Orion Starshoot USB eyepiece

[Angelika]

I saw a cool little device on line, the Orion Starshoot USB eyepiece, that apparently lets you see what you are looking at through the telescope on your computer screen. Has anyone had experience with this item?

Thanks a bunch :-)

[Ad Astra]

Hi Angelika,

I've used other similar products from Orion, but not their newest USB version. Frankly, I was not that impressed with it. I had thought to use them to allow more than one student to look at a time through the scope, but it didn't work out that way.

All my students were less than impressed. I got a lot of: "I wanted to try the telescope for myself", or "I've seen better on the Discovery Channel!" It became much less of an astronomy experience - and it became just one more thing they see on a little screen. The image quality was not that terrific either, but maybe the newer product is better than those I used 6-7 years ago.

Of course, if you are trying to image capture or something like that, it might be just the ticket.

Cheers,

Dan

[Neilius]

It sounds interesting, but I'm skeptical of such devices after my failed attempts with the Philips spc camera that I still don't know how to 'flash'; something I won't even attempt, to be honest.

[JohnnyD333]

Hello Angelika,

Dan is correct. I have a Starshoot eyepiece and it is not what Orion makes it out to be. It can image planets, after stacking them you get some good results. The max resolution is a little over 800x600 (in the low 1000s) and is easy to use. But I have never observed anything but planets, maybe you could get some bright stars, but nothing like an EP will show.

[JamesF]

It sounds interesting, but I'm skeptical of such devices after my failed attempts with the Philips spc camera that I still don't know how to 'flash'; something I won't even attempt, to be honest.

That's really not a major problem, to be honest. The most biggest issue these days appears to be finding a machine running XP.

James