The Live Experience with C6/Hyperstar/Ultrastar/Starlight Live

[Jim Smith]

I thought I would try capture the "observing at the laptop" experience for those yet to try video astronomy.

Paul suggested I try OBS Studio to capture a video. I have done that and it is here...

I have not done any editing so you are seeing things in real time, just as they appear on the screen. I start looking at M2, followed by M15, then M31. I start off with a 1 second exposure time, adjusting it to 5 seconds when we get to M31. To centre M31 I used the arrow keys on the mount hand controller, but I could have done it with the arrow keys in SkySafari. My Macbook screen resolution is 1200x800 so I don't get to see the full resolution of the camera unless I save an image.

[andyboy1970]

Excellent video. Very similar to the eyepiece view before stacking of course.

[Pete Presland]

Thanks for sharing that video. I have always wondered what the "real time" view would be like, it's very impressive.

[Paul81]

Fantastic video and really shows what EAA observing is all about!

[RobertI]

Couldn't be much easier could it?! Fantastic video. ?

[Chris]

Great video, seriously impressive!

[DoctorD]

Hi Jim

Fantastic video - looks like the C6/Hyperstar/Ultrastar has a really useful sensitivity and FoV.

I think it would be great for Ha wide field if you have a filter although longer exposures would be necessary.

Your work flow looks very similar to mine - I've also got Astrometry.net set up on my Mac so I can solve and sync to an image then recentre (which works most of the time!)

Glad that OBS worked for you - another great piece of free software along with StarLight Live.

CS

Paul

[Jim Smith]

I suppose another part of the video astronomy experience is setting up the equipment. Here are some snaps of the set-up I use. It takes me about 15 miinutes to get everything mounted, connected and ready; and about 10 minutes to put it away.  The mount lives on the pier and I don't usually have to realign it after parking from the previous session.

I refocus at the beginning of each session. The Bahtinov mask seems to work just fine perched on the end of the dew shield.

I have carefully aligned the 80mm refractor with the C6 so it acts as my finder/alignment scope.

[DoctorD]

Hi Jim

Nice to see  your set up - a permanent pier must be a real advantage.

I have my scope and mount set up in the garage and move it out to marks on my drive so can be set up in about 15 mins also, however, I find that the polar alignment is never quite right and I cannot be bothered with drift alignment as I don't think it's necessary for EAA. (Quite a handful with the C8 on board!).

I usually set up with the Macbook alongside the scope then move indoors with a 10m USB extension. I've recently been testing a 150' CAT-5 to USB extender off *-Bay with a 15m CAT-6 flexible cable, which seems to work quite well, although I have noticed that the download speed seems to have suffered (can still manage 1s exposures). I've yet to test  this at low temperatures which is where my 10m USB cable used to fail.

CS

 

Paul