DIY enclosure for Lumenera LU070M

The title says it all. The first one is connected to the Peltier cooler, of course, it's not good enough to seal from all condensation, but it's good enough to have it cool down. Separate power supply socket.



Another one is just a simple box, good for day time purpose for solar imaging, to stay away from direct sun light.

No more sun even after 3:00pm

Yesterday, I needed to go out before 2:00pm and therefore, I have no access for the sun.

Today, I can return home at around 3:00pm, but then the sun was already blocked by the nearby construction site, that tower crane. Hopefully when the building work is finished, I may be able to see the sun for a longer time? Anyhow, the seeing will still be very bad.

Around 5 years ago, I can even do planets and even some limited deep sky imaging. But then around 2-3 years ago, I was more or less limited by lunar and solar imaging. Recently, solar imaging is in trouble.

What next? Will I be forced to give up indoor astronomy altogether?

iOptron Cube for the Night Sky

Cloud moving around tonight but that couldn't stop me from setting up the scope in front of the window. Simple compass north and level gives accurate GOTO on the moon and the saturn at the field at 24x.

I'm using the hacked side, and that quick release adapter which I've used for the scope attachment could slip. Luckily, it won't slip on normal usage, but when I called my kid to see through the eyepiece, they might push their eyes too hard on the eyepiece so that it slips.

Tracking was stable for visual observation just as expected, since it was stable enough for imaging.

So far I'm impressed by this little mount, really versatile and accurate enough for its purpose.

--

I've tried to do some planet imaging on the unofficial side, but then the adapter slips. I would rather say this is not the problem of the mount itself, and I guess if I'm using the official side with the dovetail, it should work.

Therefore, for indoor imaging purpose, this mount won't work for me since I've to use the unofficial side rather than the official dovetail saddle. As a result, I won't be able to do indoor planet imaging with this mount. And the direct implication to me is, I won't invest in another scope just for planet imaging since the unofficial side was even insufficient for the Ranger, not to say anything bigger.

Of course, I could attach another dovetail saddle to the unofficial side to solve the slipping problem, but I won't do so at the time being.

List of items that I want to get rid of...

Expected price in HKD without shipping:

1. 5" diameter heat absoring glass, ask for $50
2. Factory Enhanced Unistar Light: the Customization is done by Universal Astronomics, not by me, so that it can be used to support a C8 at medium power observation (up to around 100x), super portable at less than 2lb only, adapter available for 3/8" tripod. Come with an extra Japanese made GP compatible dovetail saddle. Ask for $1600 HKD, or $1400 HKD without the saddle.
3. Orion 100mm ED f/9 with tube rings, ask for $3500 HKD, can be used with the above mount. Get both at $4800 HKD.
   
4. 1.25" APM Herschel wedge with matching 1.25" B+W ND3 and polarizing filters, $1800 for the whole set, the perfect tool for serious white light solar observer.
   
5. Lumenera LU070M 1/3" 640x480 60fps 10-bit USB 2.0 black white camera, excellent for solar imaging, HKD $2700 each, I still have two on hand.
6. Shoestring Astronomy FCUSB, USB focusing controller compatible with JMI focusers, etc. Expect $500 HKD.
7. Sky Atlas 2000.0
   

Contact me if you're interested, actually, I'm willing to ship them except maybe the Orion 100ED f/9 since it's a bit too bulky for me to do so. Of course, I can arrange if there's a good potential buyer.

Canon 15x50 IS

Had been using my Canon 10x30 IS for some time, I really enjoy it. It's compact but it delivers very bright image considering its 3mm exit pupil. You know, it's on-par with my good old Pentax 10x50 PCF III in terms of brightness and I can usually see more with the help of the excellent IS.

Therefore, I'm always dreaming of a more powerful model. After selling much stuff, I have some paypal balance around. To transfer it to my bank account, it has quite a bad exchange rate, so it's wise to use it. Therefore, I've ordered a Canon 15x50 IS!

Once it arrives, I shall test how it compare with my existing Canon 10x30 IS in terms of capability and portability. I shall decide which one I should keep in long run.

