nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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My rare attendance of the club's observing evening this week brought home how much I loath the contortion needed to reach eyepiece or finder of Newtonian and Dobs - finding the SCT more to my liking with an acute neck problem.
Back home I tested a new and tiny bodied CCD cam by Starlight Xpress of eyepiece proportions as a finder in lieu of the regular Meade 8x50 - used a Russian Zenith 58mm f/2 lens as objective coupled to M42/C mount adaptor covering a wide 6deg x 4deg field shown below. Also found in the junk box a f/1.3 8mm fl C-mount TV lens that fits direct to the SX cam but yet to try it at night - great fun 
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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got a little seduced by the penetrating power of the Zenith+ SX cam combo and tried some deepsky fields like this centred on M84 in Virgo in 50sec exposure [raw image] which includes the Markarian's Chain of Galaxies 
Edited by nytecam (05/09/08 08:25 AM)
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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here's crop of M51 field - pretty amazing for <30mm aperture lens
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southmike
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/22/04
Posts: 2820
Loc: Fayetteville, NC
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your one of the most creative users I have seen in a while.
great stuff..
I am pretty sure you could get a toy doll house scope to pull an image in...first the deep sky etx70 and now this.
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group scope pic
my refractors
LX200 10"-St120
LX200 8" f6.3-Orion 80ed
LX200 8" f10-Orion 90 Mak setup pic
Meade 102ED LXD650
Sky Watcher 100 ED Triplet prototype
Nexstar 5
etx125
etx70's
Edited by southmike (05/08/08 12:42 PM)
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NeoDinian
Experienced Postmaster
Reged: 10/05/05
Posts: 12070
Loc: Rockford Illinois
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Nice... What cam is that from Starlight?
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Neo... (Jeff)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
10" LX200-GPS/SMT UHTC "Draco"
 Rockford, Il.
NeoDinian's Eye on the Sky!
Coming soon:
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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Thanks Southmike and Jeff - the info is here. Designed as an autoguider it's the only uncooled cam in the SX range [USB2 powered off PC/laptop] but has a hi-res and sensitive mono CCD. I've yet to sort out decent 'darks' [due to no cooling] and 'flats' [for lens vignetting] to improve final results but still very promising
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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cnstarz
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/22/07
Posts: 538
Loc: Kentucky, USA
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Nytecam,
I have to scratch my head on this one, I'll bet you drive on the left side of the road too ... 
That sure makes a nice finder though 
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Matt
Apogee 50mm BB scope
ETX-60 BB
Meade 70-az
5" DIY Newt (wip)
C6-N on CG-4 GEM
Gallery
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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Quote:
Nytecam,
I have to scratch my head on this one, I'll bet you drive on the left side of the road too ... That sure makes a nice finder though
Why  There's a a finder shot of Coma with some marked galaxies [N4565 lower left actually shows this galaxy edge-on!] and some variables - all identified via Megastar
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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Here's a 10% crop from full frame of galaxies in UMa eg m81/82/101 again via 58mm fl f/2 camera lens
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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cnstarz
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/22/07
Posts: 538
Loc: Kentucky, USA
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Nytecam,
Just musing over your unusual approach to deep sky, while most would prefer to use their largest aperture to produce the final pics and guide with the smaller, you Zig when everyone is Zaging. Obviously the results are much admired 
Your efforts prove that using enough camera is the key to seeing deep, not necessarily big aperture. I'm truly inspired
Now all you need is a 52" monitor so you don't have to squint to see all them other galaxy's in the field 
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Matt
Apogee 50mm BB scope
ETX-60 BB
Meade 70-az
5" DIY Newt (wip)
C6-N on CG-4 GEM
Gallery
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southmike
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/22/04
Posts: 2820
Loc: Fayetteville, NC
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sad part is his images from a 50mm finder and a 70mm etx are better then my 8" shots....how did that happen.lol
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group scope pic
my refractors
LX200 10"-St120
LX200 8" f6.3-Orion 80ed
LX200 8" f10-Orion 90 Mak setup pic
Meade 102ED LXD650
Sky Watcher 100 ED Triplet prototype
Nexstar 5
etx125
etx70's
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cnstarz
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/22/07
Posts: 538
Loc: Kentucky, USA
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Quote:
Also found in the junk box a f/1.3 8mm fl C-mount TV lens that fits direct to the SX cam but yet to try it at night - great fun
Maurice,
Have you given this a try yet? I know it's like putting a Merlin V12 in a Mini but the suspense is killing me.
Further more, are you controlling three cameras simultaneously now? If so are they all on one PC?
Despite my out of touch attempts at humor I really like this concept of an electronic finder. Please let us know how its working out. 
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Matt
Apogee 50mm BB scope
ETX-60 BB
Meade 70-az
5" DIY Newt (wip)
C6-N on CG-4 GEM
Gallery
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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Quote:
Quote:
Also found in the junk box a f/1.3 8mm fl C-mount TV lens that fits direct to the SX cam but yet to try it at night - great fun
Maurice, Have you given this a try yet? I know it's like putting a Merlin V12 in a Mini but the suspense is killing me.
