10 replies to this topic

[24Free61]

Straight out, they talk about beginners, I'm a beginer at being a beginer. I got a DS2114 a couple of months ago and it came with a camara. Nothing on the box or supplied paperwork identifies the type of camara other than a CCD with a USB cable. I have looked through all the Meade catalog's etc and have been unable to identify it. It also does not explain how to use it. I have it up and can take some pic's with it, but that's taking the lens out and inserting the camara which requires re-focusing. Although I did get several fairly good pic's of the moon, I don't get much else. Also, the camara has what looks like stars all over my laptop screen using the monitoring screen. The stars, or what I would call noise is so bad, I can't see any of the star's or planets for the noise. I don't know if I'm doing this right or not. Can anyone explain to this old dummy how to do this?

Don

[jim_marsh]

Hi Don!!

  I think you scared many into not answering because of the scope of your questions and depth of
the answers!! I think what you are seeing is stelar dust, and remnants of the "Big Bang", plus
a few aliens!!... All done kidding.... Ok... I have a true feeling you are for one thing... ahead of
the game... as some seem to not even be able to get it to work... I do hope you understand that
for one thing.. the CCD imaging chip is not nearly as sensitive as your eye... most think it sees better
because of the ability to "turn up the gain" for one thing. This is not true.. It could also be said...
"Turn up the distortion"... A good way to explain that is... I have a hearing problem... Many ask..
Why not get hearing aids?... The hearing I have is very distorted... turning up the volume results in
turning up the distortion... Understand?... Another point... Most images shown are a result of many
single images stacked together...  adding detail and brightness to result in a usable image...
Getting a lunar image is a great thing!!.. The brightness of the moon makes it easy to see on a laptop
screen... But looking in the direction of Jupiter... nothing is seen on the laptop screen!!.. Your eye is
much more able to adjust to the low light and resolve an image than the CCD chip is... I can explain an
easy way to help get sharp images of an object you can't see on the laptop screen if you are still
interested and following this thread.. and have not given up...

God Bless!!
jim

[24Free61]

Jim;

I'll take any and all help I can get. I tell everybody I'm a beginning beginer. Amature is an extreemly advanced person. So I take all the help and sudjestions anyone will give me.

Don

[Philip Pugh]

It sounds as if you have a Meade LPI. I've never had one and to be honest I haven't heard many good reports. If you are a total beginner, it may be easier to use a compact digital camera instead. OK you won't get classic shots that win magazine prizes but this is what you can do with a bit of practice:

http://philippugh.fo...alleryMenu.html

[Dave]

If it is a Meade LPI then it is a nice little camera that will allow you to get fairly good results of the planets and the moon.

Here is a picture of Saturn I took 5 years ago, about 6 months after getting the LPI.

[Tony]

I've been happy with the LPI... it takes some practice to refine your settings to gt good results, but it does give pretty nice images of Jupiter, Saturn and moon. Mars is a challenge as its not as large a target. I did get the polar caps last time around. On Jupiter and Saturn, I have found tht taking 1500 or more images and setting the acceptance/rejection rate to save only the best 20% results in a less smeared image to process. I use the sharpen filter and try to take as dim an image as I can reasonably see... that is shortest exposure seems to work better than longer ones. Focusing is a real challenge... need to do that so its bright enough to see what you are doing. I've tried pointing it at a bright star and using a Batinoff Mask to focus the scope... focusing on a planet that is bouncing around on the screen is tough.

godo hunitng, its fun!

[StevenSWissler]

If it's an LPI, I've had reasonable results also, when I could get it and autostar enisage to work. You should be able to get a pretty good on-screen image of the moon and Jupiter, it can be pretty tricky getting the settings correct and consistent. I've since upgraded to a DSI II Color camera, and Nebulosity for image capture and processing for capturing lunar and planetary images. Nebulosity is well worth the $60 and includes a much better focusing tool than envisage. This shot was taken with a 10" LX200ACF and the DSI II Color camera.

[Dave]

Steve

Is Nebulosity supported in Windows 7 and are there drivers for the DSI 3 pro for Nebulosity and Windows 7.

Also, does the lpi work with Nebulosity?

[ebeez]

Hi Steve,
Nice picture!!! Love the detail! Was that image stacked at all? if so how many frames?

[StevenSWissler]

I'll try to answer the questions as to the best of my ability.

Nebulosity/Windows 7. Not sure here, I mainly use it with an XP laptop, but have used it with a Vista laptop. It does run under Mac OSX.

Nebulosity/DSI 3 pro

From the nebulosity website, among a host of other cameras:
Meade DSI, DSI Pro, DSI II, DSI II Pro, DSI III and DSI III Pro.

I have only used it with the DSI II Color and a Canon EOS digital rebel XTi

I do not believe Nebulosity supports the LPI, at least it's not listed under supported cameras. Probably more a driver issue, as the LPI is not really supported under Vista/Windows 7

The picture was taken on a night of exceptional seeing. The image is a stack of 50 .005 second exposures. I used nebulosity to focus and capture, AviStack to combine the exposures, and nebulosity for final image adjustment.

[Philip Pugh]

Check out the final chapter by Anthony Glover in this book:

http://philippugh.fo...enceAndArt.html