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Digital viewfinder setup

ulugeyik

By ulugeyik
in Getting Started With Imaging

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ulugeyik

ulugeyik

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I have purchased a SVBONY SV 105 camera to use with my Heritage 130P dobsonian. I know that the camera is not a great camera but the main reason for this purchase was to allow my kids and their friends (~6-7 y/o's) to see things through a screen rather than trying to get all of them to be calm enough to look through the telescope without bumping it. The second reason was to start giving a quick try to basic planetary imaging but that is a task for later.
I tried to use a laptop as the main viewing screen using oacapture (on Linux) and fiddled a bit with the exposure time (~10ms to ~500ms) and brightness adjustment. It is not working well. I suspect that the main reason is that I am unable to tune the settings well. It is not practical with this mount to use an eye-piece, find the object, remove the eye-piece and switch to the camera. It moves. I should be able to use the screen to locate the object.

Is there an advisable set of settings to use for this purpose? Or perhaps a good piece of software (preferably linux compatible and/or can run on wine) that tries to estimate them? Do any of you use cameras like this for outreach on this type of basic mounts/set-ups?

PS: I admit, I am a bit impatient when working with optics at home since I am used to having professional optics and all the necessary gadgets around me (I run a research group in photonics) :)

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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Hi

The first thing to do is establish where the telescope trusses need to be to reach focus with your imaging device. It is unlikely to be the same as for using an eyepiece. I have found I need to drop the trusses within .5-1 inch in order to reach focus. Practice on the Moon.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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You might find that camera works on an android device, if you have one, there are several webcam apps.

Locating objects will depend on how sensitive the sensor is and may not be possible to pick up stars, it will be a try it and see.

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beka

beka

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Hi ulugeyik,

Looking up your camera it looks like it will only work for bright objects like planets. I guess bright stars will be visible if you have reason to look at them. On Linux I have used wxAstroCapture though it seems dated and Ekos from the INDI project. Webcam software like Cheese might might also work. Regarding locating and centering a device like this Flip Mirror might be useful though it looks to be a little pricey.

Best

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ulugeyik

ulugeyik

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Thank you. The flip mirror is pricey but makes good sense. I  will keep that in mind.

Planets and moon are the main goal with this telescope. At that age, these kids are not very impressed by double stars, blurry patches that I claim are galaxies, nebulae etc.

I had absolutely no idea that kstars came with a control/observation software (Ekos is installed with kstars). Thanks!

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Cornelius Varley

Cornelius Varley

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2 hours ago, beka said:

Hi ulugeyik,

Looking up your camera it looks like it will only work for bright objects like planets. I guess bright stars will be visible if you have reason to look at them. On Linux I have used wxAstroCapture though it seems dated and Ekos from the INDI project. Webcam software like Cheese might might also work. Regarding locating and centering a device like this Flip Mirror might be useful though it looks to be a little pricey.

Best

A flip mirror would not work with a reflector, you wouldn't be able to reach focus.

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Cosmic Geoff

Cosmic Geoff

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Seems that you are rapidly learning the reality of trying to make video astronomy work. ?

There is more software available for Windows (Win7 is probably more suited than Win10) than for Linux etc. 

To re-find bright objects you need a good finder eg a 9x50, accurately aligned. For dim objects you really need a flip mirror which as somebody pointed out will not work with your scope.   With a Dob mount the task will be nearly impossible anyway because of the small field of view and the Earth's rotation.

Check the forum's Video Astronomy section.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
ulugeyik

ulugeyik

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On 08/08/2018 at 09:39, happy-kat said:

"I have found I need to drop the trusses within .5-1 inch in order to reach focus. Practice on the Moon."

Thanks. I have finally had time to try this out again. Indeed, dropping the trusses was necessary. My former method worked fine at distant lights but it was not proper focus. I am able to use this for demonstration to kids (without tracking so they see the objects drift on the screen and I get to explain why) and even to record, align and stack video.  Thanks.

Here are my first two attempts at aligning/stacking (PIPP, Autostakker!2 and gimp on Linux). Moon is with a barlow 2X since I could not attach my OD filter and oacapture did not let me go  below 10ms exposure , it was saturating. Saturn is without the barlow. Nothing fancy but can awe young kids :)

oaCapture-20180820-212_g4_ap528_conv.png

saturn1.png

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brickman7

brickman7

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On 08/08/2018 at 02:30, ulugeyik said:

I have purchased a SVBONY SV 105 camera to use with my Heritage 130P dobsonian. I know that the camera is not a great camera but the main reason for this purchase was to allow my kids and their friends (~6-7 y/o's) to see things through a screen rather than trying to get all of them to be calm enough to look through the telescope without bumping it. The second reason was to start giving a quick try to basic planetary imaging but that is a task for later.
I tried to use a laptop as the main viewing screen using oacapture (on Linux) and fiddled a bit with the exposure time (~10ms to ~500ms) and brightness adjustment. It is not working well. I suspect that the main reason is that I am unable to tune the settings well. It is not practical with this mount to use an eye-piece, find the object, remove the eye-piece and switch to the camera. It moves. I should be able to use the screen to locate the object.

Is there an advisable set of settings to use for this purpose? Or perhaps a good piece of software (preferably linux compatible and/or can run on wine) that tries to estimate them? Do any of you use cameras like this for outreach on this type of basic mounts/set-ups?

PS: I admit, I am a bit impatient when working with optics at home since I am used to having professional optics and all the necessary gadgets around me (I run a research group in photonics) :)

This may be a Linux issue...

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Radioamateur

Radioamateur

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On 08/08/2018 at 13:48, Cornelius Varley said:

A flip mirror would not work with a reflector, you wouldn't be able to reach focus.

Could he reach focus with a Baader Q-turret?

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/accessories/optical-accessories/eyepieces/q-turret-classic-ortho-plossl/q-turret-okularrevolver-4-fach.html

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