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rg55
member
Reged: 08/02/08
Posts: 94
Loc: western US
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Folks,
I was looking around the office and discovered that I have the wherewithal to hook up my Sony HDR-CX7 Handycam to an eyepiece and thereby one of my telescopes. Aha!
The camera has a 1/2.9-inch ClearVid CMOS sensor, which means something that I need to know but don't. Bottom line, what is possible with imaging with it? It produces proprietary Sony files that will probably need to be converted into other form for Registaxing. There are other specs out there, but didn't know what was appropriate to post here.
Any thoughts?
Richard
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C8 on AS-CG5 mount
Orion 127 mak
C80ED
Canon XSi
Sony HD videocam
Celestron Neximage
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Falcon-
sage
Reged: 09/11/09
Posts: 240
Loc: Gambier Island, BC, Canada
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My first though is that the camera may only let you shoot at video frame rates, meaning 30, 25 or 24 fps. With 0.033 to 0.042 second long exposures will likely not do much unless you are shooting planets or the moon, so deep sky is, I am guessing, not going to work.
I can not see any reason why it would not work quite well for planetary/lunar work though so long as you can achieve focus.
I have not used that video camera, or any camcorder for astro work for that matter, so I have no idea how it will handle things like exposure level, etc - but it is certainly worth a shot!
How will you be connecting the camera to the eyepiece projection adaptor? Does the camera's lens come off to provide a T thread or some such?
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Tasco 11TE-5 'Lunagrosso': 4.5" Newtonian, 900mm f/7.9
Meade DS-2114S: 4.5" Newtonian, 1000mm f/8.8
Galileoscope: 50mm Achromatic Refractor, 500mm f/10
Tasco EQ-2-like mount w/ clock drive
Celestron CG-5GT mount
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rg55
member
Reged: 08/02/08
Posts: 94
Loc: western US
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|
Greetings Falcon,
I'm only thinking of lunar/planetary imaging with this set up. The focus issue is important, but I believe there is some sort of manual focus menu selection that I hope will overcome it. The odd file formats may be a challenge--I've only been able to convert these files into mpegs, and I don't know what further processing of them might do to them. I suppose I'll find out!
Thanks,
Richard
--------------------
C8 on AS-CG5 mount
Orion 127 mak
C80ED
Canon XSi
Sony HD videocam
Celestron Neximage
|
Falcon-
sage
Reged: 09/11/09
Posts: 240
Loc: Gambier Island, BC, Canada
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From what I can tell from google searches the camera records in AVCHD (a variant of MPEG4/h.264) or MPEG2. Both can be converted by several apps to nearly any format. Have you tried Handbrake to convert the video? Registax 5 might
One thing I might suggest is when you do the conversion make sure you select de-interlace as it looks like the camera shoots in 1080i mode (interlaced mode) and I suspect registax is going to be happier with de-interlaced video.
I would not be too worried about quality loss while converting the video. As you are not shooting long lengths you have no reason to convert to the smallest size possible, instead you can do any conversions at highest-quality possible instead. Plus I suspect you will be able to get away with a single-stage convert so your re-compression degradation will be minimal.
I suspect if you are trying to focus both with the camera's lens and the telescope's focuser at the same time that is going to be your real challenge!
--------------------
Tasco 11TE-5 'Lunagrosso': 4.5" Newtonian, 900mm f/7.9
Meade DS-2114S: 4.5" Newtonian, 1000mm f/8.8
Galileoscope: 50mm Achromatic Refractor, 500mm f/10
Tasco EQ-2-like mount w/ clock drive
Celestron CG-5GT mount
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|
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