Meade LPI and DSO's ?

[LaVey]

Hi guys...

Couple of questions for you that I hope you can help me out with.

I havea meade LPI, I know this is just a glorified webcam, but can it be used to image DSO's, and could I expect to acheive anything worthwhile? I have tried both envisage and k3ccd with little success. Are there some optimal settings for doing DSO's with a webcam.. (like martinB's planetary webcam tut).

What kind of exposure times should I be looking at using an LPI, can it even be used to do long exposures.. ie over 60 seconds or so? Are k3ccd or envisage ok for DSO/long exposure imaging?

I tried on the orion nebula last night and got the 4 stars of the trapezium did a series of 5 60 seconds but got no data excpet for the stars themselves... I know I need more data as have seen some iamges here that have taken hours worth of data.

Ok, enough questions! Any answers appreciated..

[cygnusx1]

Sorry, can't help you, i have a Meade DSI, but only used it for autoguiding so far.

Would be interested to know if this is any good for planetary/DSO work?

[centroid]

Hi .....?

I have an LPI, and can advise that it is definitely not sensitive enough for DSO imaging, hence the name Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI).

For planetary, lunar and solar imaging, it does a pretty good job.

Dave

[Sam]

LaVey,

I have a long exposure modded webcam and used it for the first time last night on M42. I got the four stars of the trapezium quite easily and with 60 secs I got a blueish reddish cloud around them with a blueish cloud extending out to some other stars nearby. I also did 10 shots of 20 secs and stacked them which bought out a slight hint of a reddish hue but mainly blue.

Sam

[John]

As far as I know the Meade LPI is only suitable for the moon and planets. It does not allow long exposures and it's sensor is a CMOS type which is not as sensitive as a CCD.

For DSO's you need either a Meade DSI or a modified webcam.

John

[axolotl]

I think it is possible to get images of DSOs with the LPI – it really depends on the level of expectation, but it is certainly possible to capture images of bright nebulae, double stars and open clusters. On the other hand my experiences with globular clusters and galaxies has been pretty negative. You might find that you can bring out a lot of detail just by using the adjust contrast option in a program such as photoshop or HP image zone.

The following photographs of M42, M57, M38 (I think!) and Albeiro were all captures using an LPI attached to a skywatcher 130PM 130mm reflector. In each case 20-30 exposures were taken with exposure time of between 1 and 5.7 seconds.

[rusirius]

Sorry, can't help you, i have a Meade DSI, but only used it for autoguiding so far.

Would be interested to know if this is any good for planetary/DSO work?

Well this put me right off! You are saying that you use a £250 camera JUST FOR AUTOGUIDING?

Are you saying that you need on of those £2000+ (e.g. Sbig etc) cameras to get decent deep sky images then?

I had hoped to move up to a DSI once I had mastered the LPI, but at this rate there seems little point if it can't deliver reasonable deep sky images.

Incidentally, why do Astro cameras have such small resolutions? They seem way behind DSLR's and the cost seems extortionate for the resolution you get?

[GazOC]

Check out the DSI Yahoo Group for what people can do with these cameras.

[Kai]

Incidentally, why do Astro cameras have such small resolutions? They seem way behind DSLR's and the cost seems extortionate for the resolution you get?

Economies of scale i think is the answer.

How many Astro ccd's are sold in comparison to Dlsr's ??.I would of thought that mono chips are not as widely produced as colour.CCD's are completely different beasts because of their niche usage.

Not everybody has the scope to fully utilise a large format chip

We then get into the debate of CCD vs DLSR............And i am not THAT knowledgeable :D