Telrad Camera

[Mav359]

Don't know if this is any use to anyone else but heres what i did.....

I've bought a motorhome for when im out and about with the scope and inside i have setup a permanent PC & monitors for use with the scope, the idea was to be able to remove as much setup as possible and just pull up, put the scope out and crack on. Because Im working from inside the van i need to be able to do almost everything remotely including my 3 star align.

The issue i have is that you can only setup using either the handset or the software if  you setup using the software the handset is unaware of the 3 star align and vice versa (bit short sighted by Celestron i think). I'd like to setup using the software so that i don't have to have a stupid long cable running into the van between the handset and the mount but if i do that i cant stand at the scope to look into the telrad because the controls are on the screen on the PC so i needed a camera on the telrad so i could see everything whilst sat away from the scope.....

So ive done this

Nothing fancy just a left over flat alluminium bar that i didnt use in my auto focuser and gaffer tapped a Microsoft Lifecam 700 to the end of it. I folder the plate back and just mounted using 2 of the 4 screws that are at the back of the telrad. Ive left the camera furtherback so i have a wider field of view.

[poogle]

Nice one! The "Astromobile", sounds great

/Patrik

[Mav359]

Cheers Patrik

Well that didn't work

In terms of the bracket & the PC connection it was fine but the camera wasn't sensitive enough to be able to see any stars so......

Any suggestions on a webcam that is capable of seeing the stars in the night sky in its stock config?

[Lonestar70]

Hi Mav,

I think your main problem is focus depth... i.e. you can either focus on the telrad or on the stars.

Some people use an SPC900 camera on their polar scope, however, this is not quite the same thing since the polarscope focuses the image on the polarscope reticule... the camera just needs to focus on the reticule.

The same would be true if using a finderscope, since the scope focuses the image at the camera sensor.

The telrad does not focus anything, hence the camera must look through it, but be focused on the stars... in which case the telrad screen would be totaly out of the focus range... much like your spider on a Newtonian when focused on the stars.

Hope that helps explain the problem.

Best Regards.

Sandy.

[poogle]

Thinking of it, why do you need the telrad at all? When I do the 3 star align I always center the stars using LiveView through my imaging camera. And on most modern DSLRs LiveView can be displayed on the computer via USB, I don't know about CCDs however. If using x10 zoom in LiveView I think that the alignment is accurate enough.

/Patrik

[IanL]

I'm guessing you are using this rig for imaging not visual? (You don't actually say, but seems that way from the description of the set-up).

Is the mount capable of being driven via ASCOM?  If so you might want to look in to using some plate solving software instead of doing it the hard way.  For example take a look at Astrotortilla (several long threads running in the software section on this).  Using EQMOD with Skywatcher mounts you don't have to do anything but polar alignment; after that you just pick your target and get AT to take images through your camera and solve its way to where you want to be.  Might be a bit different with your mount but I'd have thought something like this would be possible.