On paper:

1. Canon 10x30 IS - 6 degrees true field of view (60 degrees apparent field), 10x power, 630g, 3mm exit pupil

2. Canon 15x50 IS - 4.5 degrees true field of view (67.5 degrees apparent field), 15x power, 1180g, 3.3mm exit pupil

At nearly double the weight, the verdict is pending testing. Also, I wonder if the IS would still be effective enough given the heavier weight and higher power. Really longing to try it out!

--

Received a piece of junk from ebay... cracking and broken here and there, full of mould, finger print and dust... it's a very poor abused kid.

Complained and will be returned to the seller tomorrow. I hope no one will buy it again, for it's truely junk...

Need to find another one later after the refund was completed.

Software Ready...

Just installed the following on my netbook:

1. Lumenera driver for my LU070M
2. K3CCDTools again for my LU070M
3. Driver for my iOptron mount
4. ASCOM Platform, ASCOM driver for my iOptron mount
5. Cartes du Ciel

All tested to work, now ready for solar imaging as well as comet hunting when the sky allows.

--

Found the c mount to 1.25" adapter with filter thread on ebay again, $21 USD shipped, not a bad deal. I will need this one in order to shoot in white light with my Herschel wedge... since I'll need to attach those ND3 and polarizer to the camera nosepiece.

The Lumenera LU070M barrel does not have filter thread.

20100611 Sun

Muddy sky, full of moving cloud, and the cloud never stop moving. Anyway, just a record.



I've rotated the telescope in its mounting ring so that it's more like for alt-az tracking. I've also moved the ring such that it is in great balance when used with the Solarmax 40 and BF10.

--
Sales of the Orion 100ED:

A potential buyer of my Orion 100ED + Unistar Light has contacted me this morning, we shall meet tomorrow morning to test the scope out. He will bring a tripod and I will buy a couple of eyepieces for the test.

Just wish that this nice scope would impress him, and I really want this excellent scope to have a good new home! If I successfully sold this scope finally, I will stay as such. Low inventory, only the most portable.

I shall attach the Unistar Light on the Orion 100ED tonight.

Dual scope setup for the cube

This is a "side-effect" of my recent hack, the cube can now carry two scopes at the same time, and it should allow better balance as well. As a quick test, I setup my Ranger on one side, and I setup my DSLR with a 100-400mm lens on the other side. Both are around 70mm in aperture, and the weigth is quite similar as well.

After rough balancing, I engaged the mount by tightening the black knob. Then, I align both side by adjusting the quick release plate which I've added to the black knob side. This quick release plate is so nice that you can swing around the pivot, and so it's enough for me to align both views.

Everything work as expected.

Of course, this setup is more for experiment than practical, since I won't use the cube for longer exposure. However, this should be nice for eclipse chasing! You can observe on one side and take snapshots on the other side.

I love this little cube even more!

20100606 Sun - Cube Refined

I've optimized the Cube based setup, again, picture tells the story better. I bought a small quick release plate, in which the plate can be rotated relative to the base. This plate is far lighter than the 410 head for such, and it's far lower profile and thus, the whole setup balance very nicely!

So, the scope could be attached easily and it's very stable.


Close up shot of the joint:
And the sky is better today, so the image quality tells. After seeing this image, I know that alt-az tracking of the Cube is great enough!

No need to look back. This setup is just right for me, it's lighter, more portable and stable enough for indoor solar imaging. With the hacking on the black side, the scope can point out of the window easily, I don't even need that offset plate which I've to used during the summer for indoor imaging with my LXD55.

--

Originally, I planned to buy a ball head for the black side. I checked that there're some good candidates from ebay, and so I went out to the local shops to compare the price. To my surprise, the ebay price is cheaper and it even includes shipping!

When I'm about to give up, I saw that quick release plate, and I think it should even work better since it's lighter and less complex. Therefore, I shall live with this plate at the time being, and I shall see if rotation is enough to align both sides or not. Such an alignment is useful when I use both ends for observation and imaging.

