From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: April 10, 2009 12:04:26 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] firewire 800?

Hi Ron;

On 10-Apr-09, at 9:57 AM, cosmicrock2001 wrote:

I just recently (finally!) acquired a TIS camera and AstroIIDC. Probably a newbie question, but is the camera able to use the firewire 800 port on my macbook pro?

Yes, but you need an Adapter or "Bilingual Cable" for it, which is described in the FAQ section of Astro IIDC web site:

http://www.outcastsoft.com/ASCASTROIIDC.html#FAQ

We list two links where to buy these sorts of things, there are other companies that have them too.

I have a cable for the 400 port to the camera, but is there any advantage to go from the 800 port to the camera?

No advantage at all. The only nice thing is if you want to run 2 cameras, you don't need a hub, you can use both ports for each camera. That's why I still love my G4 LapTop, no Hub and no extra cables to haul around when I image with a FW800 camera and guide with a FW 400 camera.

Ron

p.s.

btw optcorp.com has the color TIS cameras on clearance sale for a pretty good reduction. yes, I know the mono cameras are better rez but seeing at my location is usually so bad I figured the 'one-shot' color is more practical and the sale price made it more so.

I get maybe 1 to 4 night a year where I can actually make maximum use of the Monochrome Cameras resolution. The only reason i bought it was for doing DSO's filtered or Narrow Band imaging, for Photometric measurements (of Asteroids, Variable Stars etc.) and also for things like Venus in narrow band UV and Mercury in IR.

And doing Luma imaging with RGB filters and a mono camera under average seeing conditions is a major PITA. Nothing matches up perfectly so you wind up with color edges on things at long focal lengths. It's pretty well useless if you wan to do those exaggerated color lunar shots I have done lie this:

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Luna20070103_MJA.jpg

or this

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Luna20070224MJA.jpg

or this

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Luna_20061009_MJA.jpg

or this

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Luna_Enchanced_20050419_MJA.jpg

Milton Aupperle