
_cpDampedSpringGetDamping
_cpDampedSpringSetStiffness
_cpDampedSpringGetStiffness
_cpDampedSpringSetRestLength
_cpDampedSpringGetRestLength
_cpDampedSpringSetAnchr2
_cpDampedSpringGetAnchr2
_cpDampedSpringSetAnchr1
_cpDampedSpringGetAnchr1
_cpDampedRotarySpringSetDamping
_cpDampedRotarySpringGetDamping
_cpDampedRotarySpringSetStiffness
_cpDampedRotarySpringGetStiffness
_cpDampedRotarySpringSetRestAngle
_cpDampedRotarySpringGetRestAngle
_cpConstraintGetImpulse
_cpConstraintSetUserData
_cpConstraintGetUserData
_cpConstraintSetMaxBias
_cpConstraintGetMaxBias
_cpConstraintSetErrorBias
_cpConstraintGetErrorBias
_cpConstraintSetMaxForce
_cpConstraintGetMaxForce
_cpConstraintGetB
_cpConstraintGetA
_cpArbiterGetCount
_cpArbiterIsFirstContact
_cpArbiterGetBodies
_cpArbiterGetShapes
_cpShapeSetLayers
_cpShapeGetLayers
_cpShapeSetGroup
_cpShapeGetGroup
_cpShapeSetCollisionType
_cpShapeGetCollisionType
_cpShapeSetUserData
_cpShapeGetUserData
_cpShapeSetSurfaceVelocity
_cpShapeGetSurfaceVelocity
_cpShapeSetFriction
_cpShapeGetFriction
_cpShapeSetElasticity
_cpShapeGetElasticity
_cpShapeSetSensor
_cpShapeGetSensor
_cpShapeSetBody
_cpShapeGetBody
_cpShapeGetBB
_cpBodyKineticEnergy
_cpBodyWorld2Local
_cpBodyLocal2World
_cpBodyIsRogue
_cpBodyIsStatic
_cpBodyIsSleeping
_cpBodySetUserData
_cpBodyGetUserData
_cpBodySetAngVelLimit
_cpBodyGetAngVelLimit
_cpBodySetVelLimit
_cpBodyGetVelLimit
_cpBodySetTorque
_cpBodyGetTorque
_cpBodySetAngVel
_cpBodyGetAngVel
_cpBodySetForce
_cpBodyGetForce
_cpBodySetVel
_cpBodyGetVel
_cpBodyGetRot
_cpBodyGetAngle
_cpBodyGetPos
_cpBodyGetMoment
_cpBodyGetMass
_cpBBIntersectsSegment
_cpBBSegmentQuery
_cpBBMergedArea
_cpBBArea
_cpBBExpand
_cpBBMerge
_cpBBContainsVect
_cpBBContainsBB
_cpBBIntersects
_cpBBNewForCircle
_cpBBNew
_cpflerpconst
_cpflerp
_cpfclamp
_cpfabs
_cpfmin
_cpfmax
_cpvnear
_cpvdistsq
_cpvdist
_cpvlerpconst
_cpvclamp
_cpvnormalize_safe
_cpvnormalize
_cpvlerp
_cpvlengthsq
_cpvunrotate
_cpvrotate
_cpvproject
_cpvrperp
_cpvperp
_cpvcross
_cpvdot
_cpvmult
_cpvsub
_cpvneg
_cpvadd
_cpveql
_cpv
EXPORTS
LIBRARYSelect allCode:
The Lumix DMC-ZS7 (Also known as DMC-TZ10) is Panasonic‘s range-topping travel-zoom camera. It has a 14.5-megapixel multi-aspect CCD sensor with a maximum image size of 12 megapixels, an extra-sharp 3in 460k monitor with a wide angle of view, optional manual exposure and a built-in GPS receiver for automatic location recording, with a database of over half a million named locations and landmarks worldwide. Besides these, it records video in AVCHD Lite format which is a subset of AVCHD format, in which HD-recording is limited to 720p/30.
However, yet the compatibility between AVCHD Lite and Mac system doesn’t perform quite well, it is not easy to view/read/playback/edit movies in this kind of format on Mac as it requires high configuration to handle Panasonic DMC-TZ10(DMC-ZS7) AVCHD Lite videos. After going to several forums and collecting all the helpful tips, I realize that professional converting software is necessary. In terms of handling the Panasonic AVCHD Lite videos on Mac OS X, I decided to try Brorsoft AVCHD Lite Converter for Mac which helps making the playing/editing easily &smoothly as a result.
So much gratitude overwhelmed me and I can’t wait showing the tutorial that specially written for those who are also stucking with such troubles. If you would like to make Panasonic AVCHD Lite compatible with your Mac, and easily read/play/edit Panasonic DMC-TZ10/DMC-ZS7 720P AVCHD Lite videos on Mac QuickTime Player, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, or Final Cut Express, etc, just follow tutorial below with Brorsoft AVCHD Lite Converter for Mac.
Step 1: Load Panasonic DMC-TZ10 AVCHD Lite footage to the best Panasonic AVCHD Lite Converter for Mac
Download and set up MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac. Run the program as the most easy-to-use Panasonic AVCHD Lite Converter for Mac. Click the “Add” button on the up-left corner of top tool bar, by clicking it or dragging & dropping the video directly you can import the .mod files to the program. Plus, multiple files are allowed to be imported altogether.
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Successor to the two year old 50D, the EOS 60D offers a number of key highlights, including an 18 megapixel CMOS sensor, 3 inch vari-angle LCD screen, Full HD video capture with manual controls, etc. Just like the 7d and 550D / Rebel T2i models, the EOS 60D offers a choice of 24, 25 or 30fps when recording Full HD video clips, and 50/60fps when shooting at 720p or VGA resolution. Regardless of 1080p or 720p, Canon EOS 60D DSLR records its movies as MOV files using variable bitrates H.264 compression.
