Posts Made By: Anthony Wesley

G'day Dave, I'm sure you'll find quite a few and varying opinions on which camera or filters to try, so here's my $0.02 worth to kick things off :-)

Late last year I bought a Dragonfly Express firewire camera from www.ptgrey.com and I am very happy with it's performance. Excellent sensitivity and prtty much any and all features that you'll ever want, also 800Mbit data rate. However it is a bit on the $$$ side, so you might also like to consider cameras from other places like www.theimagingsource.com, eg their DMK series which seem like good value for money. There are other people around here who might be able to comment on which models to look for.

My personal view is to go for a firewire camera rather than usb2, as there is a well supported standard for video over firewire that doesn't have an equivalent in the usb world so every usb2 camera has it's own unique driver (and therefore incompatibilities etc) and you are reliant on the vendor for all support.

I still have the CD that came with my firewire camera but it's not opened, I used all open source software instead and didn't need the vendors driver installed.

But I know that there are people who are enthusiastic supporters of the Lumenera usb2 cameras, I'm sure they'll want to add their support here :-)

The features you're likely to want in an upgraded camera compared to the ToUcam is more flexible control over exposure and framerate, as well as the higher sensitivity that comes with a monochrome ccd. Check out the specs of these cameras, also look for "Region Of Interest" or "Area or Interest" support, that allows you to transfer only the portion of the frame that contains the planet and can save a lot of bandwidth and disk space.

I'm using Astronomik RGB filters and have no complaints. They have excellent bandpass characteristics and low losses.

regards, Anthony

Good image Oliver - nice to see someone else using Coriander too!

regards, Anthony

Wow, along with Wes' recent image these 2 make a pair of fantastic images!

Well done,

Anthony

Copernicus is a personal favourite of mine,this is a great image!

Anthony

James, you haven't really told us what camera settings you're using... Overexposed areas are the result of either (a) too much gain, (b) exposure too long, or (c) contrast setting too high (gamma).

Reducing these will help. I often find that I have to set the camera so that the moon is reasonably dim in most areas so that the brightest areas are not overexposed.

The dynamic range available to your camera is important - in general cameras with smaller pixels have lower dynamic range since the pixels fill up with charge more quickly when compared to cameras with large pixels. Dynamic range is very important on the moon as you can see...

I'm not sure which camera you have, but if it's using 4.5 micron pixels then it will have a dynamic range less than half that of a camera with 7.4 micron pixels (these are the two common pixel sizes) so if you have a choice of cameras, use the one with the larger pixels.

You can reduce the dynamic range while you're imaging by adjusting the camera controls (increase gamma, reduce shutter/exposure) but don't over-do this as you are also reducing the visible contrast.

cheers, Anthony

Thanks Steve, nice image! Fingers crossed that we all get some good seeing in the next month or so...

Anthony

david janello said:

Greetings,

I have a question for the high-end webcam gurus on the list, do any of these cameras have ability to be run in parallel, e.g. via an automated/software start mechanism?

I'm looking at building some hardware devices that require very accurate start synchronization of webcam clusters and accurate timestamping of each frame. I don't expect the cameras would have built-in frame-to-frame synchronization like the digital film editors do, so will have to compensate with start accuracy and timestamp information if available.

Thanks,

David A. Janello
www.spreadhunter.com
www.argon-tech.com

David, the firewire cameras can operate in synchronous mode, if they are on the same bus. I know the Dragonfly Express that I have will do this, and also the cheaper fire-i camera will do it. It's a standard feature of the firewire camera specification, but you'd have to check that the DMK cameras have implemented it.

cheers, Anthony

Thanks, John I'm using a dragonfly express monochrome firewire camera. You can see the details of the scope and equipment here: http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/lexx.html

regards, Anthony

Fantastic images Wes, thanks!

Anthony

Guy Earle said:

Hi, all

I've been observing for some 14 years now, and have always been a dob man. My latest is a 16" f/4.5, coupled with a Denk. I've always been visual, but I'm curious about taking planetary photos. No drive, no eq platform...just push.

I fiddled with my digital camera at the eyepiece, and it got me curious about taking and stacking planetary photos with say, Registax.

Can it be done without a drive? In other words, can I take a series of photos, move the scope, take more, and then stack them? I guess it all depends on whether or not the software can stack photos of say, Saturn, when it isn't in the same part of the field (since with no drive I will have drift....).

As I said...visual man asking a very basic photographic question. All advice is very welcome.

Clear Skies,

guy

Article "Astrophotography with a Dob" here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,201,0,0,1,0

cheers, Anthony