--

I will be passing my LXD55 to a local friend tonight, now knowing that the Cube will work for me, I feel more relax for the transaction.

No need to look back now!

Now, I'm saying goodbye to any heavier equipment formally. :-)

My heaviest scope is just 7lb (Orion 100ED) but it could be held with a 4lb mount (Unistar Light + Gitzo G106)!

First Light of iOptron Cube

This is the first time that my Cube is pointing to the sky.

And I've mounted the scope on the other side of the official dovetail via the hack which I've just done last night. And the devil is in the detail, the black knob cannot be engaged since the newly added mounting screw has a head which is too big! There, I've looked around my home to find a suitable "washer" to offset that, here I found a very nice plastic ring.



A picture tells a thousand words. Since my small ball head is just too small to mount my Ranger, I've mounted my Manfrotto 410 head there. It is strong but it's heavy as well. Therefore, I've to extend my tripod so that the whole thing will not tip over.



It works perfectly. Slewing is smooth and the scope was extended farther out, it reaches a lot of sky outside! However, it's a little bit late and so the sun was sinking low close to the newly constructed building, bad... the seeing becomes very poor therefore. Tracking is smooth and the sun keeps in its place virtually during I take my snapshots. Focusing will induce vibration but I'm using a NGF-CM and thus it's not a problem at all.

Since this is not the official side, I believe it could be better on the official side? Anyway, here's the result:



20100605 1518 (GMT+8), this does not come out as good as before, but I guess it's more like a problem of the sky condition rather than the mount or the tracking performance. Cloud keep moving around and seeing was extremely bad.

Therefore, I've to try more to know.

The 410 head is close the 3lb alone, plus the Ranger, the solarmax and the camera, the whole thing is more than 7lb but the performance of the Cube is good enough, I'd say... it's an excellent portable and economical mount indeed.

Solving the indoor usage problem of the iOptron Cube

It's not a solution but it's a workaround. What I'm trying to do is to put the scope on the other side! Some local folks have done that and I tried to do it as well, what they were trying to do is to put another scope or camera on the other side of the cub, but in my case, I want the telescope to reside on the other side since it will enable me to reach farther out!

Here's what I've done. First of all, drift a hole on the central of that black disc on the other side of the mount, that is, the engagement knob. It's easy to drill at the center with good accuracy, since it's recessed in the middle. The hole is not very big, around 12mm only and so you will need to decide which mounting screw is to be used. For me, I've chosen 1/4" which is rather like a standard for ball head. While 3/8" would be even better but I found that hole was not quite big enough, remember the screw head has to be small enough as well.


So, I placed a small 1/4" screw inside, it can sit fully within the hole, without hindering the knob to engage the mount.

Put on a ball head... this one is too small and it cannot hold any telescope, not even my now sold Borg 45ED II, so I will need to buy a bigger one soon.


To put the whole thing back to the Cube.


This side of the mount should have less loading, but for my light weighted Ranger at 3.5lb only , it's going to work.

The good thing is that, now I can put my Ranger to the other side of the mount, and it also reaches out more since the ball head is taller than the dovetail saddle! And a great side effect is that, the little cube can hold two telescopes (or one telescope, one camera) now, and it should balance better.

Quite elegant and easy to do.

Technical issue about the iOptron Cube

It's cloudy outside but the sun is strong enough to penetrate part of the cloud, so I pulled out my Cube for testing.

I found that if I put my cube in its "park position", when I ask it to slew to the Sun, the scope will go to the right side of the mount.

And since I'm trying to do indoor imaging through my south facing window, so if the mount can put the telescope on its left side, it should be far better for me. Is there any way that I can instruct the mount to point via the other side?

I've tried to slew the scope to the other side of the mount, but the software is "smart" enough to say that the scope is now pointing below the horizon...

Any idea or input would be highly appreciated.

Sanyo Eneloop

These are the best AA rechargeables that you can buy in the market. They hold charges surprisingly well, and so despite they're rated only at 2000mmAh, they last much longer than typical rechargeables.

