WOOOOOW, it looks great. My first image taken with the new Meade DSI 111 Colour camera.
Took this one last Sunday night 27 02 2007, a brief two hour opportunity before Moon rise. There was some high cloud about and at Cranebrook an outer suburb of Sydney, the seeing was by no means great.
But surprise, surprise a very nice image. Used my Celestron GPS11 together with the “Hyperstar” f1.8 lens mounted on the front of the corrector plate (see attached image).
Imaging at f1.8 works 32 times faster then imaging at f10 so, a 32 seconds image at f1.8 is like exposing a 320 seconds (5.3 minutes) image at f10. In addition I get a very wide field of view on the Meade DSI 2/3rd inch chip that lets me capture the whole Orion Nebula. (see attached middle image)
The attached image is 40 x 15 seconds exposures combined on the fly with the Meade DFSI Envisage software. Then processed in Photoshop.
I did not use my wedge and took this one in Altazimuth mode. Take a look at the attached unprocessed image (the last image), you see how the Meade Drizzle de-rotation software works. A great feature when you have insufficient time to spend on polar aligning.
I am looking forward to some clear dark skies and try the DSI III out on a few distant galaxies with a polar aligned scope.
There are some software issues with the DSI III that remain unresolved. The DSI Envisage software freezes up then crashes, but thankfully not during actual imaging.
When switching functions in Envisage software or screens it had the problem. The software is also supposed to work with multiple cameras but the Envisage program completely freezes when I attach the original DSIc and the DSI III.
I am using a Toshiba laptop, 1.7 Ghz Intel Pentium processor, 512 Mb ram and have 17 Ghz free disc space. I would have thought that to be enough computer power. The old DSIc and Envisage software works fine, so I think the new software may have a bug.
Anyone have any ideas how to resolve this?
More Images at my Western Sydney Amateur Astronomy Group web site http://wsaag.org
I think the image is pushed too hard but considering the conditions and the short exposure times and the fact that it is in ALT/AZ mode the result is stunning! Looks like a great combination f1.8, focusing must be a swine...
Hey Gerry not a bad effort with one of those cameras, I remember seeing it at the BSG and really couldn't see how this was going to work, but obviously it dose quite well. great effort.
thanks for the comments and advice.
I will power up the USB and see if that fixes the probles.
For those of you thinking about buying a DSI III I would say yes it's worth it.
Remember however that it's an uncooled camera.
But for the money I think they are good value.
Nice M42. I like the extra FOV with the bigger chip. It's a shame they haven't corrected the software bugs. They've been promising a new version of Envisage without the bugs for months but seem to be stuck with Vista issues.
Ken, I hadn't heard the voltage issue before. I seem to have software issues - have you rectified these by using a powered hub or is that a different issue?
Nice M42. I like the extra FOV with the bigger chip. It's a shame they haven't corrected the software bugs. They've been promising a new version of Envisage without the bugs for months but seem to be stuck with Vista issues.
Ken, I hadn't heard the voltage issue before. I seem to have software issues - have you rectified these by using a powered hub or is that a different issue?
Yep, I was having the same problem (Program crashing, camera not staying on etc) and was told by a few in here and several from other forums, and read it in reviews, that the DSI is a power eater and needs a powered Hub.
Solved my problem instantly
Last edited by ballaratdragons; 30-01-2008 at 09:35 PM.
Ken, Is this the error you were getting? I get it when I uncheck the live check box and try to change the exposure time.
Hmmmm, I've never seen that error message before, Peter.
But mine was crashing when doing things like unchecking boxes, sliding the Gain slider etc. Whatever I did, it would crash.
Sometimes it would run OK, then after about 2 images it would crash again. It was expalined to me that because the DSI requires a full unhindered 5 volts, it starves other things like programs!
It hasn't crashed since I connected the camera thru a powered hub.
Hi Peter, I get this error now and again. in my case it is caused when the long exposure square is checked and the live square is not, Envisage will set itself that way after tou have done a preview.
If you attempt to change the exposure settings or the gain/offset settings then Envisage will get confused and result in that error. If you look at your screen picture you will see that the exposure setting button id also stuck on which is another indicator as well.
If you press "continue" Envisage will carry on normally and you can continue with the imaging session. Also as Ken has mentioned a powered hub is a must with the DSI, even more so if you a using a laptop.
Hi Ken, I'd say the error that you used to receive was something like "5 images failed to transfer" which is usually caused by an under-powered DSI or a loose connection usually where the USB cable plugs into the camera. I usually have a rubber band around the cable and camera to keep a tight fit.
Cheers
Last edited by Ric; 30-01-2008 at 11:31 PM.
Reason: Added a bit more
thanks for the comments and advice.
I will power up the USB and see if that fixes the probles.
For those of you thinking about buying a DSI III I would say yes it's worth it.
Remember however that it's an uncooled camera.
But for the money I think they are good value.
Regards
Gerry
If this helps I have experienced similar problems with two other types of camera via USB. In both cases getting a dedicated USB connection back to the laptop rather than sharing and going through a Hub sorted out all my problems. I guess some connections and applications don't communicate properly through a hub wether it's powered or not so just isolate them.
The need of a powered Hub for DSI's is not mentioned anywhere on Meade sites, until you get to this page (link below), then click on 'Overview', then scroll right down to the fine print at the bottom!!!
It would help people if they placed the information in the main body of text!
I've never had any problem with the DSI straight into the laptop USB apart from the error message I posted but the powered hub didn't rectify this problem.
I've been warned about using long USB cables - I think 3m is max. and this length works fine for me. I think I've read somewhere that not all USB ports are powered in the same way. Perhaps some problems are laptop related?
Hi All,
My original DSI never gave me any trouble.
The DSI III requires Microsoft .Net Framework 2.
This was not the case with the original DSI.
The original Envisage software and DSI worked beautifully.
I have encountered all the problems you guys have mentioned in this thread.
I Installed some powered hubs and still have the program crashes.
I uninstalled Envisage and that piece if !!***%%! programing called Microsoft. net Framework 2 then re-insalled the lot.
Hopefully this has solved the problem. I have managed to get it going without a crash for 10 minutes or so and a night of imaging will tell wether all is well.
This program is very very memory hungry. It,s slow to run and it severely slows down all other programs. Very frustating. What a crappy program. I t virtually makes the rest of my computer, and programs in-operative.
I think if this is not sorted I will be asking for my money back.
It's not right that a company can sell you a piece of hardware that is so good only to be frustrated by inadequate software that not only makes the camera in-operative but the rest of my computer as well..
At this point I have to say that I can not recommend the DSI III to anyone. I am realy cheesed off and frustrated. But I will keep trying to resolve the issues and let you know how it turns out.
See attached some of the crash details. Its goblygook to me, maybe someone out there knows what it means.
