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DS26cTEC First Impressions

12/15/2020

I recently purchased a Mallincam DS26cTEC Video Astronomy camera that has a large 28.3mm Class 1 CMOS sensor with 6224x4178 resolution. I have been very pleased with my existing DS10c, but had been thinking about getting a TEC camera for active cooling and greatly reduced hot pixels. When I heard about the DS26cTEC, I decided that was the TEC camera for me to move up to with an even bigger FOV, higher resolution and increased sensitivity.

Here are some of my first thoughts about the DS26cTEC…
1. The larger chip produces a very nice Field of View (chip diagonal 28.3 vs 21.63mm for DS10c)
2. Its smaller pixel size produces higher resolution detail (3.76 vs 4.63 microns for DS10c).
3. This is a lot of pixels (26.1 vs 10.7 megapixels for DS10c)!
4. The sensitivity is extremely good. When using 2x2 binning, it is awesome. I have also tried 3x3 and 4x4 binning with decent resolution. When using different binning settings, the FOV remains the same.
5. The TEC cooling produces very pleasing images without having to use darks (it uses the same cooling system as DS10cTEC version). Moving to a camera with TEC cooling does require a second cable to the camera for power, but I was able to easily figure out how to route the power cable at the telescope up to the camera.
6. No amp glow (same as DS10c).
7. I find using the Region of Interest (ROI) setting in MallincamSky is really effective with this camera for “zooming” in on your target and only stacking the pixels you are interested in. This also reduces the file size of saved images.

On the left is a picture my new black DS26cTEC next to my blue DS10c (which does not have TEC cooling), and on the right a picture of a black DS10cTEC (with cooling).

As you can see in the image on the right of a DS10cTEC, the addition of the TEC cooling feature increases the size of a camera, and it is worth it!

The MallinCam website describes the TEC feature this way. “MallinCam developed a unique cooling system that provides no direct physical contact between the Peltier cooler and the sensor. Instead, the Peltier cooler creates a convection system “refrigerator-like” environment that cools the sensor without actually contacting it. This cooling system is unique to MallinCam and not found on other astronomical imaging cameras.” … “ MallinCam has successfully designed a working alternative - a cooling chamber called refrigeration cooling - which subjects the CMOS sensor to cooling inside a triple sealed vacuumed sensor chamber controlled with a heating element mounted around the internal optical window to control and avoid dew formation on the optical window and surroundings. A vacuumed sealed chamber is used to eliminate the use of desiccant material and keep dew free environment permanently.” … “The result of this new technology [is it] will not require a dark frame for live application or imaging in most cases.”

My blue DS10c is a great camera. You can see my most recent images using the DS10c in my 10/24/2020 blog “Dark Skies in Oklahoma”. My DS10c produces nice images as long as I use darks to reduce the effects of hot pixels. I have to use darks most of the time with my DS10c - too many distracting hot pixels in the southern summers here if I didn't use darks (since my DS10c does not have TEC cooling). I found darks worked best when the darks were captured at similar settings as the image (Exposure, gain, histogram, etc.) This helped reduce the distracting pixels, but took up some of my time that I could have been viewing. That is one reason I wanted to get a TEC camera so I could quickly experiment with different settings to obtain the best image while viewing. With TEC cooling, there are very few hot pixels and average stacking does a pretty good job of reducing the distraction of any remaining hot pixels for near real-time viewing.

I know others with the DS10cTEC have success viewing without having to use darks due to TEC cooling. So far, I feel like I made the right choice for me to step up to the DS26cTEC to be able to “view” without having to capture and apply darks and getting a larger chip size/FOV and higher resolution.

I am still learning about using the TEC cooling. I use with the recommended default of 0 C (it now shows 32 F on my screen since I changed my preference setting to F). At the end of a session, I turn off the TEC cooling but let the fan run for a few minutes until the temp in the lower right of the screen reaches ambient temp and then I close MallincamSky and turn off power.

So far I have only had a few nights I could try the DS26cTEC out (mainly because of weather). Here are images from the DS26cTEC on three telescopes that will give you a feel for the Field of View with this chip size. I will happily note that I did not capture/apply any darks when capturing images shown in this post.

My first light with the DS10cTEC was of the moon using my MCR-80 F5 refractor.

Here is a nice image of Andromeda (M31) on a Newtonian 130mm (5”) F5 reflector.

This image of the Pleiades (M45) gives a good idea of the FOV using my 8” Schmidt-Cassegrain with Hyperstar at F2.

