Having packed up two of my telescopes, my wife and I embarked on a two day drive pulling our camper to Cool Breeze campground in Virginia.  The end of the second leg of the drive took us a little longer than expected...our GPS took us the "scenic route" over a mountain.  Great scenery, but late arrival! 

We arrived at the campground for ECVAR late Tuesday afternoon, and we proceeded to settle in for a week of video astronomy!

Tuesday night

Later as it got dark, we stepped outside, looked up and were amazed at what we saw.  The Milky Way was painted from one end of the sky to the other!  I was able to set up my portable mount (after midnight) and try out my Remote Focus Mask and Dark Mask using the following equipment:

• SkyProdigy Mount with AutoAlign built in
• Celestron 5" telescope
• MallinCam Micro-Super
• MallinCam MFR-5 with 5mm spacer
• JMI Motofocus with PCFC for remote focusing
• Remote Focus Mask (prototype)
• Powered Hub at scope with single USB cable to MS Surface Pro 2
• MiloSlick for video, MMEC for controlling the Super and Starry Night to control the mount

I turned on the mount and started an AutoAlign while getting my laptop powered up.  I then slewed to Vega, entered the command to close the Focus Mask over the end of the dew shield, and clicked on the focus setting on my MMEC app.  Then I remotely adjusted the focus until the mid-line was between the X of the other two diffraction patterns.

Then a thought occurred to me ... whether it might be useful to have a dark frame image at x1024 for the Super.  So I got my felt pouch and put it over the focus mask, entered the command to close the Mask over the end of the dew shield, and waited for the image to appear.  Here are pics of the Remote Dark Mask open and closed over the end of the dew shield.

Now with no light entering the telescope, the next image I saw was dark.  I mean really dark.  The Micro Super has virtually no amp glow!  And to my surprise I did not see any hot pixels either (camera pixels that are stuck on and look like small stars)!  It was about 50 degrees outside at this time.  I even used the MiloSlick software to scan the image for hot pixels and it did not find any.   This just reinforced my opinion that the MallinCam Micro is a great entry level video astronomy camera, especially the Micro-Super!

I also felt good about how the Remote Focus Mask and Remote Dark Mask concept actually worked in the field.  But by this time it was way past my bedtime and I had to defer its further testing to another night. 

Thursday and Friday nights


Unfortunately Wednesday night at ECVAR had some clouds, but Thursday and Friday evenings were great and made up for it.  On Thursday I had my main telescope set up with the following equipment:

• Celestron CG-5 Equatorial Mount
• Celestron 8” Telescope
• JMI Motofocus with PCFC for remote focusing
• NexGen MAXfield 0.33X Telecompressor
• MallinCam X2 Deluxe with Class 0 sensor
• StarSense AutoAlign accessory
• Celestron GPS accessory
• MallinCam Micro-EX on Orion 50mm finder scope
• Powered Hub at scope with single USB cable to MS Surface Pro 2
• MiloSlick for video and X2 control, MMEC for Micro Control and Starry Night to control the mount

 

The NexGen Focal reducer essentially converts my C8 F10 telescope to F3.3.  The single USB cable from the powered hub at the telescope enables me to operate underneath a nearby canopy, or using an active USB extension cable I can move inside for warmer viewing.

Here are some of the screen grabs of the near real time images I saw on my screen. Keep in mind these are "live" views at 10-20 second update intervals with no stacking or post processing.

M27 Dumbbell Planetary Nebula

M57 Ring Nebula

NGC6946 Fireworks Galaxy

M92 Globular Cluster in Hercules

M103  (Can you see the "Micro dipper")

NGC891 Edge-on Spiral Galaxy

M33 Pinwheel Galaxy

NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula

NGC6992 Veil nebula

Thursday and Friday nights at ECVAR were the best skies I have ever been under for Video Astronomy!

Later Friday night  I also tried out the SkyRaider DSc with a MFR-3 focal reducer and 5mm spacer on my Celestron 5" with my SkyProdigy Alt-Az mount.

