From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>
Date: May 18, 2010 4:01:34 PM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Astro_IIDC and a new camera
Hi Robert;
If you can find a monochrome 640x480 Flea second hand, then it makes a cheap deep camera guider.
As an alternative, looks for "The Imaging Source" DMK 21AF04.AS cameras:
http://www.astronomycameras.com/en/products/firewire-cameras/mono/dmk21af04as/
which have similar specs.
I use a DMK 21AF04.AS with a C8 on a HEQ5 mount and a Celestron OAG for all my guiding with Astro IIDC. Under urban skies I guide with 8th to 9th mag stars using 1 second exposures and binning it 4x4 in Astro IIDC.
Samples of my images and details on my equipment are shown on my home page at:
http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/AstroIndex.html
What type of mount are you using too? Astro IIDC supports the popular LX 200 command set with a USB to Serial Port box like KeySpan. If your mount has an ST4 port, then you will get better results using a GPUSB:
http://www.store.shoestringastronomy.com/products_gp.htm
It allows Astro IIDC to directly talk to the mount's motors, which reduces latency and improves control a lot.
HTH..
Milton Aupperle
On 18-May-10, at 2:41 PM, astrobabb wrote:
Hi, I am new to this group having stumbled upon IIDC on the net. I have been trying to get my MAC Book Pro to work with an autoguiding app without success.
I have an Orion Autoguider camera that I use to use with my wife's laptop PC but I wanted to get a MAC so I did.
The Orion camera does not have a mac driver to enable it and I thought I might be able to use my Mallincam Video camera set to 2 seconds but that did not pan out either. PHD has no capability to interface to the Video camera.
To make a long story shorter, I was poised to purchase a starfish camera or SBig autoguider when I happened across IIDC.
My thought is I could purchase the IIDC and one of those fleas and be in money and autoguide just as effectively as with the starfish or SBig autoguider cameras.
I realize the Fleas cannot compete with the starfish or SBig but I had no problems autoguiding with the Orion camera.
Any comments awe appreciated as I evaluate my choices.
Regards
Robert