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Phil dyer pd colour camera


shirva

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On the osd menu it came up communications on one of the menu sections. ...have no idea how its achieved , its 115 pounds for a controller so will be giving it a miss..if using a lens an auto iris is a must..tried on a standard lens and it requires adjusting at times (clouds coming over view)

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If it's were a few leads and control via OSD, (Up, down, left, right, OK buttons?) I might be tempted? :evil4:

(If you contemplate remote observing, it's certainly a useful facility - If not, tant pis, as they say?)

I think it a BIG improvement that Watec moved to internal OSD, rather than 16-way custom (mega-expensive! multiplexed?) analogue control box / cable! The WAT120N+ works fine with a home-brew DB25 (now 30m!) extension, but a Heck of a job decoding those, and never with full confidence! Even got the connections wrong at one stage (It didn't like THAT! But recovered?) - So not without risks. :icon_pale:

Remote Astronomy is a great thing... But as I have (haven't) learned, a trip to Maplins,

an order with CPC / Farnel... you rarely get much change out of £50 these days. :icon_neutral:

Cables, connectors... Welcome to another (subtle) money pit! :D

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Red,

Inspiring images!!

Out of interest - how suitable do you think the camera is for remote viewing?

ie The scope and camera outdoors (cold!!) and the monitor indoors (warm!!)

The scope would be mounted on a GOTO controlled by Stellarium and the camera connected to a separate monitor - I would need some kind of electronic focuser.

I understand that the camera settings cannot be not directly controlled by a computer but are the Phil Dyer recommended settings OK without having to make continuous adjustments depending on the objects being observed? OR does the camera adjust to the prevailing conditions automatically??

I am thinking of using my Orion (US) ED80.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!

Hi Nibor, with the exception of the integration all the recommended settings are set once and never touch again (or at least so far in my experience). There is a recommended range for a couple of things, Gamma being one which I have adjusted on the evening but only wihin the recommended parapeters, I suspect I will not touch this again.

I have seen mod's for the Samsung 435 video camera to add a cable control pad at the end of cable and I think someone has suggested the Samsung can be run and adjusted via some software - not aware of any similar modification to the PD camera yet. Usually for remote use you would also want to be able to adjust the camera setting remotely but in this case I suppose it depends how remote you are. If we are only talking the difference between house and garden (or similar) then the limiting distance for a wired remote would be the voltage transmittion limit for whatever voltage is being used on the cameras board (i.e, similar to the problem with USB where the limit (without repeaters) is 5m I think due to using 5v.

As for the video leand and signal, I would not expect you to reach the limit.

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Hi Nibor, with the exception of the integration all the recommended settings are set once and never touch again (or at least so far in my experience). There is a recommended range for a couple of things, Gamma being one which I have adjusted on the evening but only wihin the recommended parameters, I suspect I will not touch this again.

A very good point! Usually you need only vary a few parameters. Integration time, gain, gamma (maybe). Variants on two basic settings: One to "find" objects - Short integration, max gain / gamma. Another to write image data - Long (somewhat variable) integration, gain... Gamma - But the latter not always a clear thing. Some have claimed gamma merely adds a bit o' extra gain... and the equivalent noise. ;)

Bit like ripping CDs to .mp3. Decide on a suitable / basic standard(s), minimising losses,

and stick to it - them. Easier to remember "what you did" too. :)

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A very good point! Usually you need only vary a few parameters. Integration time, gain, gamma (maybe). Variants on two basic settings: One to "find" objects - Short integration, max gain / gamma. Another to write image data - Long (somewhat variable) integration, gain... Gamma - But the latter not always a clear thing. Some have claimed gamma merely adds a bit o' extra gain... and the equivalent noise. ;)

Bit like ripping CDs to .mp3. Decide on a suitable / basic standard(s), minimising losses,

and stick to it - them. Easier to remember "what you did" too. :)

Also a good point Macavity, you do go up and down the exposure/integration quite a bit. For example, you won't want to be focusing at 20 seconds integration - would be rather tedious! Rather, find a bright star, integration down the minimum possible, focus (and lock mirror, focuser etc.) and then slew back to object and turn integration back up to desired.

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Had a discussion with my brother and we have decided to try one of these, placed an order lunch time. :smiley: Bank holiday will probably

interfere with delivery but at least we should have it for the darker nights. Will just be using with a monitor to start with but if I capture anything worth showing will post it up.

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Great thread! I've got one of these since PD started to stock them last year. As most of you that have the camera have found, it performs very well and for it's price I wouldn't bother with the Sammy - too much hassle. PD has done all the mods and QA. I posted my first images with the camera on another thread here: (sorry, don't know how to link to another thread).

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A few more images captured the other night while it was clear. M81 and M82 raw images seemed to be particually affected by light pollution so not a true reflection of what the PD Colour camera is truely capable of - detail lost reducing the orange glow.

