Photography Archives

ATIK 314e CCD Camera

Having a famous sounding last name naturally impressed me at an early age and learning about Edwin Hubble helped turned my interest toward astronomy; that, along with the Apollo program, got me really thinking about space and the Moon. I

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Canon PowerShot SD790IS Digital Camera

The camera has been used every day since including for astrophotography. It is small and compact with a bright 3 inch LCD display that can be viewed

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Meade Variable Projection Camera Adapter

First, the adapter seemed pretty heavy and with the camera, a Nikon D60, it was. The ETX needed a

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QSI 540ws/wsg CCD Camera

In the last couple of years more gear has become available for astrophotographers than ever before, whether you're imaging with

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Orion StarShoot Pro Deep Space CCD Color Imaging Camera (v1)

The camera itself is light and thin compared to some cameras, but quite wide. It is supplied with a 2 inch nosepiece for inserting directly into a telescope tube. Unscrewing this adapter reveals

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Iris Diaphragm Useless in Visual Observations

there is a plain, simple device being offered at Edmund-Optics, a T-barreled iris diaphragm

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FocusStar Controller

I am a big believer in using the computer to achieve focus for astrophotography

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Sierra Stars Observatory

Test drive of the Sierra Stars Observatory

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DMK USB 2.0 Camera

Before this camera DMK only provided the fire wire type of camera ,and you need a firewire port in you PC to run the camera

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Lumicon DigiCam Adapter

The main yoke and jaw are die-cast, probably from zinc as it feels heavier than aluminum. The camera platform is hard plastic.

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Meade DSI

The following review and attached pictures are based on my first, and so far only, night out with the Meade DSI

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MallinCam Color Hyper Camera

The MallinCam Color HYPER is a full-featured advanced astronomical observational video CCD camera featuring a Peltier-assisted radiant cooler, 6 and 12 second extended shutter integration (in addition to the standard 2.1 second

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Boltwood Cloud Sensor

I have had more than one person ask me - what does a cloud sensor do?

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Artemis285 CCD Camera

There are many new and exciting tools coming available to the amateur Astronomer in the past few years. The area of astro-imaging is one area where these tools have advanced in both a technological and affordable manner. The Artemis series of

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Canon Powershot Digital Camera for Basic Astrophotography

I bought the Canon Powershot A60 just over a year ago for my 24th birthday and at the time it cost £120. At first I mainly used it to take landscape images as I was beginning to become interested in photography and one of the main reasons this camera stood out from the rest was the addition of a manual exposure setting. Since I didn’'t have a telescope my first shots were of the nights sky, but once I purchased my first scope, quite impressive amateur images were

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Using a CFW8a and the Meade 3.3 Focal Reducer

Before reading this article, please note that this arrangement is not supported by SBIG and using this arrangement takes the CFW8a and the filters provided by SBIG out of its intended design parameters. This worked with my CFW8a and SBIG filters. It may not work with yours. I have not tested this with the CFW8 using th

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MaxView 40 Eyepiece, and prime focus digital camera adaptor

When I bought my telescope four or five years ago I was, like most beginners I guess, concerned with magnification. My Orion Skywatcher 90 EQ came standard with 25 mm and 10 mm Kellners and my first addition was an Orion Shorty Barlows. Inserting the Barlows before the diagonal and using the 10 mm the little Skywatcher can get up to 270 x magnification – a pretty useless number in reality as the optical train, aperture and mount cannot do it any justice. Magnification quickly gave way to a desire for medium power views and the next eyepiece to be purchased was a 17 mm Orion Explorer II Kellner.

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ST-7Ei CCD Camera...A Poor Man’s ST-7E?

he ST-7i is a limited run of CCD cameras offered by the renowned manufacturer of astronomy CCD cameras, Santa Barbara Instruments Group (SBIG). According to SBIG, these cameras use the same KAF-0401E NABG CCD that is found in the standard ST-7E and ST-7XE cameras. They were manufactured with parallel port connectors, which an OEM discontinued when it switched to the later USB models. What do you get?

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Casio QV2800

I obtained my Casio QV2800 in the hope to use it for two purposes: afocal astrophotography and daily snapshots. I bought it more than two years ago. I purchased the special package containing a 8M Compact Flash and a 340M microdrive. The package contains a remote control unit, the user manuals, software. The QV2800 has been discontinued and replaced by QV2900. As I understand, only the microdrive is optional, everything else listed above are standard items.

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Nikon Coolpix 775 CCD

Conventional astrophotography began with a lot of fans, many amateur astronomers entered this branch of astronomy with many expectations, but when they discovered that it was not that simple since there are many things you have to consider like film type, camera, exposure time and the development of the negatives. It also bore many expenses, since a lot of fans wanted to develop their negatives themselves because the photographic laboratories didn't give very good services, either for lack of experience in this type of pictures or not wanting to lose extra time with that costumer.

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SAC-IV CCD Camera

The SAC-IV is an entry-level astronomical imaging camera. Based on a Sony “HAD” chip (ICX098Ak), it offers 24-bit color in a 640x480 pixel (5.6 micron) array. It is offered by SAC Imaging (www.sac-imaging.com), which is based in Melbourne, FL.

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Can SBIG's

Let me begin by saying that my seventy-seven year old eyes, even after the cataract surgery so successfully performed a couple of months ago, aren't nearly as good for astronomy as they were almost sixty years ago when I was an eighteen year old cadet in pilot training. This was vividly demonstrated to me several years ago when I joined a group of much younger amateur astronomers in an evening of viewing through the thirty-six inch "light bucket" at the McDonald Observatory. They raved about objects that, although my eyes had reached a much deeper dark adaptation level than they had in many years, the detail enjoyed by my companions was being lost, probably "masked" by neural noise generated within my eyes. Talk about suddenly feeling old!

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Philips ToUcam Pro (and similar webcams)

In recent years, webcam imaging has become increasingly popular among amateur astronomers. It is easy to see why: they are inexpensive (< $100) and it is possible, with practice, to produce some truly amazing images. In my opinion, there's no better alternative to those interested in taking "pretty pictures" without spending a lot more

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Philips ToUCam Pro

I obtained my ToUCam Pro when the Hong Kong Astronomical Society join ordered it from oversea. We have obtained so many of them such that the whole package is of the size of a 29 inch television.

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Canon A40 and A10 Digital Cameras for Astrophotography

Film was the only method for recording astronomical images for a very long time. Unfortunately it is a difficult technique to master and many amateur astronomers gave up in despair. The recent availability of low cost CCD cameras has resulted in a dramatic improvement in the accessibility, quality, and quantity of astrophotographs. Currently, there are three types of camera

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