Using the Region of Interest (ROI) feature of MallincamSky is a great way to just view your target area of interest and only average stack the image portion you need. I noticed using ROI makes the stacking process more efficient and faster for the DS26cTEC compared to stacking the full FOV image resolution of 6224x4186. Also with ROI, saved images only include your target region resulting in smaller image files. Combining ROI with 2x2 binning can be a powerful combination with this camera. Due to the small native 3.76mm pixel size, using 2x2 binning still produces an image with good resolution.

The latter part of November we took our RV to a campground with a Bortle 4 rating. Rain was predicted for the first two nights and the third night was questionable. So I just took my easy setup SkyProdigy Mount (with StarSense) and the 130mm Newtonian F5 reflector that came with it. Back in 2014, the second blog post I made on my RemoteVideoAstronomy.com site on 11/17/2014 was titled “A good beginner telescope for RVA” and I used the Mallincam Micro on it. Fast forward to 2020 and I still use this telescope and mount for trips where I “might” have a viewing night. It paid off for the first part of the last night at this campground with a clear dark sky.

So here are some examples of putting an amazing DS26cTEC on the “little telescope that thought it could” at a Bortle 4 campground. These are all on a 5” Newtonian reflector at F5 using the DS26cTEC with 2x2 binning under clear dark skies.

In the following 3 examples the original field of view image is on the left and the image with ROI enabled is on the right.

M27 (Dumbbell) at 3 secs 100 gain 10-75 histogram 10 stacked 2x2 bin

M17 (Omega/Swan) at 2.2 secs 100 gain 45-200 histogram 22 stacked 2x2 bin.

NGC8912 (Spiral galaxy) at 5 secs 100 gain 12-100 histogram 10 stacked 2x2 bin.

Here are a couple of examples of just an ROI image using Live High Dynamic Range (LHDR) technique where some settings are changed during the stacking process:

M33 (Triangulum/Pinwheel) 5 secs 100 gain 20-135 histogram 10 stacked then 25-75 histogram 20 more stacked (LHDR) 2x2 bin

NGC253 (Sculptor/Silver Dollar) 4 secs 100 gain 64-200 histogram 10 stacked then 64-150 histogram 10 more stacked (LHDR) 2x2 bin

Back at home, I captured an image of the Orion Nebula using my Celestron 8” SCT with the Universe Focal Reducer and a 10mm spacer. There is a little vignetting with the 10mm spacer (another day I tried the Universe Focal Reducer without a 10mm spacer and it greatly reduced the vignetting effect).

In the following image I used the LHDR technique at 100 gain 0-255 histogram and varied the exposure from 1s,2s,3s,4s,5s and then changed the histogram to 0-50 for the remaining time. Interesting combination. There were 35 total images average stacked. I did a quick enhancement (<1min) of the final image using Microsoft Photo editor for it to show up better on the web.

m42 (Orion Nebula) 1s..5s 100g 0-255h..0-50h 35stk

I will have to say I am very pleased with my new DS26cTEC! I hope to soon try it out more on my 8” SCT with Hyperstar at F2.

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Dark Skies in Oklahoma

10/24/2020

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This October I got a chance to take my Mallincam DS10c Video Astronomy camera, Celestron 8” F10 telescope and Celestron Evolution Alt/Az Mount to Texoma Shores Resort campground in Oklahoma with nice dark Bortle 4 skies. There were light clouds when we first arrived but good weather most nights and temperatures of around 50-60 degrees. This time of year, we were able to get a site with no one beside us at the edge of a field with good overhead viewing.

I was able to leave my telescope set up and covered during the day right next to our RV and car. As evening approached, I could easily uncover the telescope, perform an Auto Align with my Star Sense accessory and start viewing fairly quickly. I began with a Mallincam Universe Focal Reducer and a 10mm spacer on the DS10c on a diagonal attached to my C8 telescope.

My exposure times of deep sky objects were around 1-5 seconds with darks applied and using average stacking of 10 – 60 images for near real time viewing on my laptop screen of what the camera was “seeing” through my telescope.

The object, exposure, gain, histogram and sharpness settings are noted with each image. I used video mode (rather than looping mode) since all exposure times were less than 5 seconds. After slewing to a target and adjusting the settings for the best image, I turned on live frame averaging and enjoyed viewing the target details unfold!