I bought the first pack for my digital camera, but then I bought some more packs for other stuff like my Canon 10x30 IS, and later I bought some more to power my Firewire hubs which drives my DMK 31AF03 in the field. Now, I've sold my DMK and where shall I use these batteries? At the same time, my digital camera has less usage after I got my DSLR.

Yes, it's my newly acquired iOptron Cube! A local friend has tested it on rechargeables and they can last for 6 hours, and therefore, it's more than enough for my observation habbit and that makes it super portable as well, no more SLA battery.

Today I counted them all, and I've four packs of Eneloop at home. Two packs for my iOptron Cube, half pack for my Canon 10x30 IS, and one pack for my DC, and there're still two left for other purpose, like the toys of my kids.

Equipment changes tonight

Will do two things tonight:

1. Pass the 1.25" focuser to a friend, I bought that focuser in the hope to use some existing objective lenses, but it never realized. It's time to give it to someone else, I sold it at 40% of the original price despite it's virtually new. Despite it's made of plastic, it's better quality than many focusers these days. Attention was paid to the detail like a very well blacked interior, internal baffles, thicker plastic on the place where the set-screw is located, very nice padding to reduce any slack space between the draw tube and the focuser body.

2. Fetch a polarscope for my TG-SP II. This is a charity item as donated by a really good man from the local astronomical society, he passed away recently and his equipments were sold to set up a charity fund. I should have offered far cheaper price for this item but I did not. After getting this polarscope, my TG-SP II is now completed with the original wedge and the original polarscope.

I shall sell my DIY polarscope and mounting plate afterward.

At the same time, I've found a new owner for my G1415 and LXD55. I shall pass it to the new owner on this Sunday. I will continue to consolidate my astronomical stuff, to reduce my inventory to an absolute minimal, to keep only all those portable equipments, and only those I can use more often than those which were sitting idle all the time.

The iOptron SmartStar-G on Gitzo G106

On going to the Post Office to send my DMK 31AF03 to the US, I found that there is a very well stocked screw shop near my home. I bought a long M8 screw together with a few washers, and the iOptron is mounted to my Gitzo G106 successfully.

I placed my Ranger there, and it's a very stable setup. On focusing, the vibration would damp out at around 5 seconds, not bad. Slewing around is smooth and accurate, a good sign of excellent backlash compensation. It's cloudy outside so I couldn't really test it. I turned on the tracking and insert a high power eyepiece (185x), slew the scope to a terrestial target, watch it track. Tracking is pretty stable with some very minor vibration, I don't know whether it's induced by my eyes or by the tracking action itself. Focusing is easy since I've a NGF-CM, so focusing induce zero vibration to the setup.

I've yet to try it on solar imaging, but it looks promising right now.

Orion 100ED on Unistar Lighter + Gitzo G106

On selling my LXD55, I need to see if I still have a mount which can carry it, the situation is even worse since my Gitzo G1415 will be sold with the LXD55 and therefore, I will only have a small Gitzo G106 to use. The G1415 + Unistar should handle the Orion 100ED well since this combination can even hold a C8!

This morning, I pulled out everything to try. Yes, it works apparently and the bottom line is that, it will tip over or fall down by minimum breeze or even a light push. Then I insert a Pentax 40mm SMC XL into the focuser to test, at such a low power 22.5x, it's okay and the vibration induced by the focusing action would be totally damped out in around 5 seconds and with the help of a finger as shock aborber, it will stop nearly immediately.

This is use-able but not great, so I set the G106 to shorter height. It's a 4-section tripod and the shortest part has a very thin leg, so it makes sense to do that to stablize the whole setup.

Yes, it helps. So I pulled out my 13mm Nagler Type 6 for a test. This should be the highest power that I would use without tracking. It translates to 69x but with the huge field of view of the Nagler, it's perfectly okay. I further tighten the friction control knobs of the Unistar Light and it remains very useable.

Conclusion: I shall keep my Orion 100ED at the time being, and I shall further test it under the starry sky when possible.

First Impression of the iOptron SmartStar-G

The first impression is that, it's smaller than I imagined! If you know, astronomical gears are usually bigger than it's otherwise in picture. It's also lighter than I once thought, but it's heavy enough to give a feeling of serious stuff. Not exactly toy indeed.

