Thursday, February 14, 2013
Modification Page Update
Regarding my Modification post, the Matt Todman link is dead. New link is here.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Beginning
What can you do when the astronomy bug gets you? There really is no way to fight it and honestly why would you want to. 10 years ago I was given a Christmas present by my wife that changed what I do on many moonless nights. The gift was a Bushnell 4" newtonian telescope complete with EQ-2 mount and a selection of .965" eyepieces. I know many of you more experienced are laughing and saying "Are you sure she loves you?" But just hold on there... if I'd received a 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain on a goto mount with heated dew shields, 2" focuser, 3x barlow, and, well, you get the idea; I'd never really have gotten to know what astronomy really is. Sure, I could point over there and look at M31 or Orion's nebula; but if it was so easy to see, I wouldn't learn about tracking drives or lens filters or much else. Starting with what I had I was able to really learn and reap the benefits of knowledge and then to appreciate with wonder and awe the creation that God has blessed us with.
So I took that 4" scope and over the next few years made it really work. I center-pointed the mirror. I learned how to collimate. I changed the focuser to a 1.25" and got a couple lenses. I added a simple RA drive from Orion. Somewhere along the way one of the legs broke and I made some wooden parts to replace the broken plastic. Meanwhile I was learning so much more than the project I was working on. So often it seems we learn more when we aren't trying. My list of website bookmarks grew until it became difficult to find a site I knew was in the "Geek" folder somewhere. And the thing is; while department store telescopes are looked down on (I didn't know that at the time), I retained the joy I felt from the day I received it. The images it gave were really quite good once it was collimated and cleaned. Yes, how to keep a telescope from collecting dust and dew spots on it's mirror is something else I had to learn.
But eventually I did outgrow the 4". So with Pres. Bush's stimulus check in the bank, I ordered a 2nd-quality 8" newt from Orion and a set of 8" rings to attach it to my poor old EQ-2. Once it was assembled and counterbalanced, I had my doubts for the EQ's lifespan. Sure enough, a season later the center post broke. But my wife was good to me again and Christmas brought a new SkyView Pro EQ mount. A little fiddling got the RA drive added and I was happy... for a while.
One day in 2011, while my daughter wasn't looking, I "borrowed" her Logitech C250 webcam. After removing it from it's case and reapplying the IR filter over the CMOS sensor, I packaged the circuit board piggy-back on a 35mm film cannister with hot glue (amazing stuff) and a lens cap covering it wrapped on with electrical tape. It wasn't pretty but it worked, kinda. More learning. By the end of the year I had some decent results from imaging without a barlow lens:
But dithering and zooming will only get so far. So with a new Orion 2x Shorty barlow lens I imaged what I think is the best I could get from a $30 webcam:
Just missed the Great Red Spot, but got Io as it was beginning its transit. Next time a little more color. All of my photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafterjp/
But I wanted more capability. I had been a member of QCUIAG (rafterjp) for some time and decided it was time to modify a webcam for long exposure. I attempted to purchase a Philips SPC900NC webcam several times but wouldn't let my bid go high enough (dutch heritage). Finally I purchased a Logitech Quickcam Pro 3000 for $10 and started my Mod. Find out how that went by going Here.
So I took that 4" scope and over the next few years made it really work. I center-pointed the mirror. I learned how to collimate. I changed the focuser to a 1.25" and got a couple lenses. I added a simple RA drive from Orion. Somewhere along the way one of the legs broke and I made some wooden parts to replace the broken plastic. Meanwhile I was learning so much more than the project I was working on. So often it seems we learn more when we aren't trying. My list of website bookmarks grew until it became difficult to find a site I knew was in the "Geek" folder somewhere. And the thing is; while department store telescopes are looked down on (I didn't know that at the time), I retained the joy I felt from the day I received it. The images it gave were really quite good once it was collimated and cleaned. Yes, how to keep a telescope from collecting dust and dew spots on it's mirror is something else I had to learn.
But eventually I did outgrow the 4". So with Pres. Bush's stimulus check in the bank, I ordered a 2nd-quality 8" newt from Orion and a set of 8" rings to attach it to my poor old EQ-2. Once it was assembled and counterbalanced, I had my doubts for the EQ's lifespan. Sure enough, a season later the center post broke. But my wife was good to me again and Christmas brought a new SkyView Pro EQ mount. A little fiddling got the RA drive added and I was happy... for a while.
One day in 2011, while my daughter wasn't looking, I "borrowed" her Logitech C250 webcam. After removing it from it's case and reapplying the IR filter over the CMOS sensor, I packaged the circuit board piggy-back on a 35mm film cannister with hot glue (amazing stuff) and a lens cap covering it wrapped on with electrical tape. It wasn't pretty but it worked, kinda. More learning. By the end of the year I had some decent results from imaging without a barlow lens:
But I wanted more capability. I had been a member of QCUIAG (rafterjp) for some time and decided it was time to modify a webcam for long exposure. I attempted to purchase a Philips SPC900NC webcam several times but wouldn't let my bid go high enough (dutch heritage). Finally I purchased a Logitech Quickcam Pro 3000 for $10 and started my Mod. Find out how that went by going Here.
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