Further more, are you controlling three cameras simultaneously now? If so are they all on one PC?
Despite my out of touch attempts at humor I really like this concept of an electronic finder. Please let us know how its working out.
Thanks Matt for your patience - strung the TV lens+SX cam combo to the underside of my LX200 beneath corrector plate via strong rubber bands[!] and here's a preliminary shot of Arcturus region - marked for my aid also . It cover a 43d x 30d fov [>1200 sq degs!] and down to ~mag 8 in 20s exposure. Apart from median filter to remove hot pixels and contrast stretch - no other processing. The results at f/1.3 [6mm aperture] too soft so progressively stopped lens down to f/2.8 [~3mm aperture] for better results . The lower half of frame getting progressively less sharp and unsure at this time if the lens is missplaced in its cell or the CCD. Anyway it goes, even in 20 sec, much deeper than I'd thought possible. Every few minutes a satellite would pass across the live-view field
Now back to its original purpose - an electronic finder. With such a huge fov via the 8mm fl TV lens modest misalignment with the main scope is of no consequent - just view, say Arcturus, through main scope and mark laptop screen with [removable!] felt pen on Arcturus image - all other objects then viewed through main scope are brought to this same marker. More alignment care needed if the finder lens fl is increased to say 50mm via regular SLR lens for a smaller but more precise fov eg picking-up most Messiers as the early shots demo.
Haven't got around to linking all options - I'll probably just swap between the separate 'finder' and 'image' camera's respective software.
The light zone bottom right is the edge of my shutter aperture - which is why, with the wideangle TV lens, the cam must be supported on the 'front' of the scope to avoid dome shutter vignetting - all great fun.
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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here's the finder-cam attached beneath LX200 corrector plate
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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cnstarz
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/22/07
Posts: 538
Loc: Kentucky, USA
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That's amazing, you'll never have to crane your neck again with that setup. Hopefully you can get your machinest relative to make an appropriate mount soon. It's an expensive solution no doubt, but in my limited experience I've noticed that comfort takes on a higher priority eventually.
Cheers,
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Matt
Apogee 50mm BB scope
ETX-60 BB
Meade 70-az
5" DIY Newt (wip)
C6-N on CG-4 GEM
Gallery
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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Thanks Matt - last night I tested [within the dome] the camera specific software which is much better for dark subtracting the numerous hot pixel from an uncooled camera and tracked down the some other artefacts to the USB extension lead which I need to replace.
As a final experiment [see below!] I imaged a bright hazy half-moon by coupling cam to my 12" LX200 behind a Meade f/3.3 focal reducer - with extension tubes this could be pushed to an amazing fast f/2.6 and 800mm efl as deduced by measurement of moon's image onto the CCD. Needed 1/1000sec exposure with half the scope aperture blocked to avoid image burn-out 
In conclusion I'm fascinated by live-view as done on the Video + Electronic Assist Forum and this combo of SX cam+f/2.6 optics may work on DSOs and could be ideal at star parties eg tiny cam+laptop. When the moon retreats I'll give it a go at home first 
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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cnstarz
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/22/07
Posts: 538
Loc: Kentucky, USA
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What a neat concept, You could pickup one of these ASUS Eee
And rig up a minimalist drive/mount web page for your camera and have a pocket deep sky rig.
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Matt
Apogee 50mm BB scope
ETX-60 BB
Meade 70-az
5" DIY Newt (wip)
C6-N on CG-4 GEM
Gallery
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nytecam
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 4814
Loc: London UK
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Quote:
What a neat concept, You could pickup one of these ASUS Eee And rig up a minimalist drive/mount web page for your camera and have a pocket deep sky rig.
Thanks Matt - you've taken minimalist to a new level - love those tiny laptops and mini-equat-drive
On the patio I've a decades old clock-drive [below] that I'll try - it's ok for <200mm fl lens on DSLR so we should get deep in via co-added short sub-exposures onto the SX cam. All I need is the overcast and moon to go away
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+DS-2090+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9/Lodestar/Canon 300D DSLR/Fuji E550
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-spectro page
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justabob
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 05/05/07
Posts: 1089
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Very cool.
Maurice, we think alike. I got another dsi pro on a trade and super glued it onto the meade 8x50 finder scope. By removing the spacer at the objective I am able to use the objective as a helical focuser. It makes a great finder as well as an auto guider for the dslr.
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http://www.pbase.com/rkn/astro&page=all
Vixen Sphinx SXW LXD55
Self modded 350d
DSI PRO II
73 DE W9HS
Bob
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NeoDinian
Experienced Postmaster
Reged: 10/05/05
Posts: 12070
Loc: Rockford Illinois
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Details on the Finder mod you did? 
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Neo... (Jeff)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
10" LX200-GPS/SMT UHTC "Draco"
Rockford, Il.
NeoDinian's Eye on the Sky!
Coming soon:
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