From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: December 11, 2006 11:40:08 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: New guide camera wanted

All in all, I think that the requirement of using a PC, and the

limited usefulness (in my humble opinion) of the DSI as a primary

imager, plus it's higher cost, makes it far less attractive to

Mac-based astroimagers than one of the DMK cameras.

I haven't gotten my Flea2 yet (any day now!), but the thought of just

having a firewire cable running to each (one plugged into the FW 400,

the other into the FW 800), and a RJ11 from the GPUSB to the mount,

for astroimaging has me drooling already.

-Tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:

Hi Guys;

On 11-Dec-06, at 10:00 AM, Jeff Phillips wrote:

Maybe a Meade DSI?

Not if he wants to use it under OSX - there are no drivers for it on

the Mac. If he wants to switch to Windows and stop using Astro IIDC,

then sure that's an option.

On Dec 11, 2006, at 10:54 AM, Dale J Martin wrote:

Some of you might remember me asking this question last year as well.

Last year I ended up buying a Unibain Fire-i board camera B/W

version. After using it for a while I need a camera that it a bit

more sensitive for guiding. I mainly shoot DSO and with the Fire-i

camera I'm having problems finding a guide star bright enough to

guide on. Any recommendations for a new guide camera.... say up to

$500?

An Imaging Source AF or BF series Mono camera would do the trick as

it allows up to 30 second exposures and should give you more light

gathering capability. The main issue with the Unibrains mono or color

are that they are really noisy, especially at high gains.

As far as sensitivity goes, their is a 50% difference in sensitivity

between the DSI CCD (EXHAD and larger pixel sizes) , however that can

be compensated for by using 2x2 or 4x4 binning in Astro IIDC.

HTH..

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@...