From Dr
Timothy J PARKER
® . . . . . . . .Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 13:17:01 -0700
Subject: Mars
Observations, September
28th
Attached are my observations from
the 28th of September. Seeing started
out mediocre, but was improving enough that I started imaging. After I imaged with the ToUcam for a while, I
decided to try swapping for the 3Com camera.
This was because the transparency was dropping, and at 1/25th"
exposure time with the ToUcam, I had to bump up the gain to where Mars was
pretty noisy through the 6". The
3Com can shoot at 1/4" second, which proved to be the solution to the
noisy images.
I note that many websites about
using webcams for astroimaging say that the 3com has
a Sharp CCD in it. But it looks
identical to the Phillips chip, and the images of Mars with the same optical
system are exactly the same size, so it must be a Sony chip in the 3Com (though
it might be an earlier version, because the camera is about 3 years old now).
planetarily,
Tim PARKER (JPL/CIT,
CA,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
Institute of Technology
Mail Stop 183-501
Research Scientist (Geologist)
Mars Exploration Rover
Director, Regional Planetary Image
Facility