I don't have a tripod for it, and my existing tripods do not work since it has a M8 screw in its base which is hard to match, I will need to find some additional hardware in order to use it. I have tried to put my Ranger on it, but it fails to balance unless I put a small counter weight on top of it. Slew the Ranger around shows zero problem, very precise and it looks good.

Tracking will begin once you slew to any object in the sky. The little cube assumes that you're starting from your home position, so it knows where it's pointing with the help of the GPS and the real time clock. Slew is quick and quiet - remember it's a relative term, so my reference point is my LXD55 and also a Nexstar mount, as well as a couple of Meade DS mounts which I've tried before.

The GPS is pretty quick, it puts itself in a correct location position before I realize that it might take time for the GPS to engage. Another plus.

I just did some general observaton by slewing to the sun, slewing to the moon at night, as well as some planets. They're supposingly in correct orientation in general, I've no way to tell since I cannot really mount a scope on it yet, and it's also cloudy outside, just as what you would expect when there's any new instrument coming in!

The only downside which I've found so far is that, given its home position, it will place the telescope side on the right, that means, it's the far side from my home window. That said, solar imaging would become harder. Of course, since this mount can be placed closer to the window, maybe it still viable? I shall test it soon.

So far, my impression is that, it's pretty portable but still solid enough. More portable even than my Takahashi TG-SP II, and its 8 * AA batteries compartment should be handy, a local folk tested that by using 8 * 1600mmAh rechargeable, the mount can run for over 6 hours! And that's more than enough for me as I usually stay around only 3 hours at most in a single observation session.

Finally, my mount arrives with a cracked screen. Luckily, it's insured:

Goodbye my LXD55 and the meaning behind

Yes, I finally managed to sell it, after a huge price slash :-)

My life style changes make me sell this one, and the recent "bad contact" problem of the Autostar triggered the price drop. I've ordered a iOptron GPS Cube for indoor solar imaging purpose. I've been going from alt-az tracking to equatorial tracking in the hope to push the quality further, but now I'm going the reverse route since I know that I'm not going to shoot much in high magnification because of the rapid construction work around my home building, my lovely home@walnut "observatory" which is, indeed, an open window from my "playing room".

Together with it, I'm going to pass the Gitzo G1415 along with the deal. This tripod has been serving me since I was using the excellent Giro + GiroDrive combination. It's my primary foundation for planet imaging, and again, I know that this is going to an end. Indoor planet imaging is no longer do-able for most of the time for it's even harder than solar imaging. When I sold my Giro + GiroDrive, I know it's finished. Another important duty of my G1415 is for my portable "C8 anywhere" project and it's a huge success as well. Of course, I'm not going out to the darker sky as much as before. All that means my G1415 has accomplished all its purpose with me, I really have to thank its excellent service - light weight, portable, excellent stability, versatility! :-)

Now, I wonder if I could use my Orion 100ED with my Unistar Light on a oh-so-light Gitzo G106 tripod, if not, I'm going to do another huge price slash for my Orion 100ED.

I will remain a solar "addict" with my coming iOptron GPS cube for indoor solar imaging, I will do some casual visual observation like before, and I will continue to do some toy planet and lunar imaging. Finally, some light weight wide field imaging with my TG-SP II plus DSLR, and if possible, to do eclipse chasing.

Only time will tell, I might go for a C5 again for planet imaging later.

The miscellaneous stuff to the mount and tripod, and they are to be handed to the new owner together:



This is also part of the reason why I've to sell it. It's heavy to me, it's bulky so that I only managed to get it out once or twice. And it's so easy to miss one or two parts.

--

I'm trying to sell my Orion 100ED including the rings at $3300 HKD, let me know if you're interested. This is an excellent telescope, light weight and portable despite you might imagine it's not. A Unistar Light can be offered at the same time at $1200 HKD additional. Notice that this special offer is valid for my local Hong Kong blog viewer ONLY.

