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hoops86

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I found that swapping between eyepiece and camera was a lot less frustrating after a made an adaptor to place the eyepiece focus exactly the same as the camera focus. :smiley:

Thanks for the tip - I am investigating the possibility of video observing and I am trying to soak up as many ideas as possible!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi guys,

Just wondering what OTA's and mounts you are using please ?

Do you guide or just track with your mounts ? if guiding......what are you using ?

Trying to put together a list of what equipment I'll need (expecting my pockets to be hit hard)

Thanks Davy for putting me on to this thread............

:grin:

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Welcome to the amazing av forum sharpie.

I ask everyone this question. ..what do you want to capture. ..deep sky...planets. ..meteor or none of above lol...

You will have a lot of replies to this.

Me personally. ..I use the skywatcher ed80 on a eq3/2 pro connected to my laptop via eqtooth mod,, eq mod via Carte de ciel software, , main image camera on scope is a Phil dyer pd1 with a .5 focal reducer and a revelation ir filter..piggyback modded Samsung scb2000 with four fan cooling to a Honeywell wide angle cctv lens.......80mm 2" focal tube to use a x2 Barlow on scope......my next buy will be a four channel cctv dvr with a hard drive to do a three camera capture from the imaging rig...this is 12v dc so can be all run from 12v battery at mount. ..this will be viewed from a monitor and fed back to laptop via lan or wireless router. ...all going well......modest but a cheeky little number...lol...Davy

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Hi Sharpie welcome to the AV section. The good news is no guiding required just tracking, £££ saved! It looks like you already have two good scopes and mounts there to do the job.

Video cameras will work fine on both AZ mounts or EQ. The general exposure times are a max of 20 secs, unless you opt for the more expensive models which give up to 120 secs.

The cameras have a video output so can feed live to a TV screen or if you wish to record and process your targets later you can use a frame grabber with free software and watch and record on a PC/laptop.

In answering your question I would think all you need to get started is, a camera, C mount eyepiece adapter, 12 Volt power supply or battery, an RCA cable and TV. Or frame grabber to laptop. You probably would need to use a focal reducer on the Mak.

Pockets dont need to be too deep :grin: and add on as you like.

Im using the SW 150p on Eq3/2 goto, Dazzle 100 framegrabber and laptop myself.

Cheers Carl

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My main interest to start off with will be large clusters, bright galaxies and lunar/planetary. I intend to image everything by the time I pop my clogs and go and explore it all for myself.

I know I'm gonna make a lot of mistakes to start with so doing it with a small budget to start with. I've been so close to buying HEQ5's and EQ6's (mount fever !!!) so I'm glad I'll be able to use what I've got already. 

I've got a usb capture stick with composite in (rca jack). Will I be able to use that to pick up the video signal or will I have to modulate it first (got modulator too) ?

quick question on the c mount eyepiece adapter........Is that the same thing as a T adapter for DSLR's ?

Is cooling necessary to start off with ? If so........would computer cooling fans work ? (got several just kicking around)

one last question (on this post anyway).............Is this prime focus AP ?

Cheers

Jack

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Hello Sharpie and a warm welcome from me also!

As Carl said you really do not need guiding for VA unless you have a camera with long integration.  My own camera can do 100 minutes but I rarely go longer than 28 seconds.  My mount can do both Alt AZ and EQ but I have only ever use it in Alt Az.  This may change later on as I progress but right now I want to get as close as near live as possible.  That said even in Alt Az I have gone about 60 seconds or so before I saw any field rotation.

Anyway best of luck with your searching....

Regards

Karl  

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Beginners question for you Karl......what is long integration please ?

you guys are prob gonna get a few questions like that I'm afraid

I was out last night with my little MAK and the AZ GOTO tracked M57, keeping it centred for half an hour. I just hope it will be ok once I add a bit more weight to it. 

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Hi yes your USB sounds fine even more £££ saved. No modulator required. The output on the cameras are composite video so no need.

The adapter is a C/CS to eyepiece, this is the thread size on the cameras, a T mount is different, its a lot larger.

Cooling is not needed but can help and is not easy to do. You can add fans easy though.

Yes it effectively it is prime focus.

Integration Hmmmmmm well the easiest way to explain that is...Video cameras self stack frames to make a longer exposure, a camera with X512 integration has an effective exposure of 10 sec and one with X1024 has a max exposure of 20 sec. All adjustable from less than a second up to the max.

Cheers Carl 

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Hi yes your USB sounds fine even more £££ saved. No modulator required. The output on the cameras are composite video so no need.

The adapter is a C/CS to eyepiece, this is the thread size on the cameras, a T mount is different, its a lot larger.

Cooling is not needed but can help and is not easy to do. You can add fans easy though.

Yes it effectively it is prime focus.

Integration Hmmmmmm well the easiest way to explain that is...Video cameras self stack frames to make a longer exposure, a camera with X512 integration has an effective exposure of 10 sec and one with X1024 has a max exposure of 20 sec. All adjustable from less than a second up to the max.

Cheers Carl 

Ooh thanks Carl, good explanation I was struggling with that one :)

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Defo a good explanation (it makes sense to this beginner  :smiley:) and cheers for clarifying the c mount adapter question, found one on FLO for £13

I used to work as a security engineer so I'm pretty familiar with CCTV cameras, that was quite a while ago though, hence the question about modulating the signal.

Will I need any extension tubes or need to do any mods ?

Not sure on the extension tube thing but a quick stab in the dark......... I'm guessing the need for a focal reducer is something to do with inward focuser travel ?

Someone told me it was quite hard to achieve focus with DSLR's (130 aperture skywatcher is f5 and 102 aperture MAK is f12.7).

Does this translate over to video imaging ?

Cheers

Jack

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Hi jack,  regarding mods it all depend on what camera you buy, if you buy a astro video camera it will have had the ir filter removed, or should have been done. If you go for a cctv camera ie Samsung 2000p you will need to remove the filter which is easy as long as the screws come out , takes about 15 min start to finish.

Focusing, we have the same problems has the dslr camera's, but can easily be solved with extention tubes, just need to work out what length you need. If you haven't got enough inward travel easiest way is to unscrew the lens out of your barlow and fit the barlow body to your camera and see if your getting closer to focus, if you have 2 barlows you just add them, when you achieve focus you just measure the length of the barlow and get a extention tube to that length.

if your going to be using your 130p you want to achieve focus about halfway on the tube so that the focus draw tube does not extend into the ota. hope I've explained well and not double dutch..... john

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Hi jack ..just the man I'm looking to quiz...my next step in av is to use a cctv dvr...I've bought a usb 4 channel grabber but transfer of camera image to laptop screen as slow as a week in jail....so looking at a cctv dvr. .the dvr is 12v dc so can use a 12v battery to run mount, cameras and dvr no prob...looking to record from three cams using the cctv dvr software ...q1.... how good is the software. .......a monitor will be used at mount from either the bnc or serial port...q2...the lan port on dvr I know can link to a router but can I run a lan cable straight from pc to dvr and what control of dvr and camera would I have...would be great not getting one blind. ..Davy

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