Can you video with a CCD camera?

[russp]

Is there any software that would give video astromomy functions with a CCD colour camera - specifically a Atik314L+.  Whilst my set up works well for astrophotography (so goto mount etc etc)  it would be great to do 'live' sessions when we have visitors. Also have a mono QHY5L 11 (currently a guide camera)  which could be used? but would only give mono images. 

No nothing about it so would appreciate any pointers of references to sources of info

Thanks

Russ

[carastro]

It doesn't do video as such, but it does do a fast looping feature if you Bin x 3 which is pretty much like live view so you can see Deep sky objects if you get the exposure right.  Not really suitable for Moon and planets though.

Carole 

[DoctorD]

Hi Russ

Many of us on here use CCD camera for Electronically Assisted Astronomy - usually exposures of upto 30s are used and are stacked real time.

No post processing is done, we see images emerge "real time" on the screen such as this:

It's possible to achieve a similar effect using your favourite capture program to constantly take 30s exposures and dropping these in a directory.

You can then use DeepSky Stacker Live to stack these on the fly and display the results - not as elegant as Starlight Live or the ATIK Infinity software but can be made to work.

HTH

 

Paul

[johnno]

Russ try Sharpcap with the QHY camera , it can do stacking or Firecapture, both should be good for Live sessions

http://www.sharpcap.co.uk/

http://www.firecapture.de/

[riklaunim]

1 hour ago, russp said:

Is there any software that would give video astromomy functions with a CCD colour camera - specifically a Atik314L+.  Whilst my set up works well for astrophotography (so goto mount etc etc)  it would be great to do 'live' sessions when we have visitors. Also have a mono QHY5L 11 (currently a guide camera)  which could be used? but would only give mono images.

 

Atik as a typical DS camera is better for longer exposures but with application that can stretch previewed frames, like Nebulosity, you can use it for "real time" preview of objects - you do a 15,30... seconds exposure, stretch the histogram and show that - there will be some of the DS objects visible (with a fast lens or telescope best).

 

With high gain planetary cameras like the QHY5L-II long exposures without cooling (and high gain) will be noisy but also high gain will bring out some of the DS to visibility at shorter exposures and without strong frame stretching. Apps like SharpCap can live-stack short exposed frames making the "live" preview clearer as more frames are stacked.

[Hibou]

On 3/15/2016 at 23:12, russp said:

Is there any software that would give video astronomy functions with a CCD colour camera - specifically a Atik314L+.  

If you already have the 314L+, you just have to wait for Atik to implement their Infinity live stacking application on their other cameras. (I suppose it's mainly for marketing reasons they haven't already done so :-) Perhaps you should write to Steve pointing out that Paul's SL-live already does that for cooled SX cameras. The readout time on the 314L+ is much slower than on the Infinity (a few seconds) but as Carol wrote, much faster with binning. And as Paul wrote, there is 3rd party live stacking software if you loop capture and save with Atik's excellent Capture application.

[shirva]

Try astro toaster, it works along with dss and was developed for use with dslr cameras