20100526 Sun

My usual setup, nothing special today, that active region (AR1072) remains small and it seems dying down as well.

20100525 Fun with the moon

Didn't really try the Lumenera on the moon, got a chance tonight.

First up is a mosaic stitched by 4 frames with Tele Vue Ranger + 2x barlows.

And then try to push the power up with a 5x Powermate:

Finally, a true prime focus shot without any barlows:

20100525 Sun

I've mounted my Ranger upside down today, and it has better balance and the sun arrives my view earlier! A good strategy indeed.



White Light with APM Herschel Wedge, B+W 1.25" ND3, Generic green filter.

H-alpha with Solarmax 40 and BF10.

Both taken with the Ranger and NGF-CM.

1452 (GMT+8):-


1505 (GMT+8):-


1519 (GMT+8):-


Sorry for my dusty CCD.

20100524 Sun

Seeing 3-4/10, transparency 8/10, a rare blue sky!

1524 (GMT+8):-

23 May 2010 Moon with DSLR

Canon 450D in movie mode, Canon 100-400mm at 400mm and Kenko 2x. Seeing 2/10, transparency 7/10.

2251 (GMT+8), 5x crop:


2253 (GMT+8), no crop:


2255 (GMT+8), 5x crop:


Seems like the compression is too much, so the stacked image is kind of soft.

20100521 Sun

Today I setup my gears earlier so as to avoid the sun falling into the shadow of that crane! I found that the sun was partially blocked by the window frame, however, but I can be solved by waiting a few minutes. So the feasible time window is quite short indeed.

The long filament is still around, and there're some really nice prominences. The Autostar still works today, but some ugly characters appear randomly despite they do not affect the functionality of the mount.

1516 (GMT+8), full disc with reducer:-


1519 (GMT+8), closeup with reducer + 2x barlows, I should have removed that reducer first, and this one is not focused accurately:-


1521 (GMT+8), closeup with reducer + 2x barlows, I should have removed that reducer first, and this one is not focused accurately:-

Oops... 20100520 Sun

A picture says it all... the sun is "eclipsed" by a crane from a nearby construction site! In the summer, the sun used to be in a poor location from inside my home, I can workaround this problem by using an offset plate on my LXD55, however, I found that the active construction work around my home is finally invading my indoor imaging site!

1538 (GMT+8):-


I love that long filament...!

There's a good news to me, my Autostar works again... I believe the HBX cable has some problem, maybe some bad contact somewhere.

iOptron SmartStar-G

I was told that it's shipped with tracking number: CP518870465US.

The seller did international priority with insurance and thus, I will probably have to pick it up from Yau Ma Tei central post office. I expect that it will arrive next week, probably at the time during the preparation of my Hebrew final examination.

Anyway, I shall take it after my Hebrew examination day, and then to send the cable modem back to the ISP on the same day. A day of local travelling.

This mount should replace my LXD55, once it arrives and after testing, I shall detach the motors and sell them independently.

This mount should be far more portable than the LXD55, for it requires no counter weight, and it's more compact to take around. It does not have a similar loading capacity, but then I don't need it except with my Orion 100ED.

Therefore, the new use cases analysis of my stuff would be:

1. Indoor solar imaging: Cube mount + Ranger + Solarmax 40/BF10 + Lumenera
2. Outdoor solar imaging: Takahashi TGSP-II + Ranger + Solarmax 40/BF10 + Lumenera
3. Deep sky observation: Unistar Lighter + Orion 100ED
4. Wide field imaging: Takahashi TGSP-II + Canon 450D
5. Outdoor ad hoc observation events: Cube mount + Ranger

Just a record: Lunar Occultation with Venus

went out as planned, just less stuff as the sky was totally white, full of cloud.

Armed with my Canon 450D plus 100-400mm, and a Canon 10x30 IS for my daughters Alby and Almy, we walked for around 15 minutes. And on the way to our destination, we managed to see the Moon with Venus on and off. We even witness the first contact and the second contact... but then no more view afterward.

Due to the unpromising sky condition, I didn't even bring my tripod, so these are the best shot processed to bring out more detail at the expense of noise.





