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

Date: June 17, 2009 9:23:34 AM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Jupiter with 16" Truss Dob

Hi Jim:

Great first results!  I bet you'll find, like I did, that when you start working with one of these "serious" firewire cameras that can expose for a second or more, that you won't need your flip mirror anymore (I should put mine on astromart, as I haven't used it in over 2 years).  You'll be able to set longer exposures and up the brightness to help "find" even the most bloated, out of focus images, center on that, and then focus and get to work!

best,

-Tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "jimchung2338" <jim_chung@...> wrote:

Alas, further research indicated Titan's shadow wouldn't begin a transit until well after midnight and Saturn was below 10 degrees by then so I didn't attempt it.  

I did get my truss dob project together, retrofitted it with a mirror from an old Meade Starfinder which need recoating and a fellow Torontonian donated his homebuilt Poncet platform to the cause.  My polar alignment was very rough so there was Dec drift to fight and Newtonian focuser travel are severely limited so I had no room to install a flip mirror, had to do the quick swap between ep and ccd.  Plus I only had a window of about 15 minute between trees at around 4 AM this morning.  

But the mirror figure shows good promise, Jupiter was sharp and the light bucket allowed me to image at very low brightness gains and 60 fps!  A 10 second video capture netted 1300 frames and also hopefully helps in freezing the seeing.  

More work in store.

Jim

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/Planetary/JupiterDob.jpg