Monthly Archives: August 2014

FireWire/IIDC over USB camera support in oaCapture

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

I’ve had a cheap little Point Grey monochrome USB Firefly MV camera sitting about for some time. I don’t know if they’re still around, but they used to sell on ebay for not very much. Point Grey are one of … Continue reading →

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AZ3 mount saddle and counterweight mod

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

There are a couple of things about my AZ3 that I’ve never been happy with. The first is that it has fittings for scope rings rather than a saddle for a dovetail which is a pain if you want to … Continue reading →

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ASI120MM-S first impressions

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

The ASI120MM-S (and ASI120MC-S) are new versions of the ASI120MM (and ASI120MC) cameras from ZWO with a new USB3 interface rather than the USB2 interface in the original models. Mine arrived a few weeks ago though I’ve had no chance … Continue reading →

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Support for Imaging Source cameras on OSX in oaCapture

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

I’ve done a fair bit of hacking on Ken Tossell’s userspace UVC camera library of late, adding support for bulk mode transfers, extending support for some other features and fixing a few bugs.  That doesn’t necessarily help me on Linux, … Continue reading →

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Strange year for swarms

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

This year I had my first call about a swarm in mid-April, probably a month before I usually start to get any.  It’s very much prompted me to wonder what’s going on with the bees.  I think those in towns … Continue reading →

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Planetary imaging on a MacBook/OSX

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

Well, ok, so I’ve not actually done it, but it should at least now be possible using oaCapture. Using a bundle of bits from the macports repository I now have oaCapture building on 64-bit OSX and it appears to work … Continue reading →

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My first RGB planetary image

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

I’ve been working myself up to having a crack at monochrome planetary imaging for a while, but having got the motorised focuser, dew heaters and so on sorted it seemed like it was about time. Capturing the data was actually … Continue reading →

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Revelation/Skywatcher SCT dual speed R&P focuser motor drive conversion

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

Part of the reason for modding the Skywatcher motor drive kit to fit my Revelation dual speed crayford that I’d previously modded to fit my PST was as a trial run for doing a similar mod to the Revelation dual … Continue reading →

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Revelation/Skywatcher SCT dual speed focuser motor drive conversion

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

Last year I modded my PST, replacing the “black box” with a slightly modded Revelation dual-speed Crayford that was originally intended for SCTs. I’ve been meaning to do a motor drive conversion for some time and had bought a second-hand … Continue reading →

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Access to all camera controls in oaCapture

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

I’ve now added functionality to provide access to all the supported camera controls in a single popup in oaCapture.  In the general case I suspect many of these will not be required, but if you want to fiddle with everything … Continue reading →

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