Alby and Almy :-)


Alby managed to use the 10x30 IS by herself without problem, but Almy had a hard time pointing it to the target, anyway, they both enjoy the visual view more. Yes, the Moon and the Venus is big enough and bright enough.

Lunar Occultation with Venus

http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Space/StarShine/AstroEvent/LunarOccultationofVenus/e_starshine_ae_ocu_venus.htm

Since my wife will be working and my domestic helper will be off, I will need to take both kids with me. I won't bring too much stuff and I can't go too far. And it's also dinner time. Given all these parameters, I would:

1. Go to a place where it's close to my home, probably here:


檢視較大的地圖

This is where I took my partial eclipsed sunset last time, I can get there within 15 minutes walk.

2. I shall bring my Canon 450D + Kenko 2x + Canon 100-400mm to shoot on a short tripod, it's portable enough to bring with my kids. The Kenko 2x might be or might not be used.

3. I shall bring also my Canon 10x30 IS for some visual observation.

This is my tentative plan... and of course, before all these I will have to cook dinner and to eat earlier with the kids at home!

20100509 Sun

Seeing 2/10, transparency 5/10, cloud moving rapidly around, strong wind blowing occasionally.

Ranger with NGF-CM + reducer, Solarmax 40 with BF10, Meade LXD55 with a long offset plate, Lumenera LU070M with K3CCDTools.

1537 (GMT+8):-


I didn't do this kind of shots recently since the bigger dynamic range of the Lumenera can do it all at once, 1538 (GMT+8):-


Notice that the amount of detail in the first shot is more than the second one, since the shutter speed is faster and therefore, it freezes seeing better. So, I really have little reason to take a longer exposure shot for the prominences.

20100503 Sun

My head is still dizzy but that could not stop me from solar imaging. Today, I pulled out my long offset plate which would only be used during summer when the sun is in a bad position from inside my home. The LXD55 still works flawlessly, except the Autostar shows nothing on the screen... it tracks and it slews around without problem.

Full disc was taken with the reducer, and close-up were obtained by adding a 5x Powermate on top of the reducer, not exactly the best combination but it's just easier to setup. You know, I'm even too lazy to remove the BF10 and unscrew the reducer from its nosepiece... another point is that, the Powermate is close to parfocal, and so by keeping the reducer in place, the amount of re-focusing would be negligible, a quick fix is enough with my NGF-CM.

AR1067 and AR1068 can be seen easily.

1517 (GMT+8):-


1520 (GMT+8):-


1521 (GMT+8):-


1529 (GMT+8):-

20100502 Sun

I'm sick today, but I cannot resist pulling out my telescope for a short observation session. Actually, setting up and tearing down everything means 15 minutes to me, so there's no reason not to do so.



Cloud was moving in and out, but after stacking (averaging), they were all gone. Taken at 1519 (GMT+8).

A few days ago my Autostar has some strange characters coming up on the display, feels like Japanese or so... I realized that it could be software issue and then I tried to upgrade the firmware to see if it can fix the problem... after upgrading, no more display, so I guess it's hardware issue.

Anyway, I can still press a few MODE and then press ENTER to enable tracking. That's enough for me, I don't need GOTO for the sun, I just need tracking and simple slewing and it works.

A dream dual purpose camera

For solar/lunar/planetary imaging, you need a fast frame rate camera with a smaller chip and less pixels.

For deep sky imaging, you need a camera with cooling with a bigger chip and more pixels.

But you don't often see these two coming together, it is because if you want high frame rate, you will need to give up the amount of pixels or else the data rate would be too high so that you will be forced to give up on the frame rate.

To solve this problem, the best thing is to have ROI (Region of Interest) and it is something like the video mode of the Canon 550D, in that mode, you are capturing only the center portion of your CCD under high frame rate. Lumenera did support this by hardware, and the frame rate can actually increase with a smaller ROI. So, this could be a great starting point for such a dual purpose camera. The ROI of DMK is another story, since it's just software cropping, the frame rate would be the same with this kind of cropping.

