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Funding advice - for school


welshdai

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Hello,

just thought i would ask for some advice... I am a physics teacher that has an astronomy club within the school.

We have

skywatcher (4.75inch, f/1000) scope

2xbarlow, 3xbarlow, (fairly decent quality)

few eyes pieces (poor quality)

philips 900nc webcam

few smaller scopes

I have managed to obtain a grant for around 400 pounds.

The pupils would like to do more work with astrophotography

What would be the best "things" to spend 400 pounds on!

All suggestions welcome!

cheers

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For £400 I would look at an EQ5 with motors and a small refractor. It would have to be achro so say about f/7 and attach a webcam. School may have a DSLR I guess, but start out with the web cam.

The EQ5 is fairly solid and putting a small refractor on it will not be too much.

Then you/they can capture the images and process them with the assortment of free software around.

By the way haven't looked at the cost of any of the things mentioned but guess it may come in about right.

Just seen that you have 51 posts = Buy/Sell section is available to you.. Could I suggest you list a location, someone here may be ble to help either with equipment of advice.

If you can get a set up for that amount and if you get reasonable images I suggest that you list everything, include costs and show that imaging can be done on a budget.

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even after all the equiptment mentioned the Faulkes might be the better option (i was at the opening of them in cardiff when i was in school! wish i could have had the chance to use them though :) ) obv a EQ5 and somthing like a 102mm or 120 might be the ticket to complement the 130p you have

webcams (the morgan webcams are really recommended by a lot of people)

and then the software being free........ sharpcap is what i use and i have got registax but theres also avistack

and lewis (boys or girls) should have photoshop!

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The SPC900 webcam will be good for lunar and planetary imaging.

For deep sky you will want something with long exposure capability. You could try and get hold of a cheap CCD/ CMOS camera. These sometimes turn up in the £60 - £120 range.

I take it the school has access to a laptop? You'll require one of these to use out in the field to capture the images.

While an equatorial mount would be preferable, you can use a computerised Alt/Az mount for basic imaging. These are usually much cheaper than an EQ mount. Free software like DSS (Deep Sky Stacker) can compensate for automatic rotation of the multiple images so they line-up correctly.

What are the smaller scopes you mentioned? It's actually easier to do deep sky imaging with a smaller scope as they require a much less accurate mount to get good results. A 66/72mm diameter scope with a focal length of 400-450mm would be perfect.

Personally, unless you have one already, I wouldn't consider using a DSLR to start out with. The modern ones have quite small pixels and this also requires a fairly high degree of accuracy from the mount. For the amount you'd pay for the DSLR s/h (approx £150), the dedicated astro camera is a much better option and also allows your students to see what is going on and what data you are getting from the camera. Also, a DSLR without the modern video "live-view" option can be fiddly to setup.

Something like a Meade DSI I would be a good option. This also has capture software which will do on-the-fly stacking of images so everyone can see what is happening as the data comes in on the laptop. You'd probably still want to use DSS back in the classroom to perform a more detailed processing of the images though.

Hope this helps.

Alan.

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Thanks for all the advice, I forgot to mention that the main scope we have is on a goto eq3 mount. My personal laptop is a mac and i have been using this.

the main scope is an evostar 120 on a eq3 mount with the sync goto.

Is there a device for moving cloud from the south wales vallies???

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Wow I wish I had a teacher like you when I was in school, my physics lessons just consisted of about three of us trying to learn something whilst the teacher had to try and battle the class clowns and chavs. Good luck with it.

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the main scope is an evostar 120 on a eq3 mount with the sync goto.

In which case I don't think an Alt/Az goto will offer any improvement there.

As you're on a Mac, you may also find it difficult to find a suitable cheap astro camera with OSX support. I reluctantly had to get myself a cheap windows based laptop for astro work. This hasn't been too bad though as it has given me access to a lot of free software that doesn't run on OSX. You could dual-boot your Mac and install Windows XP on it as well. This wasn't really an option for me at the time.

As Bulkins mentioned, the CCTV camera and USB video capture device might be a good starting point but you can also achieve great results with the DMK Imaging Source cameras at very short exposure times. In fact, there is a thread comparing them on the go at the moment.

http://stargazerslounge.com/equipment-discussion/152498-snaps-my-scb-4000-a.html

The Imaging Source cameras also come as a firewire version so are Mac friendly. A few have turned up recently on here second hand. (Not sure what software they use. I'd recommend something like Stark Labs Nebulosity on a Mac and can be used to directly control the camera.)

Realistically, the mount you have isn't going to allow for sub-frame images longer than approx 20s anyway and probably less with the Evostar 120 at 1000mm focal length. However, when all those frames are stacked you should still be able to get some really good images at the end.

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cheers. will fill in a lottery grant for our school. Will have to get it signed off by the head when we are back though. Could have a problem with that though as the club is already going and some of the lottery blerb says its only to start new projects. but will see!

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