In the following deep sky images, the one on the left is what I saw on the screen (no post processing) updating every 1-5 seconds depending upon the exposure setting, and I could zoom the image to see more detail. The image on the right is cropped (like a zoom) from the left image and is a slightly enhanced image of the target. I spent less than two minutes of “post processing” using the regular Microsoft Photos Edit/Enhance/Adjust functions to crop and produced the image on the right to show up better on the web. My camera settings are noted after the target name where s=seconds, g=gain, h=histogram range, vh=the histogram values were varied while stacking for Live HDR effect, srp=sharpness, stk=#stacked with averaging, b=binning value. The distance from earth is listed at the end in lightyears (kly=thousand light years, Mly=million light years)

If you right click on an image and select Open image in a new tab, then click on the new tab you will see a bigger version of the image.

M27 Dumbbell (or Apple Core) nebula - 5s 160g 0-255vh 200srp 60stk – 1400ly

M17 Omega (or Swan) nebula - 5s 160g 0-100h 200srp 20stk – 4200ly

NGC891 Spiral galaxy - 5s 160g 0-100h 200srp 10stk – 32Mly

M13 Hercules Cluster - 2b 1.2s 160g 0-100h 200srp 40stk – 23kly

M16 Eagle (or Star Queen) nebula - 5s 160g 0-100h 200srp 10stk – 5700ly

Having noticed Jupiter, Saturn and Mars shining brightly in the sky, after a couple of days I removed the Universe Focal Reducer and attached my 2.5x Barlow to check them out. These were very short exposures due to their brightness. Exposure time for planets were 2-10 milliseconds (ms) with 15-38 gain. The following images were “post processed” using the regular Microsoft Photos Edit/Enhance/Adjust functions to crop and enhance the details of the image I captured from the screen. There are really good planet post-processing applications that can scan through many images and only combine the best ones to produce much better detail. I just had fun live averaging all images and quickly seeing what I could see. The full field of view image is on the left and the cropped/enhanced image is on the right.

Jupiter - 7ms 13g 0-255h 20stk

Mars - 2ms 15g 0-200h 20stk 200srp

Saturn - 10ms 38g 0-255h 300srp 40stk

Later in the week, I installed my Hyperstar focal reducer which produces a nice wide Field of View at F2. With this configuration, the Hyperstar and the DS10c camera are at the top end of the telescope.

As before, the images below on the left are what I saw on the screen (no post processing) updating every 1-5 seconds depending upon the exposure setting. The images on the right are cropped (from the left image) and I only spent 1-2 minutes to quickly enhance the image using the regular Microsoft Photo viewer/editor.

If you compare the following M27 image on the left to the previous one of M27 without the Hyperstar installed you can get a feel for how much the Hyperstar increases the Field of View.

M27 Dumbbell (or Apple Core) nebula - 1s 70g 15-150h 20stk – 1400ly

NGC891 Spiral edge-on galaxy - 3s 80g 50-150h 30stk - 32Mly

M82 Bode's (or Cigar) galaxy M82 1s 80g 35-150h 10stk

NGC7293 Helix Nebula - 3s 80g 75-255h 20stk - 790ly

NGC253 Sculptor (or Silver Dollar) galaxy - 1s 80g 25-150h 20stk - 12Mly

M45 Pleiades (or Seven Sisters) cluster 3s 80g 25-150h 20stk - 430ly

NGC7635 Bubble nebula - 3s 80g 40-200vh 20stk – 1400ly

There is not much to zoom into the North American Nebula, so only the full unenhanced image is shown below.

NGC7000 North American nebula - 2s 80g 35-100h 20stk - 2600ly

M16 Eagle nebula - 1s 80g 50-150h 20stk - 5700ly

M8 Lagoon nebula - 750ms 35-150h 20stk - 4300ly

M20 Trifid nebula - 850ms 35-150h 200srp 30stk 5200ly

Here is another image of both M8 and M20 in the same field of view.

M8 & M20 Lagoon & Trifid nebula - 750s 35-150h 30stk 100srp - 4.3kly & 5.2kly

M17 Omega (or Swan) nebula - 1s 80g 54-150h 20stk - 4200ly

I wondered why I had difficulty when I tried observing the Whirlpool galaxy one night. With a little extra exposure time applied I realized why, looked up and saw how low the Whirlpool was on the horizon!