After using my Remote Focus Mask to achieve a good focus, I placed the black felt pouch over the mask to convert it to a Remote Dark Mask.  I typed my close command on my laptop to move the Remote Dark Mask over the end of the dew shield, and captured three (quality=3) 60 second dark exposures as suggested by Chris A (even though my planned viewing exposures were 15-20 seconds).  Chris has found that these initial set of dark exposures typically are good for the evening, unless the temperature changes drastically over 5 degrees or you go over 2 hours of viewing.  If new darks are needed later, I can just type the command to close the Remote Dark Mask and take a new set.  I left the histogram and other settings at their default values for the dark capture process.

I then typed the open command on my laptop to remove the Remote Dark Mask from the end of the dew shield for normal viewing. I enabled the Dark Field Correction for viewing all images and adjusted the real time histogram as needed for each target.

Here are some image grabs (no stacking or post processing) using the MC DSc on my smaller 5” Celestron.

M27 Dumbbell

M57 Ring Nebula

NGC 891 Galaxy

M33 Pinwheel

NGC 6992 Veil

NGC6888 Crescent

What do you do with the finder scope of a Celestron 8SE if you have to remove it to install a StarSense AutoAlign?  Do you have to drill new holes if you want to use a Mallincam Micro for a video finder scope?  These were a couple of questions asked by one of the readers of my book "Beginning Video Astronomy...So, what's the matter?".
Let me first say don't drill! You can make use of existing screw holes by first removing the telescope's small plastic Star Pointer with a Phillips head screwdriver.

 I then installed an Orion 07215 Schmidt-Cassegrain Finder Scope Base which fits the factory drilled holes where the Star Pointer was located (it is also compatible with Meade and Orion Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes). It attaches directly to the SCT optical tube with included mounting screws that are slightly longer than the screws you remove from the SCT optical tube.  The extra length is needed to be able to attach the Orion base to the telescope.  It actually comes with two pairs of screws.  You have to examine them closely to group the pairs.  You will only use the pair that matches the threads of your factory drilled holes.  Carefully try one of the screws in one of the screw holes, turning it by hand to make sure it goes in without stopping. If so, that is the pair to use.  If not, try the other pair.  Here is the Orion base mounted to the SCT optical tube.

The StarSense AutoAlign comes with two types of brackets. You can use the larger bracket on the Celestron 8SE telescope, but if you use the smaller bracket you will be able to easily switch between the StarSense and the Video Finder Scope. Follow the StarSense instructions to replace the large bracket with its small bracket. The small bracket is compatible with the Orion finder scope base so you can just slip the StarSense into this base and tighten the hand screw.

I am currently using the Mallincam Micro-Super with the Orion 13022 Deluxe Mini 50mm Guide Scope for my Video Finder scope.

The video finder scope will also easily slide into the Orion bracket base.

The MallinCam Micro-Super has more sensitivity than the original Micro-EX, but both will work fine as a video finder. If you are purchasing a Micro, I recommend spending the little extra to get the Micro-Super for the extra sensitivity, and it has virtually zero amp glow! I also recommend getting the wired Micro version which has a single lightweight cable that comes out of the back of the camera.  The other end of the cable has video out, power in, a serial camera control socket and a small button control that you use instead of pressing buttons on the back of the video camera.  This reduces the possibility of affecting the alignment of your video finder scope due to heavy cables or trying to press buttons on the back of the camera. Of course I also recommend connecting the serial camera control to your computer and using my free MallinCam Micro Extended Control software to control the Micro from your computer so you can easily select presets for various targets (see my Download tab).

I also installed an Orion finder scope base on my Celestron C5 telescope so I can use the StarSense AutoAlign or Video Finder Scope on it as well.  If you have trouble mounting a finder base on your telescope (e.g. the screws are not long enough), you can take a screw you remove from the telescope to a local hardware store to get a longer screw.  Be sure you match it properly, especially if the telescope screw is metric.  Also take care when screwing the base onto your telescope to insert the screws at right angles to the telescope.  Since the telescope is round, the two screws will not be completely parallel to one another.

