High gain values in Point Grey Firefly cameras
Francesco, a French astrophotographer dig deep into Micron sensor documentation and he found some informations about gain values supported by the sensor used in Point Grey Firefly 0.3 camera (available very cheap on ebay). It turns out that this camera may offer higher gain values making it easier to use.
The issue have been reported to Point Grey and support for higher gain values may show up in a future Firefly firmware release. At the moment there are few alternative solutions proposed by Francesco.
The first one is to record 16-bit image as SER file, and then convert it to 8-bit AVI in PIPP. Second that also can be used with the SER solution is to write a higher gain value into the camera analog gain register. Just open the camera in FireCapture and then open Flycap2 - only setting, no image preview. In the gain register write "7F" (for hex 820).
Lettuce - scenario based tests for Django and other frameworks
lettuce is a test system driven by scenarios used in behavior driven development (BDD). The scenarios are described expressively in English and can be read and understood even for non programmers. Test system like lettuce parsers the scenarios and executes required tests for each step.
Managing style sheets and JavaScript files with webassets
webassets is an application that manages (compress and join) static files like JavaScript or CSS (LESS, SASS too) files. It can work with various frameworks, including Django. Everything is described in the documentation.
Compressed files have slightly smaller size and they load faster. One file made out of multiple CSS or JS files reduces the amount of HTTP requests needed to load the website. That also improves the load times.
Small fan assembly for cooling SCT during use
Some time ago I described my SCT cooler made to cool the OTA before using it. This fan based cooler pushes the air through the whole OTA and around the primary mirror. Moving fresh air limits boundary layers that form around slowly cooling primary mirror. That allows to cool a big SCT to ambient quite quickly.
At some nights the OTA would not reach ambient without such cooling as the air temperature fallen faster than SCT could cool down. When cooled with a fan the OTA would be stable for some time and after that it would start drifting and spoiling the image with air currents. To prevent that I've decided to make a small cooler to push some air around the primary mirror in between imaging runs.
Stability of heavy scopes on popular mounts
Mount load capacity depends on many variables, not only from the mechanical capacity to handle given weight. Telescope OTA size, wind buffets, balance and similar factors have a great influence on the telescope-mount setup stability.
Popular mounts like SkyWatcher NEQ6 or HEQ5 are relatively cheap, and they can handle quite impressive load - but not always. I've been using C11 on HEQ5 and from some time C14 on NEQ6. Here are my observations and tips on load capacity and binded with it setup stability.
New Solar System imaging cameras for 2013
Year 2013 is getting close and it will bring new cameras and new sensors for Solar System imaging. The machine vision market is evolving very quickly bringing new cameras, better performance and lower prices. Few years ago Lumenera were the best cameras and now they are becoming a part of the history - replaced by newer cameras. Around two, three years ago Sony ICX618 sensor made a big change in planetary imaging. DMK21AU04 became old and not interesting in favor to new ICX618 based cameras. 2013 will quite likely bring similar changes and, or new alternatives.
In 2013 we can expect latest generation of CMOS sensors entering Solar System imaging as a top class cameras. Sony CCDs will be strong too bringing new models with even better performance. Some cameras however will get bit to old to be a valid buy from the shop.
In this article I'll write about the incoming new hardware as well as older cameras that are starting to show their age making their price/performance ratio quite uninteresting.
Testing Tucsen Discovery M15 sCMOS camera
Tucsen, a laboratory camera maker, introduced new camera - Discovery M15. Recently this camera (in different housing) showed up also at Opticstar. By the description Discovery is a sCMOS, Scientific CMOS camera. The camera costs bit more than $400 (plus shipping and taxes), while typical sCMOS based cameras cost vastly more. So where is the catch? I've decided to test and check this camera.
In this article I'll review and test a mono Discovery M15 camera at Solar System astrophotography.
PGR Chameleon camera cheap on ebay
After Firefly cameras success among photographers starting with advanced planetary imaging a new Point Grey Research camera showed up on ebay in good price - PGR Chameleon. It's not as cheap as Firefly, but still cheaper than a new camera from the PGR shop. Chameleon cameras are very good for lunar and solar imaging due to their bigger pixel amount (and good performance).
Laptops with ExpressCard slots for use with fast planetary cameras
ExpressCard adapter can provide a Firewire 800, USB3 or GigE interface to your laptop. It's mostly useful for handling Firewire 800 cameras like Flea3. However number of laptops with ExpressCard slot is falling down as this slot isn't so widely used. I went through few shops to find laptops with such slots and found quite nice amount of 15.6 and 14" laptops with such slot. Starting from cheapest to most expensive.
Firewire 800 is used by noticeable amount of machine vision cameras like Flea3. This interface isn't available in laptops (in general). ExpressCard is needed to provide them. GigE cameras use Gigabit Ethernet network cards. Nearly every laptop has a GigE card, but some may have slower 100Mbit cards - and then you also need an ExpressCard with true GigE performance. GigE is used by some PointGrey cameras (Blackfly, Flea3 GigE line, Basler Ace and more). USB3 is getting quite popular, but still not every laptop has it. It is used by a new line of Flea3 cameras or Ximea xiQ cameras. ExpressCards can provide support for those interfaces - but we need a laptop with an ExpressCard slot...
A quick look at Baader Hyperion Zoom Barlow
Baader Hyperion Zoom Barlow is a lens designed for Hyperion Zoom eyepieces, but can be used with other or with planetary cameras. It's a 3-element design, but different than typical 3-element APO Barlow. The design is told to be anastigmatic. The last lens is strongly convex (be careful not to scratch it) so it does differ from normal lenses. When used with Hyperion Zoom eyepiece it gives 2.2x magnification increase.
