Set up for a newbie?

[Kirby301]

Hi all,

I'm turning my attention to this near live astronomy, having the view on a screen rather than looking into an eye piece.

I did have a read a while back about video astronomy and the one thing I remember was a camera called samsung scb2000. I used to look on ebay but there were very few at the time. 

I decided to have a peek on ebay yesterday and there was a used one ending soon. I put an offer in half expecting it to automatically increase out of my maximum bid.

It didn't, half hour later I won the camera for a pricely sum of £12.50 + £5.95 p&p.

Now, I currently only have a pair of binoculars and a skywatcher heritage 130p telescope, I know these ain't gonna work.

So my question is what other equipment do I need?

Most of the time I will be observing from my back garden, but sometimes I will venture out to more darker skies. Is bigger still better by way of aperture? Some areas I plan to go are walks up hills and away from car parks. So a more grab and go type of set up? 

I have a laptop and a tablet, i guess the laptop is the better of the two?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

If I were you I would fit the camera to the heritage 130, connect the camera to the laptop and see what you get.  At the very least this will answer questions which you have not explicitly posed in your post.

Why do you think the Heritage 130p is not going to work? It is a respectable scope, but might need re-mounting on a tracking or GoTo mount.

Can you get the camera to reach focus?

Is the camera adequate or would something newer work better?

You can load any software you need on a Wondows laptop. You will need some capture software, e.g. Sharpcap.

[stash_old]

one of these for a start as trying to change the camera settings is not possible via any software (last time i used one 3yrs ago) plus you dont keep knocking the camera using the settings menu on the back.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/264256745408?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=264256745408&targetid=857081491170&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046219&poi=&campaignid=7412990371&mkgroupid=90084087802&rlsatarget=pla-857081491170&abcId=1139366&merchantid=118983448&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgebwBRDnARIsAE3eZjQT199GoyI1oJV37cW9fUJrVwzgkPy1SHtPf74IcbtC4BXTYG82w0caAgQOEALw_wcB

The  correct   t adapter .

12v batter supply and power cables - or the multi signal and power cable used in CCTV. Plus mount power if using GOTO.

Analogue to digital adapter to connect to Laptop and be able to capture images- be careful a lot are rubbish and create Windows driver problems or a Display monitor for no laptop and just viewing via monitor.  The later is the most straight forward way.  

BNC cables and connectors.

For short captures (< 20sec) using the internal Samsung stacking an AZ Goto mount will do or just star hop on manual AZ. But dont expect first class award winning photo's (not that is a problem with EEVA) or Deep Deep Space objects.

Just watch your spending (do costings first) as the little items could soone add up and maybe it would be better to get a Digital camera or use a normal DSLR. Look at the second hand market 🙂

 

[Kirby301]

Thanks for your replies.

I will definitely try the camera out first on the heritage before spending on a tracking mount.

I didn't mean to say the heritage wasn't a good enough telescope (its a dam good telescope especially for the price), just that the mount wouldn't be able to track anything I point the telescope at.

So, I would need sharpcap as software.

I would need a c mount adaptor to put the camera into the focus tube, a power cable, a bnc to rca cable, is the analogue to digital adaptor also known as a video grabber? Any recomendations on one that works? and a utc controller.

Is this enough to get a view from the camera in the telescope on to the screen of a laptop?

Thanks for your help.

[happy-kat]

If the camera can be charged separate to the data port then why not use the tablet, if the camera is UNC supporting then it could possibly work on an Android tablet, you'd need a OTG to USB connector.

You'll need to drop the heritage trusses about 1 inch to achieve focus.

The heritage has a standard fitting so the telescope tube will fit on many astro mounts.

[Kirby301]

Thanks for your reply.

I haven't ruled out the tablet, I don't know if it is possible?

I'm not very good with electronics so it mostly goes over my head.

Is the data port where the bnc to rca cable comes out. If so, there is the data port and then a separate port for the power?

A quick search says 1/4"-20 unc (20 thread). Is that compatible or is it something totally different?

The otg to USB adaptor is easy enough to get hold of.

Thanks for the heads up about moving the truss to reach focus. That could save a lot of head scratching!

This is a picture of what the back of mine looks like, it is not my photo I'm just using it for reference. I haven't received mine yet.

 

 

 

 

[Bobby1970]

I may be wrong, and apologies to all of I have missed it. 

But, won't a usb capture device be needed? To view and/or capture an image on the laptop??

 

[happy-kat]

That looks like a coax cable port. I didn't realise that the samsung scb2000 wasn't USB enabled. Do you have a link to what you've bought please?

[Bobby1970]

I am pretty certain the OP will need the following:-

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073ZKHSY7/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_i_shIhEb7JBFA83

And

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I7XV5IS/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_i_ziIhEb7H9W1TE

The connector on the rear is 

A BNC I believe. 

These are the two items I got for use with my SBC2000

Edited January 14, 2020 by Bobby1970

[R26 oldtimer]

The sbc2000 is an analogue camera. It connects via bnc to rca cable directly to a TV monitor. Or you can use a frame grabber and connect it to a pc with sharpcap

[Kirby301]

This is the camera

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-SCB-2000-CCTV-Camera-c-w-Lense/264587106120?hash=item3d9a9ed748:g:FeYAAOSww0ZdwSTb#vi__app-cvip-panel

I shall order the frame grabber, BBC cable and DC plug.

That should be enough to see if it works shouldn't it?

