From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>
Date: August 12, 2005 10:55:50 AM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: just wishing
That's right! I saw that one, and wondered about that. If it's away from the hot
electronics, it also might not need cooling?
Do you know the price of those? (or where I can find it?).
I'm not quite to the point where I'm ready to ask the Point Grey people, but close. Maybe
within a month?
-Tim.
--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@o...> wrote:
Hi Tim;
I forgot to mention this..
If your looking for a prime focus camera, you might also want to
check out Point Grey Research's Dragon Fly in extended form factor
(bottom of the page):
http://www.ptgrey.com/products/dragonfly/index.html
The CCD is mounted on a 6" long cable (maybe they can make a longer
cable version for you) and would obstruct probably less than 1 inch
and keeps the hot electronics out of the light path too.
TTYL..
Milton J. Aupperle
President
ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.
Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5
1-(403)-229-9456
milton@o...
www.outcastsoft.com
On 12-Aug-05, at 9:01 AM, Tim wrote:
Milton:
I'd be interested in hearing if you've tried your Flea with peltier
unit out on the sky.
I think I'd like to "upgrade" from the Aplux soon, and maybe put
the Aplux on a finder or
my off-axis guider. Seems like the Flea is small enough that one
could even build a
"camera" for it using a Newt primary and place the Flea at the Newt
focus in place of the
secondary mirror. You'd need a good finder, though. And you'd
have to focus by moving
the primary or the secondary (Flea) support.
Interesting sidebar: I shot Mars the other morning with the Aplux
right after imaging with
the ToUcam (about the same age camera) via my PC. The Aplux, with
Astro IIDC could
acquire so many more images so much faster than the ToUcam (and
they were less noisy),
I was impressed.
Sadly, the seeing has continued to be pretty lousy when I've had
the time to image. None
of the videos have produced decent results. And now the marine
layer has come back, so
we're socked in by the time Mars gets high enough to do anything.
I live on a hilltop, though. Maybe I should try using my PADC
(herschel wedge gizmo) and
image Jupiter some more...
best,
-Tim.
--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@o...>
wrote:
If your talking about exposures less than 10 minutes uncooled, the
Flea Color 640x480 camera is pretty decent for the money your
spending. I ran some 10 minute exposure tests with the camera
wrapped
in a heavy bath towel under my desk, the gains set to zero and the
dark current and amp glow noise noise level was low enough that it
could be taken out with dark frame. All you need to do is modify the
supplied hiruse trigger connector by connecting pins 0 and pin 1
(solder them or just bending them over so they touch) and Astro IIDC
will allow up to 60 minute exposures.
With that $45 CDN peltier Cooler unit I bough (I also added a $15
CDN
Pentium CPU Heat sink and Fan to the hot side) up attached to it, it
can keep the camera and electronics in the 10 degree C / 50 F range,
when in dead air air temp is 30 C / 86F. With cooling off, the
camera
is running at about 45 C / 113 F and that brings the noise level
up a
lot.
And speaking of crappy weather, June was the wettest month in
Calgary
history (120+ years or so) and now that it's finally cleared up with
dark clear skies and no 80 km winds, my motor drive has packed it
in :(.
TTYL..
Milton J. Aupperle
President
ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.
Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5
1-(403)-229-9456
milton@o...
www.outcastsoft.com
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