MS LifeCams in planetary and lunar astrophotography
Microsoft HD capable webcams get quite good or even best ratings in the HD webcam category. Those models are also being used in planetary and Lunar astrophotography - as a cheap camera with quite good capabilities. Compared to the longly used Philips SPC880, 900NC, Vesta, ToUcam equipped with ICX098 CCD - MS webcams offer more pixels and higher sensitivity, as well a USB 2.0 transfer speeds.
LifeCam Cinema, HD-5000 and HD-6000 are 720p models, LifeCam Studio has bigger sensor capable of doing 1080p. In this article I'll describe all the steps necessary to convert a MS webcam into a planetary imaging camera.
HTML5 and other Django updates on my sites
I'm not a front-end designer but I wanted to jump on the HTML5 boat a bit. Previously I had XHTML layout based on 960.gs grid. I've decided to changed few things a bit and also change the XHTML to HTML5 by using some new basic tags like "article", "aside", "figure", "footer", as well as roles or schema to mark the breadcrumbs (that as Google says is supported by few search engines, although Google got my breadcrumbs before too).
And also as I use Google+ I've added the authorship link, and fb:admins meta tag for Facebook (to see if it will add something to the FB likes or other stuff).
The current layout doesn't use CSS3 (yet?) nor newer CSS frameworks. I've sicked to 960.gs for simplicity. The design didn't changed much. Some boxes were reorganised and content model got few extra fields. I've used some inspiration from grey WP theme, and HTML5 tags in action were nicely shown in HTML5 template by jayj.dk.
ToDo is to update the django-grappelli to the latest version, as well as add django-ajax-selects for the "related articles" multiple select widget.
Will it improve content indexing by search engines or SERP position time will tell. To the eye the layout is more clear and logic with those new tags. There is "article" and no div with some id.
Quick look at Zotonic CMS and blog platform written in Erlang
Zotonic is a CMS and blog platform system distributed on open Apache 2 license. It has a lot of features, but still it is simple to use to the end blog users. You can check Zotonic screenshot gallery.
Celestron Radial Guider and Brightstar Advanced Off Axis Guider
Off Axis Guider, OAG in short are handy devices for telescope guiding. Small prism gathers some light from the telescope outside the field of view of the imaging camera and directs it on to the guide camera sensor. This allows accurate guiding as depending on scope design it can also correct for mirror flop in SCTs or some bending of OTA or the focuser in other scopes. External guide scope can't correct for that as he doesn't see that error. OAG is also lighter than a guide scope...
Celestron NightScape CCD with color KAI-10100
Luminos eyepieces, EdgeHD on CPC and new camera - NightScape CCD were announced on Celestron website.
The NightScape cameras is equipped with Kodak KAI-10100 (PDF), and is priced at Adorama at 1500 USD. SBIG STX camera announced with this CCD is priced at Optcorp at ~6000 USD (nice difference!).
Color KAI-10100 has QE max at 45% (low in general), 4.75 x 4.75 micrometer pixels, and 25,000 e- pixel full well depth. Sensor imaging region is 17.86 mm x 13.49 mm. So we get 10,7 mpix sensor. It support few binning modes to get good resolution at higher focal lengths – at the expense of image pixel count.
The camera seems to be targeted for use with EdgeHD scopes - with Optec Lupus reducer it will fit in the 22 mm imaging circle, as well with Hyperstar it will work nicely (low pixel giving better resolution).
But that is very expensive scope and add-ons - in Europie it's just insane to buy big EdgeHD just to do images with the reducer or with Hyperstar (where standard SCT will do as good). There are better options for this camera - like small APOs - cheaper ! lighter, easier.
In Europe QHY cameras such as color APS-C QHY8 have strong position. Compared to NightScape they will be bit cheaper or similar priced while providing bigger sensor with bigger pixels and also better other specs. Those cameras however work better on moderate focal lengths like for example imaging Newtonians, semi sized ED/APOs.
Brightstar Mammut Lyuba L429-M - new entry level camera
In the last weeks I was briefly testing MAMMUT LYUBA L429-M camera made in Portugal by Brightstar (sometimes BS Astro). This company may not be well known to general public, but they did make Atik wheels, or make accessories sold by Orion in USA. Now they also showed up in Europe under their own name offering accessories and their first camera - Mammut...
TS 1,25" and 2" filter drawer review
Teleskop Service offers filter drawers for quick changing 1,25" or 2" filters. It's only 15 mm thick and has M48 or T threads on both sides. It's thicker (and lighter) than filter wheels and maybe useful in setups where backfocus is very short (short fl reducer/corrector or a lens). It looks like so...
punBB and Wordpress integration plugin
Wordpress plugin that integrates punBB user system with wordpress.
PlushCMS - simple CMS system
Quick introduction to PlushCMS - Polish simple CMS system written in Python and Django
Filters for white ligh solar imaging with a Herschel wedge
Mikael Joe compared few filters (and here too) for white light solar imaging with a Herschel wedge and TS 102mm f/11 refractor. Joe compared: K-line, Solar Continuum, "He-I" 590nm and "TiO" 705 nm filter. Last two are Omega Optical industry filters.
The 590 nm "He-I" filter was very good in my scope with AstroSolar ND 5.0. The TiO "706 nm" filter was previously used with wedges by few imagers with good results. In my case (and for other imagers) with AstroSolar the TiO filter and any other using infra-red or partially red band gives very low contrast images.
As you can check on the images the Solar Continuum and He-I filter gave most detailed images (nice sharp granulation and spots). Sometimes He-I has a slight advantage. The TiO images are slightly more blurry. What's important with the Herschel wedge - TiO infra-red filter doesn't loose contrast.
It's good to see that newly discovered "He-I" filter (initially I've matched it for He-I emission from some nebulae) proven itself to be very effective with AstroSolar and wedges. Visually it also gives nice yellow images. Infra-red filters that may give images less affected by seeing work only with wedges (and maybe glass solar filters). It would be also interesting to test RG1000 or silicon windows with the wedges - most infra-red filters usable with our cameras.