M51 Whirlpool galaxy - 1s 80g 40-150h 200srp 40stk - 28Mly ... Tree - about 40 yards

This image of the Andromeda Galaxy particularly stands out in my mind from this trip and nicely shows how big the field of view is with the Hyperstar installed. This is using a 3 second exposure time and average stacking 20 images. The initial image appeared after 3 seconds and then updated every 3 seconds averaging the next image. This is how it looked on the screen after 1 minute. Periodically I am reminded just how amazing video astronomy is and how fortunate we are to live in a time we have the tech available to see this while there are still dark skies nearby we can go to.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy - 3s 80g 50-150h 20stk – 2.5Mly

We liked being at this nice, quiet out of the way campground, and I really enjoyed the dark skies! It was just a days drive from our home. My wife and I have already talked about planning another trip there next year.

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65’ USB3 Active Extension Cable for RVA

5/15/2020

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A couple of years ago when I got my first USB3 video astronomy camera, the longest USB3 Active Extension Cable that worked well for me for video astronomy was 32’ long. Active extension cables require their own 5v power source usually at the far end of the cable in order to properly power the video camera and maintain a good signal back to your comptuer. This was long enough to use for Remote Video Astronomy at my home from my backyard to my laptop in our sunroom.

However, 32’ was not long enough to reach to our family room where I sometimes show live deep sky objects from my telescope outside on our large TV screen. When I needed more length, I put two 32’ cables together, but the second cable also required power. So a second power source mid-way was needed. I hoped there would be longer active USB3 cables available over time.

Recently I purchased a MutecPower 65 Foot Active USB Extension Cable 3.0 from Amazon for $70 which included an AC Power Supply.

The 5v power attaches at the end of the cable. The cable has 3 Extension chipsets for signal boosters (one at the end and two equally spaced along the cable).

In the past, I have sometimes used a portable battery containing usb power ports to provide 5v to power my active USB cables. I found I could use it with this 65’ cable as well if no AC power was available at the telescope. Each of the signal boosters have a blue led that turns on when power is applied.

So far I have been pleased with the quality of this 65 foot cable which provides plenty of power for my MallinCam DS10c video astronomy camera. The 3 signal boosters maintain the USB3 signal well back to my computer.

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Portable Basic+ Remote Video Astronomy

3/6/2020

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It was a cold night and the Moon was rising, but it was clear. We have had lots of rain and clouds recently and I have not had much viewing time this year. So, I decided to take advantage of the evening and use a basic Remote Video Astronomy (RVA) setup … inside our motorhome where it was warm. Through the use of a Video Astronomy camera and a simple means to extend the camera cable inside, along with a way to control the mount remotely, it doesn’t matter to you how cold it is outside since you are toasty warm inside.

It was not near as cold as shown in Matt’s outside setup in the prior 2/9/2020 blog post containing his article in the Cedar Amateur Astronomers newsletter. The only addition he needed to add for his Remote Video Astronomy setup was a USB3 extension cable attached to the cable of his Video Astronomy Camera and run it along with the mount hand controller cable through his convenient patio door. Be sure to read his article for some very good tips.

I also used a USB3 extension cable but added a SkyFi module at my telescope which allowed me to control the mount from inside wirelessly using SkySafari on my iPhone as shown in the following diagram.

I used a Mallincam DS10c Video Astronomy camera inserted into an MCR-80 Refractor on a SkyProdigy mount (which has auto align built in). This was very portable and was easy to set up near our Motorhome.

Since I was controlling the mount wirelessly, the only cable run I had was the USB3 extension cable snaked through a window on the Motorhome.

I was able to gently almost close the window to keep the cold out (a towel could be used to seal it better if needed) and operate using my laptop and phone from the couch inside the motorhome.

Before we changed over to a Motorhome, we pulled a camper and I had a small port installed on the side so I could easily pass through cables from my RVA equipment outside (see my 8/5/2015 blog post). With our newest rig, I decided to keep it simple and just run the USB extension cable through the slightly open window.

Portable

This is a basic+ RVA setup that is extremely portable and great to take with me on our travels. The telescope and mount are lightweight and easily carried in cases. The tripod and the cable bin could be put into a suitcase if you are flying to your destination (the mount could also be packed in a suitcase if needed).

The Video Astronomy camera is packed in the telescope carry case. The hand controller is in the mount/laptop carry bag. The plastic bin contains all the cables I need plus the SkyFi controller.

In addition to the DS10c camera, the telescope case has room for the camera nosepiece, a 2” 0.5x focal reducer, a 2” filter and a small spare camera.

