It has been some time since my last post here. I had home internet problems that kept me without internet for over a month! Thanks a lot Telkom!!!
The weather has been awful this Summer. More cloud than not!
Over the December period I managed a dark sky trip and had one good night out under the canopy of the Milky Way!
That is a story for another day, today we talk about my new adventure and foray into video astronomy.
I have recently acquired a Mallincam hyper colour and am taking my first steps into video astronomy.
Although the camera is of the first generation camera's it still performs as advertised!
So, after the cloud gods relented and gave me some clear sky Saturday morning I had to do a test with the new setup.
I set the scope up indoors with it pointed out the window toward my old high school on a hill well off in the distance.
Initially I had a very fuzzy image.
I took me a while to figure out using the Focal reducers that come with the cam but once I hit the right combination I had a image that I could get into perfect focus!
Fiddling with the screen settings gave me a nice sharp clear image in full colour!
Let me quickly explain the setup.
Skywatcher 102.
Mallincam hyper colour.
The Mallincam is feeding the video to a screen that is typically used in a car for playing DVD's. A small 7" LCD display.
Power from a 12V marine deep cycle battery.
Buoyed by the indoor test success I moved the entire rig outside to do a first light with a solar test.
I got the scope set and located the sun.
I am using a home made solar filter using baader solar film.
Now I connected the MC and had a blank screen!
This had me puzzled and I sat back to read the manual and see about the settings on the MC.
I glanced at the screen and from my angle realized there is a feint image on the screen.
Adjusting the screen brightness and contrast gave me a nice clear full disk!!
The MC focuses at just about the same place as my DSLR with no further room for outwards travel.
Fortunately I was able to move the MC slightly further out of the drawtube and could then obtain perfect focus.
The two sunspots on the solar disk were small black dots!
First light on the MC achieved!!!
The cloud gods had seen all this and had already gathered the clouds and forced me to abandon the session.
At about 10PM this evening the clouds started to show signs of thinning and clearing!
So off to bed and back up at 2AM with a glorious clear sky.
Scope was setup and a two star alignment done.
The MC was inserted and powered up.
Straight away I get a image of Acrux, my second alignment star. I get the focus set and aim the scope at NGC 3372.
NGC 3372. Also known as Eta Carina.
I use the quick set up guide for the camera settings, in this case deep sky 2.
And there she is in splendid colour!!!
Way to large for my FOV but spectacular none the less.
On to the next target!
NGC 5139 Omega Centaurus.
Again a bright clear image showing a dense core with a strong yet soft glow from the center outward.
And the stars are in full colour!
This is amazing stuff!!!
I then check out a few open clusters, on some the brighter stars are suffering from CA and some bloating, this is attributed to the scope and not the cam.
Next is NGC 5128 Centaurus A.
Without a doubt you have a galaxy in your sights!
The dust lane is clearly visible and there is that brownish colour associated with this galaxy.(To my eye anyhow).
M4.
This globular clusters resolves right to the core and is very clear.
At this point I try the switches on the right side of the camera.
There is one that has OFF, 7 and 14 on it.
Right let's try the 14.
This dramatically improves the image as I suspect this is stacking 14 sec exposures?
I need to check the manual and get that figured out.
So with a better image I revisit NGC 5139.
The quality of the image is much improved and I am mesmerized!
I also try adjusting a few other items on the MC menu and try to get a feel for what is happening with each adjustment.
This is going to be the learning curve for sure!
I also briefly try Jupiter but it is way over exposed and I cannot get a decent image. Most likely the scope limits again.
So back to NGC 5139 and I enjoy that view as the sky brightens with the impending dawn.
Time to pack it in and call it a successful first deep sky light!
So in one day I manage two first lights!
One solar and then some dark sky!
I can see me delving much deeper into VA and getting the hang of the camera and it's settings.
Plenty of homework there!
Thanks for taking the time to read this report.
If any of you have any experience with this camera I would love to hear any advice hints or tips you may have!
Some images from the proceedings.
First is a image of the setup during the Solar test along with a screen shot of the solar disc.
Next up a image of the screen with NGC 5139.
This was taken using my cellphone so the quality is very poor!
The camera picks up the LCD display lines and over exposes the core of the globular cluster.
It also gives the background a blue colour as apposed to the nice black background on the screen naked eye.
So sorry for the poor quality image.
Clear skies everyone!
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