Lumenera 2nd light: Ring Nebula

starfield · Post by **starfield** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:09 am

How's your mount's performance & tracking - unguided?

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:16 pm

Oh, The Eq-6 mount? This is an autoguided photo. That day I intended to take long exposures, but the clouds are obstructing it. So I just do a super rough polar alignment with the magnetic compass (meaning a few degrees off!) and set the autoguider and start the exposure. Passing clouds limit it to seconds of exposure instead of minutes.

For visual, this mount tracks very well. "Hommel" has seen it in action.
Here is the review:

http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php? ... highlight=

I am selling a similar mount:

http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php? ... highlight=

Arief is selling the EQ-6 mount if you want the full heavy duty system, and I will provide the full pier on wheels for the EQ-6 mount.

Tachyon · Post by **Tachyon** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:03 pm

Is this the Skynyx?

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:25 pm

Yes, its Skynyx 2-0M

Tachyon · Post by **Tachyon** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:33 pm

Meng Lee wrote:Yes, its Skynyx 2-0M

Ok. Thanks... I always thought that was useful only for planets and moon! How does it compare against the Starshoot?

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:45 pm

Oh, the comparison in price is quite incredible. Ok, that aside. Hehe.

The chip size for both is roughly the same. Since StarShoot is mostly for deepsky, I shall compare only their deepsky characteristics. Skynyx Long exposure mode can only be up to 3 mins, while starshoot you can expose up to 9 hours. noise is lower in Skynyx than in StarShoot. But certainly dark frame subtraction will cure the problem. Both have binning features and FWHM focussing in the software.

For deep sky, especially colour imaging, StarShoot provides a easier to use package. And Starshoot has a higher bit depth.

For Planetary, Skynyx is much better with ROI feature and the ability to capture 12bit movies at up to nearly 100fps to beat the seeing.

Post by **rcj** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:05 pm

think Skynx and Starshoot are comparing apples and oranges and in completely different class and price. One would require a fast and efficient laptop to work and ingest at 100fps too. Paulo Lazarotti is developing a specialised range of planetary cameras at this moment. Worthy of a serious look if u are enthusiastic in planetary work. Other more affordable planetary cameras (as compared to the Lumenera range) include the DMK (German) and Dragonfly Express. Of course there is always the trusty single-shot-based Phillips webcams to start off with.

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:15 pm

True. It takes some varying of the camera parameters before you see your laptop stop dropping frames!

Speaking of that, next time I may try capturing L with Lumenera and RGB with Toucam to save time. LRGB imaging of Jupiter is the toughest form of planetary imaging as you only have 1-2 mins to take 4 channels!

Post by **rcj** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:35 pm

actually that is why this justifies a purchase of the camera that is capable of uncompressed and higher FPS capability. You can shoot 40 seconds per channel back to back at a higher frame rate (say 30FPS). You can also "beat" the seeing more effectively. Will be good to have a laptop with LOTS of hard disk space too (especially with a higher bit depth camera now) and probably not have a dropped frame rate of more than 20%. BTW, it might be an interesting test to capture Jupiter at both 8-bit and 12-bit to compare the final results. It might be similar. Solar imaging would benefit a bit more from 12-bit imaging though, with the greater dynamic range, from granules to prominences.

Post by **rcj** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:36 pm

btw, in addition, you could just do a synthetic L from an RGB combine to save time. See if the result is satisfactory.