The mount/laptop carry bag holds the mount, my laptop, tripod tray and hand controller.

These cases make it easy to organize and carry everything you need for your RVA setup.

Flexible

Instead of the MCR-80, I can take a Celestron 5” telescope that is also in a easy to carry case and fits nicely on the SkyProdigy mount.

I originally purchased the SkyProdigy 130 which comes with a great light weight 5” Newtonian telescope that is ready to go for Video Astronomy at F/5 with no need for a focal reducer and works great with Video Astronomy cameras. This telescope is not as compact but is easy to carry in its original shipping box. I have found the SkyProdigy mount is able to work with a variety of lightweight telescopes. Here is a link to my original 2014 post about the SkyProdigy 130 for RVA …

a-good-beginner-telescope-and-mount-for-rva.html

Super Power

I have a Rockpals 250-Watt Portable Rechargeable Lithium Battery Pack for super portability. This battery pack supplies 12v for the mount, 5v for the USB3 active extension cable and 115v for my laptop while I am next to my telescope. Since everything is then completely battery operated, I can set it up anywhere. In fact, I used this at the Grand Canyon Star Party to power my Evolution mount and laptop since we were set up in a parking lot with no electricity.

Video Astronomy anywhere

I am sold on using Video Astronomy for near real time viewing of the wonders in the night sky wherever we may go, whether I am next to my telescope or inside operating it remotely ... seeing objects in color and better than I could ever see looking through an eyepiece!

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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…for Remote Video Astronomy

2/9/2020

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By Matt Harmston

Winter skies: (sometimes) Clear, cold, and mesmerizing. The season always excites me, as I get to spend time with celestial favorites like the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), the Pleiades Cluster (Messier 45), and the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31). Whether using simple binoculars or exposing camera chips, these showcase items and many more beg for attention. Funny thing, though…it’s hard to see clearly with frost hanging off the eyelashes. How might we still enjoy astronomy without eyelids freezing shut?

Remote Video Astronomy: Simple, Satisfying, Cold Defying

When conditions become really unpleasant, I often transition my viewing into the house. Remote viewing need not involve distant mountaintops, nor must you have professional grade equipment. Rather, I’m talking about controlling even a modest camera and telescope setup from inside…something about which I first read on a website owned by Jim Meadows (http://remotevideoastronomy.com/index.html).

My remote setup is seen in the adjacent image: A 100mm SkyWatcher Pro ED refractor, Celestron AVX mount, and any one of my MallinCam CMOS video cameras connected to my laptop. Sure…cables and computers make the setup sound complex. But, let me explain how my remote solution is designed. Before doing any viewing, I found a spot on the patio where I could plug the mount into an external outlet.

Upon carrying the fully-assembled rig outside, leveling the tripod, and doing a polar alignment, I marked tripod foot location for reasonably reliable future placement. By doing so, I can avoid having to go through the polar alignment process each time. From this location, I can snake the USB3 cable and mount handset through the patio door, gently closing it around the cables (gently…you don’t want to kink your cables!).

With no further PA required given my exposure times, each session is streamlined: Carry the rig outside, place the tripod feet on their marks, plug in the cords/cables, and set my goto/viewing in motion. Once set up, control of mounts and cameras is the same as if you were outside with frosted eyelids. Of course, this solution doesn’t give a perfect, airtight fit for the door (a couple of pool noodles inserted in the vertical track can help with that). But, there’s not much room for cold air to sneak in.

With all the pieces in place, your viewing options are no longer limited by creature comforts. Still, we have to bear in mind limitations of our equipment. For instance, when slewing to a new object, I always illuminate the mount to determine if I must pause the slew due to cable snag or a camera contacting the tripod. Also, bitter cold makes plastic brittle, thus putting cables at risk of being damaged if flexed too much. For teardown on those frigid nights, I won’t coil up cables nor put much pressure on other plastics until things have warmed up in the house. Similarly, electronics don’t always appreciate frigid temperatures, much less coming back into a warm, humid home. Thus, be sure to follow your typical post-viewing/condensation-mitigation routine. When in use on really cold nights (for me, that’s below 10F), progressively worsening mount goto and/or tracking tell me that hot cocoa and a movie with my 4-legged observing buddy is a better option.

While remote video astronomy works nicely during our frigid winter months, it’s also quite handy during buggy, muggy summer nights. No sweat, no bugs, and no swollen bites go hand-in-hand with summertime remote video astronomy. Granted, I prefer immersion under the night’s canopy to being inside, but in a cold (or hot) pinch, remote viewing is very rewarding.

