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Old 09-08-2005, 08:48 AM
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Striker (Tony)
Whats visual Astronomy

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SAC/Mintron/StellacamEX

I just received the SAC Mintron monochrome just to play around with while I wait for the SAC 10 to be released.

I just had a go istalling it this morning without any success...I will have another go later....does anyone have any experience with these. their is a lot of cables...doesn't look that hard....oh well try again later.

As far as I know their just like a webcam uncooled but I would love to play around with it on some DSO that I cant do with the Toucam.

Here it is.
http://www.digitecoptical.com/ccd-sacmn.htm

I will post my first horrible results tonight.....give you all some laughs.
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  #2  
Old 09-08-2005, 10:04 AM
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p medcraft
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This is a Stellacam Ex, I have one as well. I didn't have any problems getting it to work though. Start by getting an image first so plug into power but don't connect it to the scope. Keep your hand or a cover over the end and see if you can get some light showing on the screen of your TV, I use a Cheap portable DVD player that my kids very kindly broke for me. It still works just doesn't like to play DVD's. The images appear on the LCD screen very clearly. If you can see some sort of change in light then the camera is working. Next step is "what do you want it for?". Do you want to connect it to a small monitor for public viewing or do you want to image with it?
If it is imaging you will need a laptop and a capture device. The laptop needs to be able to receive a composite video input. I use a DVD capture device I got from **** Smith that plugs into the USB port and cost me around $120.00. It includes the software to enable me to capture AVI's. Again, it was easy. I loaded the software according to instructions plugged the camera into the device and turned the software on and voila, there was a live image on the laptop. Give me some more detail of how you have it setup and I will see if we can debug your problem. Image of Jupiter attached taken with the Stellacam from last night.
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Old 09-08-2005, 01:42 PM
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Striker (Tony)
Whats visual Astronomy

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I dont think you need a capture device on the SAC Mintron....its has its own internal device......I have got the camera operational through my PC but their is limited options to change...it looks to me that only the basic option can be altered on screen then the rest need to be done by the hand controller.

What type of settings did you use for Jupiter....going from what I have read it's bit too sensative for planets and Moon so a filter may be needed....I want to have a go at DSO...I think the toucam is better for planets.

Does the file come out as an AVI or does it stack all the images onto 1 combined image(BMP) from each exposure giving you say 20 images if 20 is picked....I dont understand what the second option is regarding the delay..?????..if this makes any sense.
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Old 09-08-2005, 01:43 PM
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Stellacam image

Image of the North Western edge of Mare Crisium 3 days after new Moon.
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Old 09-08-2005, 08:47 PM
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Striker (Tony)
Whats visual Astronomy

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"Wahoo my first DSO"

Ok I had an hour tonight between entertaining the pommies to try out the SAC Mintron...I got it working earlier on today so I kind of new what I had to do...I just had to put it into practice from what I had read.

First impression's "Awesome"...I couldn't believe what I could see on the live view mode on my Computer screen.....OMG I was shocked....I couldn't get anything at all with my Toucam.....even though this is like a modded uncooled toucam with a bigger chip I was stunned....the pictures below are just live view single shot snaps at what I can see on my screen...I did process a few avi's of about 30-50 frames but didn't see a major difference so I kept the single shots so you can see exactly what I see on screen...amazing...I did 2 easy targets being Omega and Jewel Box...both of these are visible quite easily from my suburban home but with no where near the detail I can see on screen..the jewel box I can only see about 12 stars.....Omega I can see some detail but the rest is a smudge even through my C11..they say these camera's increase your scope aperture size 2 to 3 times...I believe it no doubt.

Sac mintron 1/2 CCD Monochrome uncooled chip 640 x 480 Resolution all pictures taken were on my C11 with 6.3 Focal reducer fl approx 1860mm unguided all single shots snaps of the screen except the one with a satellite trail.....they have been slightly cropped and jpeg for internet purposes..

Both pictures taken tonight between 7:00-7:30pm

It would make a great guide camera for those hard to see guide stars.

If anyone wants to see a short 3 second AVI of what you can actually see live on screen I have attached this link as well. 19MB amazing live video view...its a lot better then I ever thought it would have been...I could just sit back and watch live view all night and forget about eyepieces.

Download "Omeag avi" Rar file
http://www.users.on.net/~striker/
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Old 09-08-2005, 09:07 PM
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acropolite (Phil)
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Nice work Tony, is that a shooting star I can see across the jewel box image or have you been drawing lines on the image???
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  #7  
Old 10-08-2005, 07:08 AM
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Striker (Tony)
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Phil, its a satelite can't you see "made in the USA sticker on the side of the satelite".....lol
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