Meade Dsi 1 colour

[trudie]

Hi Guys,

Need a bit of advise, I am on the verge of buying the above camera, to get me started in DSO's without spending too much. ( I am also just about to order HEQ5 go to upgrade kit) so can't push my luck too much.

I need to know your thoughts on the camera, it will be used with the ED80 on the HEQ5.

1. Do you think this will be ok?

2. Are they reasonably easy to get to grips with?

Thanks all

Trudie

[barkis]

Hi Trudie, I have the same camera, but I have only tested it terrestrially if you know what I mean. I believe it to be fairly easy to come to terms with, and I am sure there are SGL members who use this, or one of the other models. I think Dave (Centroid) uses one for guiding his new 12" Meade LX200R, so he may also have used it as a main image. I am sure he will pick up on this. If not PM him, he will be only to happy to advise you.

Also Trudie, if you do a search on the Meade 4M site, you will find instructional videos made by Matt Taylor, who is an aficionado of the DSI camera. The videos are a poor quality, but acceptable to watch.. Matt said in his introduction, that his first image was of M51, and whilst he set the camera to image the Galaxy, he was so tired he fell asleep. When he awoke, he found that the picture had been automatically processed by the software, and he was astonished at the good job it had done.

Now, you can either believe that or not, but he claims it to be true, and why would he want to be telling porkies.

Anyway good luck Trudie, I am sure you will manage fine.

Ron.

[centroid]

Hi Trudie

As Ron says, I do have a DSI -C, but I do use it for guiding only, and have never imaged with it.

If your were able to guide your mount, you might do reasonably well with it. However, if you going to be limited to exposures of less than 1 minute, which is a bit restricting on what you would be able to image.

Some people do quite well with the DSI, but employ guiding to give then long exposure times.

The 'bottom line' is that the DSI-C is not the most sensitive of cameras. The mono DSI Pro is a different 'beast', and is much more sensitive, and expensive.

Dave

[Jeff RV]

High Trudie,

I also have one but only just getting used to it, seems to stack OK in auto just remember to draw a box round the subject, fairly simple to use,and software does most of the work with a choice of Jpeg, Gif,bmp,Tif,fits, fits3p etc and a save option for stacking or not in normal,combined, uncombined,and more.

Focusing is my biggest problem but on the whole i think it will be a good start, but I've also read very good reports on the FireWire ccd's

http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/topics/firewire-cameras-at-the-imaging-source/#firewire_color.

As Ron suggest someone on here will no more and if you can get them on the cheapside still in the USA then go for it

Jeff.

[Jeff RV]

This was taken with the Meade DSI.

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,16389.0.html but need to try it on the bigger scope.

Jeff.