In the End…

Remote video astronomy can take on many designs, some more elaborate than others. My simple, functional approach serves my needs well. And, it provides a quick, comfortable, safe way for all of us to enjoy clear skies regardless whenever they occur. How might you engage in remote astronomy? Give it a try…you just might enjoy it!

[NOTE: With Matt’s permission, I posted his article that appeared in the Feb, 2020 Cedar Amateur Astronomers newsletter. This is the first time I have posted an article from someone else. It was such a good article about using a basic Remote Video Astronomy setup (in very cold weather) I asked him if I could include it in my blog. It is a nice description, simple solution and easily repeatable. – Jim Meadows]

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2019 Grand Canyon Star Party (GCSP) - June 22-29

7/15/2019

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Every year amateur astronomers gather at the Grand Canyon for up to a week as volunteers to show visitors views of the heavenly sights at night through their telescopes. I went to my first Grand Canyon Star Party (GCSP) in 2017 and returned this past summer in June 2019 for my second time. The 2019 GCSP was particularly special in that the Grand Canyon had just been officially declared an International Dark Sky Park and had a special ceremony at Mather Point on the first day. Besides being located in a dark area of the US, the Grand Canyon has worked hard converting their lamps to downward facing dark-sky compliant lighting to maintain dark skies with a minimum of light glare. This was also the 100th anniversary of the Grand Canyon becoming a national park and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing (the Grand Canyon National Park took part in helping train the astronauts in the processes of geology).

There were two areas in a large parking lot behind the visitor’s center for amateur astronomers to set up their equipment that were open to visitors from about 8-11pm. At the entrance to the parking lot there was a roped off area for those of us who used live Video Astronomy where we could show Deep Sky Objects (DSO) in near real time on monitors to small groups at a time.

The center picture below was taken during the day and shows my telescope (orange), table, chair, laptop (in the small tent) and LCD screen for visitor viewing. The picture on the right was taken at night showing how visitors can easily see on the LCD screen the image as seen by the camera through my telescope in near real time.

The remaining area was for traditional visual viewing where visitors can wait in line at a variety of telescopes to get a chance to look through the telescope and see planets and DSOs. You see quite an assortment of setups here, including large and unusual!

It is important to keep these two viewing areas separate so that, as visitors move further into the parking lot away from our monitors their eyes can adapt to the dark for better individual viewing through eyepieces. This is not an issue in the video astronomy area since the images we see are on displays that can be easily viewed by several people at a time, even if they have just left the brightly lit visitors center.

Here is are daily summaries and screen captures of some of the objects I viewed and discussed with visitors as they passed by. I sometimes slewed to the same target on various days, so these may not represent the exact images I showed on a particular day. The images for the 27-28 are a different field of view from the others due to the change in the reducer used. The images shown on the left is the full field of view seen by the camera without any enhancements. The image on the right is a zoomed in section of that image with about 1 minute of enhancement adjustments I made later using the standard Microsoft Photos application, so it shows up better here on the web site. I always like to talk about how far away an object is in light years.

6/22/19

My wife, Sharon, and I arrived on Saturday and set up our camper in the RV park at the Grand Canyon. This was very convenient since it was just a short drive from there over to the area where we set up our telescopes. I brought my Sky Prodigy 130 (an f/5 Newtonian) for my arrival day since it is very easy to set up and use with my Mallincam DS10c. I started with the Hercules Cluster, M13, and wound up showing it to many groups for most of the evening.

We wore shorts during the day at the Grand Canyon, and I have to admit that I forgot how quickly the temp drops after sunset and didn’t have enough warm clothing the first night and was shivering as I talked to the last of the visitors. I brought extra layers I could put on as the evening progressed for the rest of the week!

6/23/19

During the day I assembled my Celestron Evolution mount with my Celestron C8 telescope and Hyperstar which makes it a fast f/2 setup. This combined with my very sensitive Mallincam DS10c produced a spectacular field of view (FOV = 2.51 x 1.88 deg)!

M13 – Hercules Cluster (23 Kly)

M81 - Bode’s Nebula and M82 - Cigar Galaxy (12 Mly)

M8 - Lagoon Nebula (4.3Kly)

M20 - Trifid Nebula (5.2 Kly)

Most exposure times were 2-5 seconds and I used live average stacking. The Evolution mount is an Alt-Az mount that was much easier to set up than my equatorial mount I had used at the previous GCSP I attended. The night was very dark with no wind which was great for viewing. I estimated that I showed deep sky objects to about 200 visitors that night. I didn’t leave until 12:30 am, which was typical for most of the week.

