Digital Eyepiece

[paulF]

Hey everyone,
i was wondering if any tried a Digital eyepiece before?
I own a 10inch DOB and usually use afocal method to do some moon/planet Astrophotography. I use a camera tripod and a Digital camera and thought that the below digital eyepice might be a neater way to do it:

http://chinagrabber.com/1-3-megapixel-cmos-digital-eyepiece-for-telescope-w-view-and-record-to-computer---eyepiece-de88.aspx

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Paul Fleifleh

[Liz]

Looks like a nice little toy Paul!!
I have a digital ep that I bought years ago, a Barska brand one. It was fun, and took some great Moon shots. Was tricky with planets, and ran out of patience in the end, but with tracking it would be easier.
Dont know about this brand, but could be interesting!!

[mozzie]

seen them to paul and was asking the same question myself!!! lets see what other iis users say

i have no knowledge os photography myself

[bojan]

It is a web cam in principle..
I am sure useless for DSO.

[TrevorW]

1.3 mp camera so why advertise at 4 mp resolution this can be misleading

[big_dav_2001]

Hi Paul,
I actually bought the exact same camera off e-bay a few weeks ago...

Ive only used it through my Dob so far, so havent tried getting any deep sky objects yet... However I was VERY impressed with the quality of lunar Pics and vids captured by it... I have tried taking photos of Mars and Saturn (again through my dob) and got less than pleasing results, though more likely due to poor seeing and lack of tracking (not to mention my own inexperience)..

One of my moon pics:
http://stargazerslounge.com/attachments/imaging-lunar/35166d1271496426-moon-taken-25-03-2010-image-111_2010-03-25.jpg

I would definately reccomend it to you, its a great lil bit of gear...

Hope it helps
Davin

[paulF]

Thanks for the replies guys :)
@Davin, that's a very impressive moon shot!

I will give it a good thought and see if i buy it! My other option was to research and find a used/cheap Digital compact camera that can be used as a webcam and see if i can use it for astrophotography. The better outcome from that approach would be higher resolution pics i guess!

Thanks again everyone :)

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Paul,

I use a Philips Toucam Pro II which does an excellent job on Planets and the moon and has been modified for long exposure (i havent done any of those yet) cost me $100 second hand from IIS here.

Recommend it. Here are some examples of my better shots.

Jupiter http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=62348 and http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=62346

Saturn

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=54238

Cheers

Chris

[paulF]

Nice pics Screwdriverone!!!Did you use tracking to get such images?
That would be than a third option i guess!!

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Paul,

Nope, just nudged the scope, lined up the planet to pass by and then captured as it slid by, rinse, repeat and then stacked the passes together to get the final images.

Thanks for the compliment, its hard to do (and frustrating sometimes) but once you get the hang of it and have patience, its much easier. Still, a monster mount to hold my 12" collapsible would be nice, or at least some sort of tracking......sniff...


Cheers

Chris

[paulF]

Good stuff Screwdriverone! I'll give it a go soon :)

[mozzie]

anybody else bought the digital eye and have a view or thought

[hikerbob]

Mine arrived this morning but right now the prospects of clear sky's in the near future is not looking good.

Bob

[mozzie]

sounds great bob let us know how it goes

[hikerbob]

First play with it last night but I seemed to have stuffed up on saving my work :(

The bit's of the moon visible in the monitor were sharp and detailed, the rings of Saturn showed and it appeared as though I was getting some tone variation (but I need to play with settings some more).

I could not see any sign of fainter objects such as the Jewel Box which was readily visible in my finder scope and normal eyepieces so the idea of using it to photograph galaxies might require a really big scope. On the other hand maybe I've just not explored the options enough (I've not seen a long expose setting)

I noticed that the screen blanked regularly when the scope was moved while looking at Saturn and stars but did not do so on the moon.

K3CCDTools3 connected to the camera easily, I've not used K3CCDTools enough to know what I was doing with it.

I tried it on both my 12" Skywatcher Dob and 80mm Celestron refractor. Without tracking objects moved across the field of view way to fast to do much at all.

So far it's working but it's not knocking my socks off.

Bob

[mozzie]

sounds like youve had some fun with it im interested in one just to see a bit more detail then visuably.see how you go with yours over time

[LeeSMaz]

Interesting gadgets but there is more sensitive ones.
At 1.8v/lux it isnt the best.
Seems astroshop has a cheap $225 ccd camera with
a better senisitivity and its in Aus.
Be about the same price after u allow for shipping.
Of course the one for $600 seems the best at
0.0001v/lux sensitivity.

Cheers.
Lee.