My PDF eBook on Solar Imaging

My latest news is that I have a PDF ebook available on 'Observing and Imaging the Sun with Modest Equipment'

You can find more information here

Click on the image for more details.

Videography features in this eBook and the H-alpha prominence image on the disk cover was captured with a Mintron video camera through a Coronado H-alpha PST.

The monochrome image has been coloured cosmetically to reflect the monochrome nature of H-alpha light at 656nm in the red.

Mintron Enterprises are making two new modified colour cameras for me that I think will show even greater colour fidelity along with the same H-alpha sensitivity as the MTV-73S85HP-EX-SW-R colour deep-sky Mintron. When these cameras are completed and I have tested them, I shall report on them here if they do represent a significant improvement in performance.

Dont forget to click on 'Older Posts' or 'Newer posts' below or browse the 'blog archive' on the left, or click on 2009 to see all of the posts for this year on one page.

A Mintron with a 1/2 inch chip and a small AZ Newtonian

Skywatcher 130P Synscan AZ GOTO Newtonian with a Mintron 22S85HC-EX 1/2" chip, frame-integrating video camera.

The equipment was set up as shown and the session was recorded to DVD in High Quality.


Real-time views were very good with very little amp-glow.
The camera was set to 256 frame integration. The image shows M27 in real time.


200 frames were captured from 20min of DVD recording using the GSTAR freeware capture software. A new frame was captured every 5.2 seconds. 25 frames were unchecked in Registax as they were trailed due to wind shaking the scope. The remaining frames were stacked in Registax. The results shows substantial image rotation in the final image.


The individual BMP frames were extracted from the AVI using Virtual Dub and they were imported into Deep Sky Stacker. The same trailed frames were unchecked and the program was told to use the best 80% images for stacking. The resulting de-rotated image is shown below

This small Newtonian AZ GOTO telescope and the Mintron proved to be a useful combination.


Here are two more live views obtained by photographing the TV screen:

M13

and M57

My new PDF eBook

My current news is that I have a PDF eBook on 'Observing and Imaging the Sun with Modest Equipment' The prominence image on the disk cover was captured with a Mintron.

Click on the image for more information.

Dont forget to click on 'Older Posts' or 'Newer posts' below or browse the 'blog archive' on the left, or click on 2009 to see all of the posts for this year on one page.