M82 Cigar, PD Colour Camera, Meade LX200 @ f6.3

M81 Bode's, PD Colour Camera, Meade LX200 @ f6.3

M57 Ring Nebula, PD Colour Camera, Meade LX200 @ f6.3

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Impressive. And all for the price of a filter wheel, (budget) LRGB filters etc. ;)

Noticed that those (my budget filters) deliberately have a gap in the orange region. Vaguely wonder about the Baader "contrast" filter for colour cams. Transmits red, green and blue, but has a large "notch" in the orange (green-blue). The usual colours of light pollution...

The colours add a lot though. Nice though they are, LRGB colour pictures of some DSOs (globulars, galaxies) can be little different from monochrome. :p

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Very nice RD, do you use/need an ir filter with this camera.?

No IR filter fitted to camera which is what you want. The only time you might need an IR filter is for daytime and possibly planatery imaging, but I never bother with IR filters but sometime use a contrast filter for planatary.
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No IR filter fitted to camera which is what you want. The only time you might need an IR filter is for daytime and possibly planatery imaging, but I never bother with IR filters but sometime use a contrast filter for planatary.

Thanks, my camera should be with me in the next few days, looking forward to giving it a try

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally a bit of clear sky , ok moon out lets use it...ed80 pd1 revelation ir filter. .focussed on moon no probs ,, moon very bright and captured to tv.

.resolution not quite happy with, will have some tinkering to do..focal reducer on and focussing more probs too...so quite happy on first light on moon anyway. ..big plus wae ed80 is zero coma ...finder scope picking up lime green/yellow one side n purple other side nada on ed80. ..st102 had same as finder scope colours. Another big tick for the ed80 and pd1. ...Davy...now give me deep sky...

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I was also targeting the moon and had a go at making a rough mosaic with the pd cam in B/W mode. This is 30 single images taken from a dvd recorded at the time, I turned off the drive and let the moon slide through which does introduce some blurring at this focal length (1600mm)  but the seeing was so average I thought it would not make a huge difference to the finished product. The one thing I did notice was the typical saw tooth edge effect caused by the interlaced chip when you are viewing something moving, of course, not a problem on long exposures.  :smiley:

post-30467-0-37369900-1379519747_thumb.j

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Done the same with me as well,, I done a very rough alignment due to scope in the flat pointing out the windae lol slightly better on tracking ....cracking mosaic. ..done one with my dslr at start of year and used Microsoft ice worked really well......Davy

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Fair bit of shimmering from moon last night,, I wonder if that is affecting the out put from what the camera is picking up....think previous images from the chaps shows it definitely a deep sky camera and not planetary...unless some kind person fires some on .

Davy..

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Fair bit of shimmering from moon last night,, I wonder if that is affecting the out put from what the camera is picking up....think previous images from the chaps shows it definitely a deep sky camera and not planetary...unless some kind person fires some on .

Davy..

When I ran the camera on the moon, for the mosaic shot, I did not change to high speed shutter, I think this would help reduce the Comb effect caused by the interlacing process and turbulent seeing. Once Jupiter starts to rise at a reasonable hour I will have a go at getting an image and put up my efforts. If the PD can produce half decent planetary shots I would consider it a bonus. :smiley:   

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On the osd menu it came up communications on one of the menu sections. ...have no idea how its achieved , its 115 pounds for a controller so will be giving it a miss..if using a lens an auto iris is a must..tried on a standard lens and it requires adjusting at times (clouds coming over view)

Davy,

The camera I bought from Phil came with a remote keypad and the communications setting seems to work to allow the keypad to control the on screen menu display. The package I have received seems to be an inexpensive way into remote control.

My camera 's "innards" seem to be the same as the PD1 colour camera as per his website but with a RS485 remote controller faility.

I am currently working my way up the VA "learning curve" having successfully got the camera up and running - Phil's package came with all the leads labelled and he had already sent me the set up instructions - this was a great help!!

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Marcus,

The BNC adapter shown on your link attaches to the PD1 camera, locking onto the locking "bumps" on the camera back.

The attached quick start manual may answer any further questions:-

I am using the USB video grabber supplied with the PD kit ( Kworld) it so far is working OK for me (just starting out in VA) -  I eventually only installed the "Power Director" (Image capture programme) as the other bundled software seemed to add programmes and "add ons" I didn't really want.

PD1 Manual - non remote.pdf

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Thank you both, I should have remembered seeing the pdf before somewhere :-) 

Thank you for attaching it again!

I do have some adapters and equipment, and a usb video grabber, so I ordered the 99gpb version ;-)

I do need that way-round  type of adapter though, 1,50€ incl. shipping isn't too bad though.

Just wondering if there are better or worse video grabbers, perhaps one with low framerate but lossless frames.

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