Update

[bird]

Just letting you all know I'm still here...

We're in-between planets at the moment, so I've been doing some homework to find the "best" planetary camera on the market and within my budget :-) to replace my somewhat ordinary fire-i camera.

I've settled on the Dragonfly Express from Point Grey Research (www.ptgrey.com), if I'm lucky then I'll have it within a couple of weeks. It has everything that a geek like me could want, including Linux compatibility :-)

We've also bought 2 acres of land outside Canberra near Murrumbateman, and it has the most amazing dark skies. On the plans are a permanent observatory to house a new scope that's also under construction at the moment (13.1" f/5.5 newt, scheduled to be completed in November).

And a house too, of course :-)

So, no imaging happening here at the moment, but lots of other stuff is happening! I hope to start taking images with the new camera "soon".

regards, Bird

[[1ponders]]

:hi: bird.

I was beginning to wonder where you'd gotten to. Great news about your block of land and new observatory. What do you need a house for? You can sleep in the observatory during the day. Shouldn't be too cold even in Canberra :D Just build an amenities block and a kitchen in a lean to.

Look forward to seeing how you're going to improve on the shots you've already taken.

Cheers

[iceman]

Hey Anthony! Thanks for an update, been missing your images!

What's better about that camera, when compared to the Luminera, which seems to be the camera of choice at the moment (for a price, of course)?

[slice of heaven]

One question Ive been wondering about for awhile Bird. What dictated the choice of 13.1" for the mirror? It just not one of the normal run of the mill sizes.

[bird]

I'm after a firewire camera so I can use it under Linux, so that pretty much rules out usb2 cameras like the Lumenera. I already have a bunch of software that works with my current firewire camera and it should also work with the new camera.

The firewire cameras are all directly programmable, so I can make it sit up and beg by programming the registers on the camera, but all the usb2 cameras are proprietary and not directly accessible to programmers like me.

Technically I'd expect the Dragonfly Express to be pretty much on a par with the Lumenera, maybe a bit more sensitive but not by a lot. It's also a lot lighter - only about 50g compared to the 300g or so for a Lumenera camera.

On the other hand the Lumenera camera is a lot cheaper :-)

regards, Bird

[bird]

I was originally after a 12.5" mirror - something larger than my current 10" but not too large so that planetary work starts getting hindered by turbulence. So I asked Mark Suchting (my mirror maker) what he had available and he said that he had a 13.1" conical mirror blank that he could grind and figure for me, and I said yes.

This is an interesting mirror because the back surface isn't flat. The mirror is 19mm thick at the edge and 56mm thick in the centre. It's designed to be mounted on a single stud using a hole that goes through the middle of the mirror. R.F.Royce has some images of conical mirrors on his site if you've never seen them before (I hadn't).

http://www.rfroyce.com/conical/

Mine will be a bit different, as I wanted the centre of the mirror to be present so I could use it for collimation. Normally a conical mirror has a big hole in the centre where the mounting stud comes through but that would mean I couldn't use any normal collimation tools. So in the end I asked Mark to fit a "plug" in the hole at the front surface so that the front of the mirror is complete, but the mounting hole still goes in from the back of the mirror and stops about 15mm short of the front surface. This ought to give me a nice simple mounting arrangement and also let me use my collimation tools.

I'll have the obligatory pictures when I get the mirror (October).

regards, Bird

[bird]

I passed on your suggestion to Leisa, but (for some reason) I don't think she's gonna go for it :-)

I read this forum daily, so I've been watching what you guys are up to but I needed to take a break from imaging for work reasons and also no planets are in prime position (the morning pre-dawn sky). The only target available is the moon, and it's been raining the last month or so anyway so even that has been out of reach...

As for improving...the fire-i camera I've been using has several serious problems that limit the quality of its images. It's a good camera for its price - AUS$150 - but nowhere the sort of level of a Lumenera or Point Grey camera. I'm seriously hoping to get images that'll challenge guys like Damian and his Amazing Barbados Images (tm) with new camera and new scope by November. I might even have the new camera in a couple of weeks or so, fingers crossed!

regards, Bird

[slice of heaven]

Sounds like a good choice and a sound setup. :thumbsup:
Like everyone else I'll be waiting for the images from this one.

[iceman]

I know what you mean, those images are simply the best i've seen from an amateur.

What else do you need for this? A firewire card? Does it work under Windows?

Will you have your new camera for the Mars opposition to use with your current scope, or are you hoping to have the new scope and the new camera ready to use by Mars prime time?

[gbeal]

Hey Bird,
good to hear you are about, I too was wondering.
The conical mirror is a great concept. I used one on a Mak/Newt which was cored and it made mounting the primary so easy.
No doubt we will all know when your new gear is up and running.
Gary

[bird]

Firewire is a nice standard, it works inder Windows, Mac and Linux.

At the moment I'm using a Dell laptop, which has a firewire port. I use the usb2 ports on the laptop for external hard disks. The camera comes with a high speed card for a PC that gives me up to 800Mbit, so eventually that will be in a PC that's permanently in the new observatory.

I'll have something ready by Mars time, not quite sure how complete it will be. Mars is not going to be so good for us this time around, only about 40 degrees altitude at opposition.

regards