Hi Everyone
This is some information on my Setup as it stands today.
Meade ETX 125 Premier edition
26mm Meade Eyepiece
15mm Bintel Eyepiece
2.5 Bintel Barlow
Meade rear port up righting prism
Logitech CCD based web cam, with home made adapter.
Home made "parfocal" adapter. Made from plastic fitting from Bunning’s, and some lathe work.
Home made power box which holds a 12 Gel Cell battery and various power leads
this hangs on hooks in the center of the tripod.
I also have a USB to Serial adapter strapped to the tripod.
Two 5 meter USB leads to connect my scope to my laptop.
From my laptop I run "wxAstroCapture" software which is fantastic- supports modified webcams, guiding etc, Free as well.
I use the Meade AutoStar Controller to drive the Scope.
Registax, various image programs.
I set this up so I can sit in the warmth of our living room, while poor ETX is in the cold.
For the Jupiter Pic.
I set the tripod and mount to polar position and mode, when you do this it starts tracking.
Roughly point it south, (must do this better in future as things wander about a bit)
I'm basically switching between visual and webcam using the scopes "Flip mirror" this is why I need the parfocal adapter.
I put the barlow in the visual side, line up image and focus, then move the barlow to the webcam side, this allows me to then check my alignment with the visual side, albeit now out of focus (no Barlow now).
I then run inside to find Jupiter smack bang in the center of my capture window, Ha Ha, with practice it gets easier.
Once I see it in my capture window I alternate between keeping it in the field of view and adjusting exposure etc.
When I’m happy I start recording my AVI.
Before all of this I have of course been practicing and adjusting my adapter in the back garden to check it's all ok.
Because of the flip mirror system you need to know how the two line up (it's not perfectly at 45 deg), depending on how I have it
setup I need to place (Jupiter in this case) above or below center. it lines up perfectly in the other plane.
I also had to fit a ring to my Barlow as it bottoms out in the prism.
I've include a link to a picture of my setup which I find tends to explain things better.
http://home.iprimus.com.au/jsmalley/imgp0243.jpg/
I really like the ETX, as it's portable, quick to setup, great images for a small size, and cute.
Hope this is usefull
John
