My wife called me at work this arvo and said the postman dropped off a card to say "pick up a parcel from the postoffice".
So I left work and got to the post office 5 minutes before they closed!
I picked up my DMK21AF04 and Belkin 6-port 6-pin powered hub that I ordered on Thursday last week! 2 parcels at once! Yay!
So, my laptop doesn't have a firewire port, but I ordered a Firewire PCMCIA card the other week, so I already had that.
Put that in the laptop, plug that into the hub. Plug the camera into the hub. The hub has 240v power. All looks good so far.
Windows doesn't recognise the device, so I install the IC Capture software and drivers, all good! All working so far.
I can capture at 15fps no problems, using the Y800 codec. The capture locks up when I try and use 30fps. I'm not sure what the problem is yet. It could in part be my laptop - it's an old Dell Latitude D600 with 512M RAM and a 1.6Ghz processor. It might not be fast enough to capture at 30fps.
Will need to experiment with different codecs and other settings, and try it in the desktop computer (which has a faster CPU) to see what makes the difference.
In any case, 15fps is working fine, which will get me up and running for now.
Am able to load the avi's into registax by loading a fire-i driver (thanks rumples for the tip). But i'll be splitting into bmp's anyway so it'll be fine.
Too tired to go outside with it tonight - will hope for clear skies tomorrow and give it first light in mono mode - no colour filters yet. I do have the filter wheel already, so I can practise with the adapters, turning the wheel etc, and see how my scope reacts to the extra weight that the setup introduces, and bumping from turning the wheel.
Will continue to work on the 30fps problem - it could just be that my laptop is not fast enough. Will try it on the desktop tonight to see if that makes a difference.
With the moon rising in the next week it'll give me a chance to try it in mono mode anyway.
Lester, have you pointed yours in anger at the sky yet?
Hi Mike,
great news, I am sure it will take your images from the fabulous level they currently are to a whole new level.
Me? I am frustrated and wondering if it is really me.
I have no problems getting 30fps, and the CFW is a brezze. The processing stages after make me wonder if I may just shelve it and return to the ToUcam. Want a DMK Ponders??
Good one Mike, though if it challenges your Dell with 512Meg RAM and 1.6Ghz processor I'll be stuffed with my 1.2Ghz and 256Meg RAM Compaq ... be interested to hear more of the tortuous post-processing that Gary refers too. Why would it be different to the toucam?
Robert,
I am a wouse basically. With the ToUcam I process simply with Registax only. It is the same as when I first started, and is a short once only process.
Mike (and others) split the ToUcam AVI's into BMP's, and process the three colours separately.
With the DMK you are shooting three AVI's (R&G&B) and need to process them and re-combine them in the processing.
It isn't as laborious as I make it sound, witness many that are doing it. Whether it is worth it to me is another matter.
I did foresee a computer hangup though, and I had a decent laptop. I took the opportunity to replace mine with a powerful desktop, which I wheel out to the observing site. It has proved to be the saviour so far.
Mike,
let me get a decent night of seeing first huh? The two or three nights so far have been such that a 150x look has shown very little detail through the eyepiece, which is normally my "pack it in" benchmark. If this southerly ever abates we "may" get some better (yeah right) seeing. Then I will send you an RGB.
Gary
Robert,
I am a wouse basically. With the ToUcam I process simply with Registax only. It is the same as when I first started, and is a short once only process.
Mike (and others) split the ToUcam AVI's into BMP's, and process the three colours separately.
With the DMK you are shooting three AVI's (R&G&B) and need to process them and re-combine them in the processing.
It isn't as laborious as I make it sound, witness many that are doing it. Whether it is worth it to me is another matter.
I did foresee a computer hangup though, and I had a decent laptop. I took the opportunity to replace mine with a powerful desktop, which I wheel out to the observing site. It has proved to be the saviour so far.
Thanks Gary, Ok yeh, I know how that feels. I can do the separate processing etc, but much prefer the one touch registax approach myself. Let me know if you want to giev your DMK away
Hi Gary! Thought I'd better drop in & say g'day mate!
I'm with you on the 'is it worth it to me' on all this extra proccessing etc. I'm happy with the 900nc results I'm getting, & if I ever get good seeing I think I'll be more than satisfied. I'm just waiting to see what Lesters colour version can do first before I come to any conclusions upgrade wise. One things for certain, I won't be going the mono route.
Don't let me put you all off, it is my lazy streak coming out.
The trouble is that when I started this caper with Mars in 2003 it was OK to get an OK image. Nothing flash, just OK.
But lately, the bar has been raised that much that I get hypoxic thinking about it. The ToUcam is THE best for average to great results. We all just want that little extra edge.
I too would be interested in what the colour version is capable of. I still believe the mono route it the way, but it is a lot of extra effort for a little extra result.
Now, on another note, the first night out I tried Jupiter at 30fps, and while the AVI's were soft with the seeing, I also tried the other end.
This is Omega Cent (sorry Mike not M22). I tried it with the scope that was on the mount (for Jupiter) the 10", but at 1250mm the image was a bit crowded. I slipped Robby's new W/O 80mm scope on, and shot this. Perhaps 5 - 10 second exposure, with the gain and brightness near the max.
Not flash, but interesting.
Gary
I believe that the mono will outperform the colour only at big image scales ie at f39 and then the 1.5x resamples ie Chris Go and Damian Peach.
Unless your seeing and scope can give you that size once a month, then it will probably be a waste of money!
Maurice with his c14 / toucam and Lester with his Meade 14” / neximage are proving what can be done with toucam technology and framerates
The other side of it is that you can control focus / settings for each colour with a mono, BUT again the seeing has to be really great to even notice the small difference this would make.
So if you are aiming to image with the very best of them, and you are prepared to travel to places of great seeing then making sure you have the best equipment at the time to make that 5% difference is important!
If I lived in canberra, SA, melbourne, hobart and wanted to image, then i honestly believe that the mono camera would not be used to it full capacity due to conditions outside your control.
As an example, nearly every jupiter image posted on IIS these last two months is way better than anything Damian Peach has been able to produce due to a 24 degree latitude and horrible seeing in England. This is with a near perfect collimated C14, new lumenera skynx mono camera
But we all know what he produces when he goes to Barbados or other times of great seeing!!!
Arggghhhhh Davo,
how am I going to sell this now???
I reckon you are right with your assessment, but like most we are all trying to gain that edge, however small and difficult it is.
If anything the camera and filter wheel is as easy or easier to use than the ToUcam. The IC Capture software is very good. Plus, it serves as a useful DSO camera.
What I really need is a processing guru like Mike to outsource my headaches.
I'm not sure what the problem is yet. It could in part be my laptop - it's an old Dell Latitude D600 with 512M RAM and a 1.6Ghz processor. It might not be fast enough to capture at 30fps.
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
... be interested to hear more of the tortuous post-processing that Gary refers too. Why would it be different to the toucam?
