[ravnostic]

Well dang; I have the Home Premium, but the motherboard tops me out at 8. Even with just 4 (Fry’s sold me the wrong memory; Olav tipped me off to another vendor and I’ve ordered online) though, the 64 bit is zippity fast–my astrostacking takes less than 1/2 the time it did.

[ravnostic]

If you have Windows 7, I think it tops out at 8Gb (so far as I’ve seen at least), so make sure you can use it before buying. Sadly, Fry’s Elec. sold me the wrong memory. I returned it, but they didn’t have the right one. I’ve ordered it online, which was cheaper anyway. When I get it, I’ll sell the single 4GB I have now (I’d rather stick with two sticks of the same brand).

//it’s funny, I was shopping online a couple times today, and found myself typing numbers on the keyboard instead of the keypad by rote. I had to stop myself and use the keypad. After 5 years, I’d forgotten how to use it!

[ravnostic]

I’ve had the same recommendation from another, bender, but the only thing useful to me are two browsers, so I opted against it.

I’m nearly finished now (some 7 hours later); just need to get my Deep Sky Stacker loaded and I should be back in business! I miss processing photos. I just got a tip on a 3 Tb aux drive that has wi-fi so I can keep both lappies active and don’t have to switch cords. It’s in the bucket list. Meanwhile, I’m going to run a trial, with just the 4 gb ram in the new one (waiting to see before breaking in the 8gb), will run a stack of astro images simultaneously on both lappies and see just how much faster things are. Should be great fun!!

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DO post pics if you can! Finished the ‘scope yet? I’d love to get my hands on that piece of glass.

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Yay! It’s been a while for me. Thanks for all the votes gang!

[ravnostic]

hunches that bites. I’m hoping to have a better weekend, I just woke up, and simply need to get my things packed into my truck for a photowalk I’m leading for 10 in the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness area up north. As such, I won’t be around for the contest finish, but I’m hoping I can keep my lead for the wine glass image (I still think Yugo can take the prize on this one; I’m a HUGE fan of fractals–anyone else ever heard of Fractint? Hours of fractal fun…). Since I won’t be around till some time late Sunday, I’ll just say thanks for the votes regardless where I finish up!

The secret to doing well is apparently having great ideas that you don’t get to execute, then fumbling around the archives at the last possible minute for shots that would at least meet the spirit of the theme even if you don’t think they’ll do well yourself. I’ll have to remember that in the future.

[ravnostic]

First, Ennui, they are good shots. I see where your problem is, I’ll offer my limited experience with the program I suggested that you said you used. Are you using any sort of remote shutter release? Or timer delay? That worked for me in regards to shake. You can forget about darks, at least in StarStax, it doesn’t seem to work (it hasn’t for me–if you figure it out, lemme know, m-k? I eventually just did it manually in photoshop).

I can’t find the edited and fixered image, but I found the pre-tiff; didn’t bother to go further since I’m just needing to use it as an example here. This is like 25-30 pictures, lit up the clouds and a few bolts of lightning, but you can see the powerlines are ‘crisp’ (I don’t have the quality camera/lenses you do, there’s noise not dealt with in this image), and other than lens aberrations, the lights are sharp. So I’m thinking maybe your triggering the camera is causing enough shake to mess up the lights in the foreground. I may be wrong there. I’m heading out to go camping after I get some rest; I’ll check back Sunday night/Monday morning.

Larger: http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/sep/15/stackedimagelg.jpg

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Dayum. I have follower envy.

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Congrats! How’d you get their attention? Did they find it via your post on G+? (I know they have a presence there…)

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Id like to see that when you get it finished!

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People sure seemed to like the more interpretive photos than the photos from my actual nuclear physics lab, but it turns out science really is pretty boring.

We’re always mentioning how we can never figure out the will of the voters. Knowing that a nuc. phys. can’t either is…well, it just means there’s no hope at all. 😛

[ravnostic]

StarStax is what you’re looking for here. It does more than just stars. I’ve had good results with lightning from it, stacking 30-40 meah pictures into one glorious image. The problem lay in that will only save in jpg. And while it will work with ‘darks, it doesn’t really. But the result overall, I felt, was worth it. Great for star trails, too. It’s free.

[ravnostic]

Thanks, Barra; I wrote above that it was a ‘b-side’ for maybe ‘SOOC’, but I was mistaken; it’s a bee from BW3

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Welcome in JVSPhotos! I’d thought I’d mentioned about updating the rules page, but I guess I’m mistaken. Lots of nice, friendly people here, and now that you know, you can post the images larger next time!

[ravnostic]

Everything, plama. Say, I’m looking to travel after Christmas, and Hawaii is on the menu; what’s your schedule like Dec 30-Jan 8?

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