New GStar EX Colour Camera

[davewaldo]

What sort of scope are you using yours on Matt?

[coldspace]

Originally Posted by davewaldo

What sort of scope are you using yours on Matt?

A 12 inch LX200R using a 2.5 powermate for planets, and various reducers to get F7, F5, and F3.3.
I am going to invest in an Orion Eon 80 to piggyback ontop for wide field.

All these video cameras perform well on most scopes as alot use small refractors and are getting excellent wide field results and fast Newts work really well but you need at least Alt/Az tracking, but I like chasing small planetaries and galaxies.
Now my scope is mounted in my observatory as it was too big to take out for field use all the time I might look at getting a C8 or a Meade 8 for field use.

Most of these cameras will easily add 4 or 5 magnitudes to your scope.
I was looking at going down the conventional imaging path but am having too much fun at the moment. Maybe down the track when I have more time to do it properly.

If you go to the C/nights video forum you can see what people are getting in live view and the various scopes used. The main learning curve is the many adjustments such as gain, intergration rates, colour balance,pixel control etc, to get the right effect on the different objects.

Matt.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

80mm, that's not wide field.
Using a Mogg Adaptor, I hook up a 4mm cctv lens for an ultra wide view of the Universe.
Great for Meteor Showers.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Now my scope is mounted in my observatory as it was too big to take out for field use all the time I might look at getting a C8 or a Meade 8 for field use.

You could even look at getting an ED80 for portability. Teamed with the new colour camera, it'd be an ace setup

[coldspace]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

80mm, that's not wide field.
Using a Mogg Adaptor, I hook up a 4mm cctv lens for an ultra wide view of the Universe.
Great for Meteor Showers.

Yep, those fish eye lenses sound good, especially for meteor showers.

Where did you buy your lens from?

Matt.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

It's not a fish eye unfortunately.
It's an F2 4mm Standard C Mount. $18 at Jaycar.
Also picked up a very nice varifocal 2.8 - 12mm Manual Iris CS mount lens.
$45 Jaycar. Very wide FOV.
I bought them a couple of years ago so the price may have changed a little.

[coldspace]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

It's not a fish eye unfortunately.
It's an F2 4mm Standard C Mount. $18 at Jaycar.
Also picked up a very nice varifocal 2.8 - 12mm Manual Iris CS mount lens.
$45 Jaycar. Very wide FOV.
I bought them a couple of years ago so the price may have changed a little.

Thanks for that JJJ, I have a Jaycar 5 mins away will drop in and have alook, ahh more things to play with.

Regards Matt.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

You do get a little vignetting but you get what you pay for.

[coldspace]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

You do get a little vignetting but you get what you pay for.

Sound good for me, I don't want to spend 900 bucks on a fish eye.

Matt.

[marki]

Originally Posted by coldspace

Mark for school viewing nights the video systems can't be beat.
I have used mine a couple of times at my daughters school and that was a big mistake as now I keep getting requests to do it again and again.

Not just boring old moon or Jupiter, but you can show the kids some deep sky delights on a LCD and they are in awe as they would have no chance of seeing these in the eyepiece in a light polluted sky at school.

Also, you don't have to worry about all of the kids grabbing eyepieces and the teachers can have them all seated in front of the monitor while you talk to them, no one wants to go home which was a problem.
These systems are perfect for this.

Matt.

Matt they certainly look the go for this type of event. Are the Gstars able to deliver similar images with the same exposure times as you have shown below??? I would not expect the same quality considering the price differential but it definately looks like it could solve a problem for me. When we do viewing nights I have three scopes set up and anywhere between 70 - 100 students to entertain for the night (yes we do sleep overs ). We rotate the students in groups of about 15 keeping the rest busy watching space documentries and building models of the space shuttle, international space station etc as well as other activities. More kids at the scope so to speak = less mischief for the overworked staff to contend with . Least i can wake them up at 4am to view something or other in revenge when they play up .

Mark

[coldspace]

The B/W g-star will show alot but it only gets to 2.5 second intergration but its very sensitive so it will show the kids quite a bit.

The colour g-star I have not seen in action but it sounds like it has double the intergratation time as the B/W model so it probally will be similar to the Mallincam at 2.5 second exposures , maybe even 7 seconds but does not have active cooling so the images will be a bit noisy and the chip will be less sensitive as a result and it will not have as much gain in the electronics which also is needed for these video systems to push out the best image in the shortest time.

I would wait and see if someone gets a colour G-star here and posts some real time images to see whats its like.

What you need is instant image clarity to see "live" for the kids without any stacking and processing.

The B/W G-star will give you this as its more sensitive than the G-star colour, otherwise for colour and cooled images in "real time"you will have to go the Mallincam route.

The colour G-star will probally be good on the very bright well known objects like the Trifid, lagoon, globs which will probally be good for what you need it for, it will be interesting to see what it can do and the kids will love it especially if you can display the images on a large screen like a 32 inch LCD.
You can even display the video feed to a projector screen but make sure people stand way back otherwise the image is no good. Smaller LCD screens or better yet CRT screens as they show more contrast.

Regards Matt.

[marki]

Originally Posted by coldspace

The B/W g-star will show alot but it only gets to 2.5 second intergration but its very sensitive so it will show the kids quite a bit.


What you need is instant image clarity to see "live" for the kids without any stacking and processing.


Regards Matt.

Thanks Matt

I will have to have a closer look at it. You are dead right about the instant gratification factor, waiting ten minutes is not something kids like to do .

Mark

[coldspace]

Mark,

Also sign up to the g-star and mallincam yahoo user groups, its free and you don't need to own one to join. I was a member for 6 months before taking the plunge and buying one.
You can then access the photo albums to see whats bee achieved with various scopes.

If you look in the mallincam photo folder have alook a the images from Gavin, he is a friend of mine on the Gold coast and these images are raw live view shots in the middle of the light polluted Gold coast, and they are spectacular. He has mastered all the camera settings on the different objects and its so much fun sitting in his observatory doing say 20 to 50 object tour in one night.

I would post a link but it does not allow you to open the photo albums unless you sign up.

These user groups are a great way to ask questions and to see what others are doing.

Matt.

[marki]

Originally Posted by coldspace

Mark,

These user groups are a great way to ask questions and to see what others are doing.

Matt.

Thanks Matt I will check it out .

Mark