Category Archives: Astronomy

Coronado PST eyepiece holder disassembly part 2

Posted on August 20, 2014 by james

I got brave this evening and disassembled the eyepiece holder to the point I’d reached as described a few days ago. I then examined the BF5 housing and decided that it appeared to fit into the eyepiece holder from the … Continue reading →

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Coronado PST eyepiece holder disassembly

Posted on August 15, 2014 by james

Following on from my thoughts that I might have to move the blocking filter on my modded PST closer to the camera sensor, I decided to take it apart to see what I might be dealing with.  Though I’ve got … Continue reading →

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Another possible PST mod

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

My PST has been repeatedly modded and now looks like this: (though now with the addition of a motor to the focuser.) I have been pondering of late however on the amount of vignetting that occurs when imaging and what … Continue reading →

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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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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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