6/24/19

I continued to use the Evolution/C8/Hyperstar/DS10c setup. It was another good dark night, but it was a little windy. It was obvious that I was showing “live” images because you could see the image blur a little when the wind blew

NGC6888 - Crescent Nebula (5.4Kly)

M27 - Dumbbell Nebula (1400 ly)

NGC6939 and NGC6946 - Fireworks Galaxy (22 Mly)

6/25/19

It was cloudy this evening!

So, what do you do when visitors show up? With a regular eyepiece telescope setup, you could talk about your telescope and what you could see if it wasn’t cloudy. But if you have a video astronomy setup, you can show them images on the LCD screen of the objects you viewed the night before.

And you can say I saw this image of the Dumbbell Nebula on that display last night through this telescope using that camera. Then you proceed to talk about the object. There was something special about them seeing the image on the screen and then looking at the telescope and camera that produced it the night before at that very spot that made it real to them.

6/26/19

It was a clear dark night and viewing was good again.

NGC7000 - North America Nebula (2600 ly)

M17 - Swan (4.2 Kly)

6/27/19

During the day, I removed the Hyperstar from the top of the Celestron C8 telescope and put the secondary mirror back in place. I installed my recently acquired Mallincam Universe 2” 0.5x focal reducer and the Mallincam DS10c on the lower end of the C8 telescope producing an f/5 setup. You can see that the field of view (FOV = 37.8 x 28.3 arcmin) is smaller than the one with the Hyperstar installed by comparing the left image here of the Dumbbell to the one shown under 6/24/19, but this FOV is nice when viewing objects the size of the Dumbbell or the Trifid (i.e. objects appear larger when FOV is smaller). Using a technique that Michael Carnes developed, I tried 5 second exposures but used additive stacking of 4-6 images to produce good near real time images. I adjusted the settings so the initial image was barely visible. Then as the additive stacking progressed, a really nice image appeared on the screen. We had a good crowd come by that Thursday night and I estimated about 250 people came by my site.

M27 - Dumbbell Nebula (1400 ly)

M20 - Trifid Nebula (5.2 Kly)

6/28/19

This was an interesting day. Jack Heurkamp, whose setup was next to mine in the parking lot, came by our campsite to say when he went to the parking lot my telescope had been blown over and was lying on the ground. I always remove the focal reducers and camera before I leave each night but left the telescope on the mount and placed a cover over it. Apparently, the cover made a good wind sail and blew my setup over either during the late night or morning. It must have hit my table on the way down, which slowed it down, and then the mount hit the asphalt first which absorbed the blow. Jack removed the telescope from the mount for me to protect it. When I got to my site, nothing appeared really broken and I set everything back up and added the Universe focal reducer and the DS10c camera and crossed my fingers. It was cloudy at first, so we started by showing previous night’s images. Then it cleared, I slewed to my first object and … all was well! Here is a nice image of the Whirlpool Galaxy I captured while showing it that night. We had a really good crowd come by again that night.

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy (28 Mly)

6/29/19

The last night was going to be cloudy, so I just packed up all my gear during the day. A group of us had an enjoyable supper together that evening at the El Tovar. It was a great way to end the week.

Tourist stuff…

In addition to seeing the great dark skies at the Grand Canyon at night, we also got to be tourists during the day. Sharon and I were able to walk the rim trail and use the shuttles to see Yavapai Point and Lodge, the Geology museum, Hopi House, Verkampf Visitor Center, Lookout Studio, Kolb Studio, Bright Angel Lodge and some local wildlife. The days were very pleasant in the 70’s with only 20% humidity (you had to drink plenty of water though).

On Tuesday, everyone who was interested rode down to Tusayan for the IMAX film of the Grand Canyon and a pizza lunch. On Wednesday Sharon and I drove to the Cameron Trading Post (about 90 miles away) and stopped at Desert View and climbed the tower on the way back. Thursday morning, we got up at 4am and parked near the Hopi House and walked to the rim to watch the sun rise, and ate breakfast at El Tovar afterwards. On Friday, we drove down to Flagstaff with friends for a tour of the Lowel Observatory.