I've already ordered a cmount nose which comes with a free 0.5 reducer.

[Bobby1970]

9 minutes ago, Kirby301 said:

This is the camera

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-SCB-2000-CCTV-Camera-c-w-Lense/264587106120?hash=item3d9a9ed748:g:FeYAAOSww0ZdwSTb#vi__app-cvip-panel

I shall order the frame grabber, BBC cable and DC plug.

That should be enough to see if it works shouldn't it?

I've already ordered a cmount nose which comes with a free 0.5 reducer.

When I bought mine (I got two for a tenner 🙂 ) the first thing I did was stick 12v across the terminals to make sure there was some sort of life in them. The led on the back lit up so it looked like a promising start  Lol

You will definitely need the BNC to RCA cable. You could in theory plug this into a monitor/TV  I believe, just for viewing only. 

If you want to capture an image, you will need the video grabber. 

I also took mine apart and removed the built in filter in front of the sensor. Supposed to improve things. 

I stand ready to be corrected if any of this is wrong. But it's what I did. 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Bobby1970

[Kirby301]

The things I've read about the near live view is that you can see fainter that your eyes wouldn't be able to see, maybe through light pollution.

Is this through simply viewing or stacking images?

[Bobby1970]

I found the best results with the few times I have used mine was using Sharpcap live stacking feature. 

You sort of gradually see the image improving as tie software takes, for example a 5 or 10 second exposure and stacks it. Once you have a few minutes worth more and more detail becomes apparent. 

 

[Kirby301]

I will have to learn how to use sharpcap now, while I wait for my bits and pieces to arrive.

 

[Kirby301]

My camera has arrived, so has my dc plug and bnc to rca cable. I'm still waiting on the video grabber so that I can play with sharpcap.

First of all I had to decapitate the Jack off of the plug and strip the cables to expose some wires, I should of crimped some connectors on at this point but didn't know which size to buy, what size fits? I looped the wires and tightened down the screws. A quick test and the green light at the back illuminated!

I then tried simply plugging the rca into the back of the TV but this didn't work, I then put it into a scart that I used for an old Wii console and the camera view came up on the screen.

Now apart from learning how to use sharpcap I have the menu system in the samsung to learn too!

What's the recommended settings?

[Kirby301]

[Bobby1970]

I would suggest having a read of:-

 

https://sites.google.com/site/cloudybluesphere/astronomy/gallery/camera-settings

 

It says its for a Samsung SCB435 but the settings will still be the same or very similar.

 

HTH

[stash_old]

NOTE search this site for settings should still be there. Starting point 

 

NOTE - Samsung camera does it own "Stacking" 

NOTE Sharpcap does not seem to like a lot of frame grabbers and getting a Windows driver is a nightmare in my experience sometimes

[Bobby1970]

NOTE to the OP

 

If you are concerned about the image grabber not working, the one I shared the link to from Amazon works fine with mine. 🙂

 

HTH

[Kirby301]

34 minutes ago, Bobby1970 said:

NOTE to the OP

 

If you are concerned about the image grabber not working, the one I shared the link to from Amazon works fine with mine. 🙂

 

HTH

I have ordered the same one that you have linked to, just from a different seller as it was a little cheaper but it's going to arrive sooner too, hopefully by Saturday.

43 minutes ago, stash_old said:

NOTE search this site for settings should still be there. Starting point 

 

NOTE - Samsung camera does it own "Stacking" 

NOTE Sharpcap does not seem to like a lot of frame grabbers and getting a Windows driver is a nightmare in my experience sometimes

Does that mean if I only used a monitor the camera would automatically stack each video on top of each other internally.

Example - I set the exposure at 1 second, every second the video stacks on top of the previous, giving a little more detail each time?

[stash_old]

17 hours ago, Kirby301 said:

I have ordered the same one that you have linked to, just from a different seller as it was a little cheaper but it's going to arrive sooner too, hopefully by Saturday.

Does that mean if I only used a monitor the camera would automatically stack each video on top of each other internally.

Example - I set the exposure at 1 second, every second the video stacks on top of the previous, giving a little more detail each time?

No but using the SSDR,exposure etc and SNR setting will give you a better image and pick up more detail.  Only something like Sharpcap etc will stack individual frames  (so 20 x 1 secs ).

Also you could improve things by removing the IR filter .

 Dont expect miracles from Analogue set ups but they are simple to use,quick to set up and fun. 🙂

[Kirby301]

It's all a learning curve, something new to try once the rain stops!

[Kirby301]

The video grabber came yesterday so I decided to see if it worked.

I managed to find the scb2000 under the OEM camera, after playing in the side bar I managed to get a view of the setting menu on the screen.

However, I put the scb2000 in the scope but no stars came up onto the screen, I centralized stars into the middle of the eyepiece, I tried to focus using the truss of the heritage 130p, all to no avail.

Any ideas?

[stash_old]

Did you do a long focus test during the day and could you focus ?- and note the focus settings (mark focuser). ?

If you were successful with the above then it should be a simple (LOL) task of just playing with the Exp,SSDR,SSNR until you see a star. Remember by the time you have changed something the star(s) would have moved if you are manually mounted.

If possible try a fixed earth object as far as possible from you and just try and get the settings/focus correct- remember if you are swapping the camera for an eye piece the focus will be out. I used the finder , with the finder view and OTA aligned ,to pick a object.

Plus "slowly slowy catachy monkey" with settings allow for settling after each change.

Good luck