The next meeting of the Richmond Astronomical Society will be held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, September 14 at the Science Museum of Virginia in the Eureka Theater. Jeff Pike will be presenting on “Dark Flow.”
Thanks to Randy Tatum for this recent image of Jupiter showing the great red spot and diminished southern equatorial belt (south is up in this image).
Don’t forget to check on the progress of Sydney’s Telescope. She is moving along with her project!
Subject: Webcast from 9/8/2009 meeting.
I hope that the test was considered successful and that continued refinements will make this a standard practice for our meetings. As a local observer of the webcast during the meeting with my MacNotebook, I offer the following suggestions for consideration:
1. The camera position should not be static, but move to the subject. Just how to do this I’m unsure. It may be as easy as having someone hold the camera (or laptop) and point it during the meeting.
2. During Ted’s presentation the audio was very weak. This could have been minimized if Ted positioned himself in front of the recording laptop and talked in that direction…. Some practice and experimentation may help improve audio pick-up in the future.
3. Ted’s presentation projection was rendered nicely in the dim light. However the camera was off to the side and so the screen image was skewed like a trapezoid. It might make better sense to move the camera/laptop to be square and in front of the screen.
I will probably be out of town for the next meeting and hope that you continue with webcasting.
Regards,
Cal
Cal:
Thanks very much for your comments.
On reviewing the recording, I noticed the same things you mentioned, particularly the audio. I think that an entirely different microphone might be needed. The one I used which is built-in to my laptop was just not up to the task. Perhaps a separate microphone/webcam combination would provide better audio and the ability to get a better camera angle or, alternatively, placing the laptop on the projection table near the speaker and directly in front of the screen. I understand that the large screen projector will be back in service next month which should help with the screen visibility as well.
Thanks again,
Jim