Binoviewer for planetary imaging

[hobsey]

You may have read the title and thought, what is he on about? But hear me out.

Next planetary season I plan to do a lot on planetary imaging and to do this, I will be using my grab and go AZ4 mount meaning I will have to track manually.

Now, I hate tracking via the laptop screen as I find it quite difficult. To get around this I thought I would buy a flip mirror and track via the eye piece while the camera records.

But, this wouldn't work as the when you flip the mirror you have to use either one or the other.

Now here comes in the binoview.

If I put and eyepiece in one side and the camera (qhy5i-ll) in the other, would this make a good platform for manual tracking via the eyepiece instead of the laptop screen?

[Chris]

I can't see why not I can recommend the William Optic BV, I have one and its great. Be sure to do a bit of visual on the planets with the two EP's, you'll love it!

Chris 

[dweller25]

It's a good idea - best of luck

[hobsey]

I can't see why not I can recommend the William Optic BV, 

Chris 

Cheers but they are a little more than I want to spend.

Looking more at the Revelation ones from Telescope House.

[Adrian]

One problem to consider (aside from the obvious halving of light and additional glass in the lightpath) may be the differing focus between the camera and the eyepiece. Cameras tend to need a lot of in-focus compared to most eyepieces due to the location of the sensor plane. The adjustment available on the BVs is unlikely to be sufficient to have both in focus at the same time. The options may be:

1. a small extension tube for the eyepiece to move the EP focal plane out to that of the camera.
2. Don't fully insert the EP.
3. find and EP with a focal plane requiring lots of in-focus.

Good luck

Adrian

[hobsey]

Thanks Adrian,

The thought had crossed my mind a couple of days ago with regards to each one will need different focusing.

I think I may just practice at tracking it via the laptop screen, people with push to dobs can do it so I'm sure I should be able to do it with the AZ4.

[Geoff Lister]

I know that this thread is a bit old, but I have used my binoviewer with a Philips SPC900 webcam as one eyepiece and a 25mm or 10mm eyepiece as the other.

I found that it was difficult to get both in focus simultaneously, but, by using the 25mm, then the 10mm, to get the planet central; I just needed to make a small adjustment to the focus to get a sharp image on the laptop's screen.

With Jupiter starting to appear at a more user-friendly hour, and a recent purchase of an Altair Astro GP-CAM V2, I hope to do some more experiments, with/without Barlow and focal reducer, when the clouds go away.

The addition of a binoviewer to the OTA, at some distance from the Alt-axis rotation point, changes the balance of the assembly. I have added white lines on the dovetail plates for balance with (1) normal eyepiece, (2) binoviewer with 2 eyepieces, or eyepiece + camera, and (3) DSLR. I have also added a weight to the rear of my 10" flex-tube Synscan Dob, as I found it was already front-heavy with just an eyepiece. Without this weight, it was almost impossible to use the binoviewer, as the Alt clutch would slip as soon as the mount moved.

I am now 65, and have noticed that my eyesight is beginning to show the effects of age; so I am hoping that, by using the eyepiece for alignment and the camera/laptop combination for viewing, I will be able to continue, for many more years, to get the most out of this excellent hobby.

Geoff