So what do you do if you miss having your simple red dot Star Pointer?  I highly recommend getting a TELRAD reflex sight, which is much easier to use.  The red TELRAD rings are continuously adjustable from off to full on.  It is lightweight and requires no mounting screws. You use the supplied double stick tape to mount its base directly to the side of your telescope tube.

You can easily take the TELRAD on and off. It does look somewhat large, but it is very lightweight.  If you buy the dew cover accessory that also contains a small mirror, in addition to looking straight through the TELRAD you can also view from a 90 degree angle as needed.

What if you want to use both the StarSense AutoAlign for aligning and the Video Finder Scope to assist finding and centering your faint fuzzy objects?  After you complete your StarSense AutoAlign, you can remove it and slide the Video Finder Scope in its place.  Or if you prefer to have both of them mounted on a Celestron C8, you can use the other mounting screw locations and either add an additional Orion finder scope base or install the StarSense AutoAlign large base (and keep the large bracket on the StarSense AutoAlign) since there is no need to swap it with anything.  Be sure to use the holes for mounting finders – do not remove the smaller telescope assembly screws!

Here is a picture of the TELRAD finder, the Video Finder Scope and the StarSense AutoAlign all mounted on my Celestron 8” telescope which is now on a CG-5 Equatorial mount.

This works fine with the C8 on my Equatorial mount, but on the SE mount this puts the StarSense AutoAlign somewhat on the underside of the Telescope since the C8 is side mounted on the SE mount.  It should still work OK as long as the StarSense AutoAlign “sees” the sky OK.  Be sure to calibrate the StarSense Camera wherever you mount it by selecting the StarSense Camera from the hand controller menu, choosing Calibrate, and then follow the prompts.

Here is another picture that better shows the various mounting techniques.

Here is M42 using a 0.5x Antares focal reducer on the end of a nosepiece (0.5x FR reduction = 0.49).  You begin to see some slight elongation of stars (coma) at the edges of the field of view. Note that even though this is called a 0.5x focal reducer, its reduction as used here is 0.49.  The actual reduction can vary depending on the distance between the sensor chip and the reducer.

To compute the effective reduction, I measured the x and y pixel position of the same two stars a and b on each of the images. 

Then I computed the pixel distance d between them for each configuration and its effective reduction to produce the following table, where d = sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy), dx = ax-bx and dy=ay-by.  Reduction is computed by dividing d for each focal reducer by the d of No FR.

With this scope I use either MFR-3 or 0.5x FR, but in general I prefer to use the MFR-3 with the 5mm spacer for good reduction with least side effects.  This essentially converts the F5 Newtonian to a faster F3.3 setup (F5 * 0.67 =F3.3).


The above images of M42 were all captured with the camera sharpness set to 20.  Setting sharpness to a lower value will make the stars appear more round like you see in photographs.  Here is M42 again using the PD2 and MFR-3 with sharpness set to 3.

There is a new version of the MallinCam Micro Extended Control software available on the Downloads tab (be sure to also download the new MicroExtended.pdf manual as well). If you are updating from a prior version, be sure to first uninstall the prior version by going to the Windows Control Panel and use add/remove programs to select and uninstall the "Micro Extended Control" program, and then install the new version.

Version 1.0.1.7 includes the following enhancements:

My broadcast name on Night Skies Network is NightLights.  Last night I broadcast a live session demo using my Mallincam Micro Extended Control software to show others how it works and what it can do (you can download the software for free on my Downloads tab).   I used my portable Remote Video Astronomy setup - Micro and my C5 scope on my SkyProdigy mount with two focal reducers to convert my scope from F10 to about F3.2 for a wider field of view and shorter exposure times. 

