First of all im not sure if this sits within the Visual or Astrophotography section as its a bit of both... Electronically Assisted Astronomy / Video Astronomy.
Is this becoming popular? It does look interesting to say the least, and fairly easy to observe a number of faint objects in quick succession.
Does this taint the art of visual observing? Does this taint the art of astrophotography? Or is it more just whatever works for you..
What hardware/software do you need? Generally, do you recommend it?
First of all im not sure if this sits within the Visual or Astrophotography section as its a bit of both... Electronically Assisted Astronomy / Video Astronomy.
Is this becoming popular? It does look interesting to say the least, and fairly easy to observe a number of faint objects in quick succession.
Does this taint the art of visual observing? Does this taint the art of astrophotography? Or is it more just whatever works for you..
What hardware/software do you need? Generally, do you recommend it?
G'Day, been doing EAA/VA for 7 years. If you treat astronomy like a religion then both EAA and AP will taint the art of visual observing! LOL. I say it is whatever floats your boat.
EAA is a form of AP! It's AP using a smaller number of shorter exposures which are processed while your scope is pointing at the object rather than at home the next day / week, and uses very similar techniques and software, except the software is all packaged up in one app rather than several.
Be realistic about your expectations ... entry level cheap kit used on mounts which an Astrophotographer would never use for AP will get you fuzzy, low level of detail. BUT (!) at the same time it will get you seeing much, much more than by using your eyeballs through that same entry level kit."
If you have a short attention span, or give-up easily rather than someone who never gives up are the virtues which dictate if you will stay in the hobby or not.
WARNING: Almost AP quality images are posted on EAA forums. And made out to be simple point and click. But time, experience and money are used to get to that point. Often EAA posters equipment lists show they own 5 full rigs! And often what I would call uber $ gear.
If you do decide to give it a go. pm me and we'll chat.
Just saw this thread. I've been using EAA / VA for ten years and more, initially for occultation observing, and later adding in astronomy outreach at Penrith observatory.
It provides real-time views of galaxies that are otherwise invisible at Penrith. It shows planetary nebulae with details that are otherwise invisible at Penrith.
It shows gaseous nebulae (M17, M20, M8, the KeyHole nebula around eta Carinae, etc) that are otherwise invisible at Penrith.
I use a Meade LX90-10" with a 0.5x focal reducer, a Point Grey Grasshopper Express, and a laptop. The focal reducer introduces coma at the periphery of most images, which would be unacceptable to a genuine astgrophotographer, but for real-time live sky images has proven to be acceptable to the general populace.
This shows many night sky objects that the visitors to Penrith Observatory would like to see - but cannot see visually due to the worsening light pollution.
I personally recommend EAA / VA without hesitation.
The following images are singular images, with no darks or flats applied. Just as they came from the screen. The Hickson 90 group is however special - it was acquired through the Evans 30" Dobsonian telescope at Linden Observatory. Again, it is a singular image of 5 second exposure, with no darks or flats.
I've used it occasionally, mainly when showing my elderly mother in law things because she is not overly keen on squinting through an eyepiece these days.
I just use a ZWO ASI224MC connected to my Samsung tablet using the ASICAP application.
The results are pretty good in terms of views & bonus is, they are in colour...
As to tainting AP... I'm with others... whatever you want to do is up to you...
Do whatever floats your boat...
I alternate between visual at the eyepiece and EAA, depending on my mood and sky conditions. I use Sharpcap Pro as it does pretty much everything I want. The attached photo (reduced size) is typical of what I can see with 30 second exposures. Depending on seeing conditions I do 15 to 30 seconds max, and I'd say I'm looking at 90% of my image quality after about 20 exposures. Obviously I'm seeing this image build up live and with Sharpcap I can play with curves etc on the fly. It's a technical departure from the calm serenity of visual astronomy, but you get to see colour.
My typical rig setup for this is either my ED80 or Esprit 120 refractor, and an ASI 294 MC Pro colour camera.
Well, EAA is still in its infancy. There are electronic telescopes like the Vaonis Stellina (80mm) and the evScope (115mm), costing $4000 resp $3000 (USD, not AUD) respectively and only moderate performance according to some reviews on CloudyNights and DPReview. An average AP setup with a (even APS-C) DSLR or ASI astrocam + ED80 costing less performs better, so they are the worst bang for the buck.
But I guess that in the 2020s better and more affordable devices will appear.
What I hope is that there will appear an electronic eyepiece to be popped in any telescope which transfers images to smartphones or other display devices.
What I hope is that there will appear an electronic eyepiece to be popped in any telescope which transfers images to smartphones or other display devices.
