From: Terrence Redding <tredding@mac.com>

Date: July 23, 2009 7:40:22 AM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Just starting

Good morning.

A few weeks ago I decided to spend this year taking world class images of Jupiter and the planets.  The desire came out of a need to video record a low noise occultation of two of Jupiter's moons. I believe imaging Jupiter and the other planets in between occultation efforts will prove to be a very satisfying use of my observational time.

 I added to the plan a desire to also take the images using a purely Mac solution. I have a 14" LX200R on a Milbron Wedge in a backyard observatory.  I am in West Palm Beach, Florida with flat skies at a latitude of about 26 degrees.  Go is at about  6 degrees, so he has a 20 degree advantage in location while I have an additional 3" in aperture.  Christopher Go is one of the accepted experts in this area and so to simplify my effort I decided to duplicate his optical path which led me to acquiring the DMK21, the Powermate 2.5X and a powered filter wheel, along with a selected set of optical filters.  The decision to do this project as a pure Mac only effort led me to Astro-IIDC.

Last night I decided to install the software on a MacBook Pro, and went through the process of downloading, generating the serial number, and purchasing the software.  Then I decided to cable up and test the camera inside the house to start working my way through the menu and Help files.  Sadly, the software did not see the camera.  My home Macs are mostly Intel based.  However, based in recent discussions here, I have resurrected a G4 Mini Mac for use in astronomy.  It should be here in two days.

I am looking for suggestions on how to proceed.  is the problem with the computer, camera, cable, or software?  Suggestions on how to test each would be greatly appreciated.

Terry - W6LMJ

Terrence R. Redding, Ph.D. RTN

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