  You can view a copy of the broadcast on YouTube at:             http://youtu.be/UdRGWensG94

I have found I can use other light weight scopes on my SkyProdigy mount.  I can easily use my C5 on my SkyProdigy mount for a nice portable Remote Video Astronomy setup.  Since the C5 is a short scope, it can point straight up without worrying about slew limits (I would guess this would be true of the SkyProdigy 6 as well). When changing scopes, I find it is best to recalibrate the SkyProdigy’s camera to improve centering when slewing to an object.  This is an intermediate setup beyond what I describe in the Start Simple tab.  By using the MallinCam MFR-5 reducer on the Micro and a Celestron F/6.3 reducer on the Scope, the F10 C5 effectively is converted to a faster F3.2 setup for Video Astronomy. Stacking these two focal reducers is pushing the limits a little though (I sometimes remove the F/6.3). Here is a photo of the equipment setup.

This makes a lightweight “Grab & GoTo Scope” setup for RVA using the SkyProdigy mount. The Micro video output cable is connected to a small video capture device located inside the plastic bin.  The video capture device USB cable along with the Micro camera control USB cable and hand controller USB cable are plugged into a powered USB hub also in the plastic bin attached to the mount’s tray.

I keep my scope setup like this inside.  To use it, I pick it up and take it outside, power on and start the auto align.  While it is aligning, I unroll the hub’s 35 foot active USB cable, pass it through a window (and close the window down to the cable) and connect the USB cable to my laptop inside.  By the time the SkyProdigy finishes the alignment (about 3 min) I am ready to begin viewing inside. 

Anytime I slew to a new target (from inside), I click the Focus preset and center my target object using the telescope controls in Starry Night on my laptop.  Since the Focus preset enables the image to be updated every ½ second, it is a good setting to use when centering target objects like clusters or DSOs.  Once centered, I click on the appropriate Preset for the target object for better viewing.  Sometimes I also click on Adjustments to fine tune the Exposure and Enhance settings. 

So what’s the deal with using 3D-DNR?  This additional setting allows you to average up to five 17 second images in real time, in color. But to use 3D-DNR the AGC must be turned on, which can wash out an image and make it appear to be just a monochrome image.  Unless … you also adjust the color settings.  I was able to successfully produce an image of the dumbbell with color using 3D-DNR.  Below is the Dumbbell with 3D-DNR stacking set to 5, AGC set to high, Brightness set to 2 and Color/WB/ATW R-Y Gain = 250 & B-Y Gain = 250.  Here is the result.

And this was from my backyard near a city with a partial moon! Due to the sky conditions, these pictures are certainly not breath-taking, but they do illustrate the Micro can show color when stacking. Just to emphasize the sky conditions, here is the image of the Moon I also captured right after viewing the Dumbbell.

Not great conditions for viewing DSOs, but it is a nice view of the Moon!

Equipment, software and setup

These images were produced with a Celestron C5 (5" spotting scope) with a F/6.3 Focal Reducer and the Micro with a MFR-5 focal reducer on the latest SkyProdigy mount. This is my quick Remote Video Astronomy setup. I can pick it up and take it outside, start an AutoAlign, extend the cable inside to my laptop and be viewing from inside in 10-20 minutes. All these images were viewed and captured while inside.


I have actually written my own software for the Micro with Exposure and Enhancement presets so I can just click on a DSO icon or a Moon icon and it automatically sends the commands to the Micro to change the settings.  The software is available for free on my Download tab.

All but the color R-Y gain and B-Y gain can be automatically set using my Micro Extended Control Preset.  To include 3D-DNR stacking in the DSO preset, modify the setDSO.txt file  as shown below (the setDSO.txt file is in C:\MicroSettings):

Exposure: Normal
Senseup: Off
AGC: High
Lens: x1024
Brightness: 2
Gamma: 0.45
3D-DNR: 5
Monitor: LCD
DPC: Off


The other setting you need to adjust is the Color White Balance which must be set using the control buttons in the Manual section of my application.  Click the center button to bring up the Micro's menu on the screen and then the right button to go to the Micro’s Color menu option.  Click the Manual buttons to select WB/ATW and set the R-Y gain and B-Y gain settings to 250. Once set, they will remain at that value until manually changed again (you may want to try 200, etc.)

Now clicking on the DSO preset will automatically use the values from your revised DSO Preset file to set the Exposure and Enhance values for stacking in color.