Video Astronomy

[mick pinner]

The SAC Mintron astro video camera l bought from Striker turned up on Tuesday so tonight being clear although not great seeing l decieded to set it up through a portable television and have a quick look.
The camera is a monochrome setup but l must say for a first time point and look the images are fantastic, considering l know nothing about these cameras with a little tweeking of the considerable controls l was getting very sharp well contrasted images, l will now get an electric colour filter wheel and then download LRGB AVI's direct to my computer for processing.
l first set the camera up in the Zenithstar 80 and had a look at the Orion nebula, 47 tuc and then the Tarantula nebula, just before finishing i decieded to have a look through the 12" Meade at the Orion nebula and was blown away considering as l said this was a first hit out with this camera.
l was considering a Canon 350 but this has put that idea in moth balls, l'm nowhere near as dedicated when it comes to astrophography as a lot of you guys so the end result is not that important to me but seeing what results l can get will be fun and also being able to have friends around and show real time video will be a blast, l will try and keep some detailed records of settings and such as l go so if anyone else follows this path l may be of some help in the future, l'm loving this.

[h0ughy (David)]

Great to hear Mick. its good when your pleasantly surprised!

[asimov (John)]

Good one Mick, good to hear your having plenty of fun with the camera.

[Robert_T]

Sounds Great Mick you going to try turning that beasty on Mars too - I've got a book "Video Astronomy" by Steve Massey et al that has some very nice planetary stuff taken with this camera.


cheers,

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by mick pinner

l will try and keep some detailed records of settings and such as l go so if anyone else follows this path l may be of some help in the future, l'm loving this.

great to hear you having a ball!!!

I talked to Roger at Bintel-Melb yesterday and in the new year, starlight express colour wheels should be in the country. Mike in sydney is still to work out prices.

Can't wait to visit the shop in march next year!

How long can you spend drooling in a shop before they kick you out???

[mick pinner]

hi Robert, l'm going to ring Steve Massey today and get some direction

[Striker (Tony)]

Great to hear you got it working so quickly Mick...well done.

It took me a little while to find the right settings....you also know once you do go in and change the sensativity it reverts back to 0 and takes up to 2 minutes to warm up and reach the highest setting of 128 x...be careful of the middle button...thats the pause button.

So Mick was I right saying you can see so much more on a nice large monitor then looking through the eyepiece....and you can have a crowd all looking at once.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

I've taken mine to a few astronomy meetings. It's great when everyone can see the image at the same time without having to take turns, but the monitor ruins the night vision a bit.

My camera is different too. My version is completely inbuilt with all the controls on the back with analogue video output only. I've done RGB with it, but I don't have the proper filters so it's difficult.

It's great for meteors and sprites.

Is yours cooled? At 128X with max gain I have constellations of hot pixels. I've installed a little computer fan on top of mine and it helps a bit. Dark frame subtraction for stills is a must.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Congrats Mick. First night out with it and you are capturing DSO's!!! Impressive!
Well done mate! Sounds like a great purchase.

[mick pinner]

you are correct Striker much more on screen than through the ep.

[Striker (Tony)]

Did I mention I uped the price by another 100%...so your second payment is due...lol

[mick pinner]

did you try any deep sky filters with the camera?

[Striker (Tony)]

Mick...if your talking to me...no...was just used for my failed attempt at guiding.

[robin]

Good onya Mick...sounds very interesting.Does it let you see any space junk easily or more satellites than could be seen with the naked eye?

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

It's excellent for satellites. You can image satellites down to about magnitude 9 with a wide 8mm lens. I've managed to image nearly 90 in one night.

[mick pinner]

l rang Steve Massey a few days ago and got a few tips on the new camera, very helpful and pleasant guy to chat with.
last night l set up and started having a general look around while trying a few different settings on various targets such as M42, 47 Tuc and NGC2070, after about 2 hours of tweeking and tuning the images on the monitor were amazing, M42 for example was so crisp it seemed to go forever, 47Tuc was incredible l have never seen so many stars with such clarity before, l won't go into detail what it was like when barlowed it has to be seen to be appreciated, before l finished l had a go at the moon that before tonight only appeared as a bright white light due to the sensitivity of the camera, after turning the shutter of and adjusting a few settings that l am still not fully understanding off everything toned down nicely, threw it into the barlow and wow, l was standing on the moon l have never seen anything like it, blown away does not describe the views, why more people are not using these cameras l don't know.
hopefully my colour wheel arrives shortly, in the mean time l am going to start downloading straight to a dvd recorder in monochrome and then transfere to desk top so hopefully some pics to post very soon.

[TidaLpHasE]

Sounds great Mick, can't wait to see what you have described, i got a buzz just hearing about those views.