To the EOS 60D users who would like to burn EOS 60D Videos to DVD for viewing thru a DVD player hooked-up to your HDTV, you may need to convert EOS 60D MOV video to MPEG-4 compatible with DVD burning tools such as iDVD. Now I will share you the solution about convert EOS 60D Video to iDVD with high speed conversion.
Preparation: Install and launch Brorsoft Video Converter for Mac.
After downloading the converter, install it on your iMac/Macbook and then run it. The software interface will appear in front of you.
Step 1: Pull Canon EOS 60D videos into Brorsoft EOS 60D Converter.
Connect your Canon EOS 60D DSLR with your Mac, copy all the MOV videos in Canon 60D to a file folder. And then click the “Add” button to pull them into the converter. All the video clips will be listed in the imported file field.
Tips: If you want to get only one single editable file, you can use this mac EOS 60D converter’s “merge into one file” feature. Load all of your separate H.264 MOV files to the program; check the box “Merge into one file” on the main interface with only one click.
….
Surprise to all, this is the camera I’ve been using for all my shots! I still have not moved on to the Digital SLR as of NOW, but I’m planning daily on doing so! I’m leaning towards Canon now, but who knows! I just wanted to share with you the review this camera got as the first Super Steady Shot camera with a 12x lens! It got a very good review as a small all-around super zoom camera to take along. It’s also the closest to Digital SLR’s (along with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 which is 8 mega px)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz30/ (and the Fuji Finepix S9000 which is 9 mega pixels) http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms9000/
The problem with these cameras is not their lenses (they all have IS ). It’s their small sensors. They only deliver good image quality when the ISO is low and the light is bright, so you don’t get that ISO good image versatility a good Canon or Nikon D SLR provides you with a variety of light situations. Here’s the review for the Sony I still use: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydsch1/
The Sony’s equivalent is the Canon Power shot S2, also with Image stabilization.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/
Get the goods: http://chipmunk-physics.net/release/Chi … -6.0.2.tgz
Get the Docs: http://chipmunk-physics.net/release/Chi … .0.2-Docs/
Try out the new Demo App: http://chipmunk-physics.net/release/ChipmunkDemoOSX.tgz
What’s New?
A few bug fixes and a lot of minor improvements in this version. Especially for Objective-Chipmunk. The Angry Chipmunks Objective-Chipmunk/Cocos2D tutorial has also been updated to take advantage of the new features in Objective-Chipmunk such as smartAdd: and smartRemove:.
- API: Added cpSpaceIsLocked() to check if you are in a callback or not.
- API: Removed the long deprecated [ChipmunkSpace addShapeAHandler:] and [ChipmunkSpace addShapeBHandler:] methods.
- API: The ChipmunkObject protocol now can return any NSFastEnumeration object instead of just an NSSet.
- API: The largely useless [ChipmunkSpace addBaseObjects:] and [ChipmunkSpace removeBaseObjects:] methods were removed.
- API: Added [ChipmunkSpace smartAdd:] and [ChipmunkSpace smartRemove:] methods for a consistent API to remove objects inside and out of callbacks.
- API: Added [ChipmunkSpace addPostStepBlock:key:] to complement [ChipmunkSpace addPostStepCallback:selector:key:].
- API: Added [ChipmunkSpace addPostStepAddition:].
- API: Objective-Chipmunk collision handlers no longer retain their target to avoid reference cycles.
- BUG: Soft errors (only checked when debug mode is enabled) and warnings were disabled. Whoops.
- BUG: cpShapeIsSensor() was incorrectly named in chipmunk_ffi.h.
- BUG: It should be safe to call cpActivateBody() from an space iterator callback now.
- MISC: Very nice bouyancy demo added based on callbacks.
- MISC: Player demo updated and greatly enhanced by Chipmunk 6 features.
- MISC: Changed adding a static body to a space from a warning to a hard error.
- MISC: cpGroup and cpCollisionType now default to uintptr_t so you can safely use pointers instead of ints for these types.
- MISC: Updated the MSVC10 project file.
- MISC: Updated the FFI defs.
I haven’t integrated the auto geometry (video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QObxwXH6Ri8) code yet, as I need to rearrange a bunch of my projects to do that. I figured it would be better to get the release done than hold it up more as I do that. Objective-Chipmunk or Chipmunk Pro owners can still get the code separately in the Chipmunk Pro downloads directory.
I was listening to podcast #108 where Martin dabbles in a little astrophotography. Up until I joined this community, my photography experience was limited to astrophotography. I had free access to a small observatory with a LX200 telescope (2000mm f/10), which I no longer have access to (moved). I thought I would put together a few basic tips for anyone interested in this fascinating type of photography. As I like to say, it’s all about the light. Gathering photons on that sensor.
Believe it or not, planets and the moon get boring pretty quickly–the real action reveals itself in galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. For the first time in history, anyone with a DSLR and even a low-range telescope can access vast expanses of our universe, full of color, shape, form and all of the other wonderful things that make up good photographs. But, occasionally, and especially to start, the moon is a nice target. Also, the preferred method of capturing planets is video! Don’t ask me why, but it is pretty much a hard fast rule. The idea is to get the planet in the viewfinder and roll HD video at 60 fps. The hard part of astrophotography is focus. Even if you get just 5 seconds of video, that’s 300 frames to choose from–and as the camera autofocuses, it inevitably nails a few frames spot on. You just go through the frames and find the best focused shots. Here’s an example of Jupiter–though not particularly in great focus
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