My thoughts exactly. Not if but when. The tech is already there.
I've used it occasionally, mainly when showing my elderly mother in law things because she is not overly keen on squinting through an eyepiece these days.
I just use a ZWO ASI224MC connected to my Samsung tablet using the ASICAP application.
The results are pretty good in terms of views & bonus is, they are in colour...
As to tainting AP... I'm with others... whatever you want to do is up to you...
Do whatever floats your boat...
Carlton, can I ask if you ever use the 224MC for any imaging, or just EAA? And do you use it with your dob, or with an EQ mount?
I like the instant results you get with a video or high frame rate camera. I mainly use my video system for occultation observations, however it can also be used for real-time deep sky or planetary views.
Here’s an example I recorded recently - a ‘sky tour’ of some deep sky targets in almost real time:
I’ve been doing EAA for a little while now. I follow the cloudy thread on the subject....learnt everything from there, many very experienced users. I even posted some images there
I use a c925, es102 and various reducers etc to give me different focal lengths. And a zwo 294 cooled OSC. An Az eq6 through ascom and sharpcap pro. My subs are between 10-30s, but occasionally can go out to 2m. I have got a basic dark library as the 294 has a few known issues....it’s amazing to see the image build and discover detail you can’t appreciate purely visually. I tend to do EAA in the hot humid wet season, remotely from indoors and air con! In the dry I’m pretty much visual only.....strangely I would say that they are very complimentary approaches.
Currently the best electronic eyepiece (IMO) is an NV device (image intensifier). Again cloudy has a million threads on this over a few years now. Unfortunately there is little to no availability in Oz, and I’m very jealous of our American Astronomers!
The tech is expensive but a potential game changer. The only downside is the supratentorial de-romantising (are they real words?) of interstellar light reaching my mark 1 eye ball.
Carlton, can I ask if you ever use the 224MC for any imaging, or just EAA? And do you use it with your dob, or with an EQ mount?
Cheers.
Pat.
Hi Patrick,
I use my 224MC mainly for planetary imaging due to it's small sensor & resulting FOV. I tend to use my DSLR for deep sky.
I am planning to use it as a guide camera as well once I have my head around my new Rasberry Pi/Stellarmate combo.
I haven't used it in my dob at all, even though it is not a tracking dob, it does have DSC & a Nexus device as well as being incredibly smooth to move. I'm always up to try & push the boundaries of what is & what is not possible so, initially, I will look at seeing if I can get some video capture of planets & see where it goes from there.
Previous planetary has been done via a Meade LX90 but, I'm trying to sell it.. next round of planetary will be done via an Intes mounted on the AZEQ6, probably in Alt/Az mode.
So I am getting into EAA now, after years of traditional astro imaging. My camera of choice will be the ASI294. My reasons are: my vision is deteriourating and i need the light gathering, frame stacking, etc provided by EAA to continue in astronomy.
I haven't used it in my dob at all, even though it is not a tracking dob, it does have DSC & a Nexus device as well as being incredibly smooth to move. I'm always up to try & push the boundaries of what is & what is not possible
Cheers
There's a thread on the CloudyNights EAA forum where a bloke does effectively lucky imaging on a non tracking manual push to DOB. Uses a 224 because of the low noise high QE (IE sensitive) with 1 or 2 second frames and lets the object drift across the FOV ... Sharpcap stacking and alignment takes care of the fact that the stuff is moving across the FOV with each individual frame being quite sharp due to the 1 to 2 second exposures. He's got to use the SC stacking histogram's stretches quite aggressively to tease the object out. But he is getting shots of faint stuff including various galaxies. Pretty interesting stuff.
First of all im not sure if this sits within the Visual or Astrophotography section as its a bit of both... Electronically Assisted Astronomy / Video Astronomy.
Is this becoming popular? It does look interesting to say the least, and fairly easy to observe a number of faint objects in quick succession.
Does this taint the art of visual observing? Does this taint the art of astrophotography? Or is it more just whatever works for you..
What hardware/software do you need? Generally, do you recommend it?
I remember Dennis Madge, our old camera club chairman and what he said when I entered a print from a digital camera into a competition when I had one of the first Fuji (FZ7 I think) cameras, "As long as I am Chairman we will never accept digital in this club.
He is not any more, a lot older and uses Digital !!!!!
There is a place for everything, Unlike many people I "see" the wider picture, there are disabled, visually impaired, physically disabled etc who could benefit from this as well as others.
Would I get one, no, but I am not blinkered, I did say I would never buy a digital camera until they surpassed film, when these surpass a good triplet APO Refractor, perhaps.