Since I still have a couple of Lumenera LU070M with me, I might want to add Peltier cooling to one of them? Since it's a board version camera, adding a cooler would be easier and I actually have a Peltier chip with a matching cooling fan around sitting idle. So, the first job is to find a suitable case for it! Let's see what I would have!

20100501 Sun

Sunny holiday! Went out to play with the kids and after lunch, we're home... there's still plenty of sunshine and so I pulled out my solar gear to have a snapshot. there're some activities here and there, nice sun!

1556 (GMT+8):-



Taken with the Lumenera, since my registered K3CCD is ready!

K3CCDTools Registered and DMK for sales

Just received the notification and now I will mainly use my Lumenera LU070M for solar imaging. The DMK 31AF03 still has its unique position since it has higher pixel density and thus, it delivers more spatial resolution in the same setting.

Anyway, my DMK 31AF03 is not going to be used as often as before, just wonder if any one is interested?

I can offer it at $520 USD shipped, so you save over $200 USD for a new one, and as a bonus, I can include a 1394 powered HUBS with a DIY 8AA battery box for free so that you could use the DMK even with 4-pin 1394 port.

20100424 Sun

Seeing 3/10, transparency 4/10. Low solar activity, minor surface detail and lack of any big prominences. Taken with my DMK 31AF03, since the software for my Lumenera is still pending registration.

Full disc with reducer:

1517 (GMT+8):-


1518 (GMT+8):-



Close up with 2x barlows:

1521 (GMT+8):-

Registering K3CCDTools

http://www.pk3.org/Astro/index.htm?k3ccdtools.htm

My internet connection gets more stable now and so I just did the registration online through paypal, but I realized that it took maybe up to two days to get the registration done.

I will have to use my DMK again today, since the K3CCD trial period was expired during the cloudy days.

20100419 Sun

The sun is relatively featureless today, lack of active region, QRF or prominences... My K3CCD was expired during the cloudy days, so I've to use my DMK again, and I shall register my K3CCD soon, but my internet connection is too unstable for me to do this at the time being.

1524 (GMT+8):-


1525 (GMT+8), exposure pushed to show prominences better:-


Just a record.

20100412 Sun

It has been cloudy for very long, my K3CCDTool is about to expire. I tried to see if it works with my DMK, but it seems not. It's on the menu, but the image just won't show up. Anyway, it's probably the best deal to support my Lumenera, and I'm going to register in a couple of days.

Summer is coming and the sun is moving to a location such that I've to mount my telescope via an offset plate, the mount is not perfectly balance in that location but it works since the telescope is light. The sun will keep moving to a worse position until the next Fall.

The Lumenera continue to shine because of its 12-bit capability, the prominence on the right side is fantastically connect to the filament in one single exposure (stacked).

1505 (GMT+8):-

Enough? Enough!

When will we have enough equipment and stop looking for new stuff?

I guess when I have more observation time, I will then have less time to look around for new equipments.

Of course, it's an oversimplified story. With the rapid development of new technology, new equipment is never enough. New CCD, new filter technology, new coating, higher precision mount, etc.

Anyway, if I have more time to observe, the time for "day dreaming" will reduce for sure.

Astromart

I just realized that my account was disabled unless I pay $12, one dollar per month is not unreasonable but...

1. Cloudynights.com is free, and you even get a discount if you buy from astronomics

2. The value of astromart comes from the users, NOT the website itself. No matter how great is the website, if you have no user, it didn't worth a single penny. If we don't pay that $12, their website will then became an empty place. What would be their value by then?

3. To offer something for free at first in order to gather a huge user base and then ask the users to pay, it seems totally unfair at least to the initial user base as they were helping to try out the website, to submit user rating, to make it useful for everybody, etc.

Imagine the government would let you build a house in a land for free but after several years, the government said if you don't pay for the land, you should be kicked away from your house, reasonable?

I'm not going to pay, I really want to see when the number of users drop, how could it go on?

--

After around one month, I've finally to pay the astromart tax on second hand equipments, since it seems there's no better alternative right now.

Now I can only hope that it won't charge me again quickly.