This was our longest camping trip we have made to date. We took 5 days traveling from Jackson, MS, to the Grand Canyon, spent 8 days at the Grand Canyon, and 5 days returning home. It was a great trip!

Related Posts...

My custom NexStar Hand Control Holder that I made using my 3D printer worked well! (See my 6/12/19 post). The Holder attached to a step stool next to me making the Hand Conrol easily reachable. Also my simple Velcro/fiberboard solution I attached to my monitor worked great, eliminating the glare from the control portions of the screen so all that visitors saw was the actual camera image. (See my 5/28/19 post)

If you are interested, here is a link to my post on how the Hyperstar is mounted on the Celestron C8 telescope:

remotevideoastronomy.com/blog/hyperstar-setup-guidelines

For the 2017 GCSP I used a Mallincam Xterminator II with a NexGen F3.3 reducer on the Celestron 8" telescope mounted on an Equatorial mount. I did not have any trouble that year with the wind, probably because the heavy weights of the equatorial mount made it more stable. (See my 6/30/2017 post).

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Reducing Glare from Viewing Monitor

5/28/2019

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I am preparing for the 2019 Grand Canyon Star Party (GCSP) in June where there will be both Video Astronomy and Visual Astronomy setups in different areas, but still near each other. When you just have Video Astronomy setups together, stray light is not an irritation. We all are looking at our monitors. When there are others in the area relying on their night vision to visually look through eyepieces, then nearby light from monitors can be an issue. The main glare is not really from the image from the camera. The problem comes more from the brighter control areas and tabs around the image area of the screen.

Two years ago, when I first attended the GCSP, I realized this is an issue that needs to be addressed when using Video Astronomy near Visual Astronomy setups. It was even suggested that we tape something over the bright control parts of the screen to reduce the amount of light given off. I immediately thought that I am not going to put tape on my monitor screen! We managed to make some adjustments and did OK, but I felt I needed to find a good solution for next time.

So here it is two years later, and even though as before we have our own Video Astronomy area, there are Visual Astronomy areas somewhat nearby. We need to try to keep the light from our monitors at a minimum to not affect other’s night vision. I can shield the light coming from my laptop video screen that I work from by putting it inside a cloth (or plastic) enclosure. I like to use a LapDome I purchased from Amazon that helps contain the light from the laptop and keeps dew off my laptop. The dome is also very compact when folded up and easy to carry.

I can set up a second monitor for others to also view the image from the video astronomy camera, but the white control areas on the screen around the actual camera image are quite bright when it is really dark outside. The software I’m using does not have a way to just display the camera image on a second screen without losing access to some of the controls for the DS10c USB3 camera. Putting the second monitor inside a plastic bin helps cut down on its stray light some, but the display is still too bright.

Then I reconsidered the simple suggestion from two years ago to cover up the control areas on the second monitor. Velcro has come to the rescue! I put Velcro all around the 4 edges of my monitor screen.

Then I cut out four black “bars” of specific shapes from a black fiber board and put short Velcro strips on the back of them at key places.

Now I can “stick” these black fiber board bars onto the Velcro around the screen to mask everything except the camera image. It makes for an interesting looking monitor, but it works!

And this is adjustable. If I modify the control layout during setup, I can easily relocate these black masks as needed. The black masks are large enough to extend beyond the LCD screen so they can be moved in/out and up/down as needed. If you don’t want the “adjustable” feature, just cut out the masks close to the specific sizes needed. Small scroll bars will appear on the left and bottom of the image when you zoom in, and I make sure I have the black masks covering those portions of the screen so a bright line is not seen when I zoom in. Even though this 21.5” monitor is effectively “reduced” to a 16” viewing area, the image is still a nice size and is bigger than my 14” laptop.

The second monitor duplicates exactly what I have on my laptop, including control areas and the camera image area. But with the black fiber board overlay covering up portions of the LCD screen of the second viewing monitor, just the camera image area is visible. That way I have access to everything on the laptop but only the camera image is visible on the second monitor.

The above image was taken with a flash. When it is dark, all you see of the viewing monitor is a nice Video Astronomy Camera image.

It turns out this was actually a fairly easy, low cost, and very simple solution.

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2019 Super Blood Wolf Moon Total Lunar Eclipse

1/23/2019

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Yep. You read the title right. Between the evening of Sunday, January 20th, and the early morning hours of Monday, January 21, a total lunar eclipse was observed in the Americas. The Moon was almost at its perigee (the closest that the Moon comes to the earth in its elliptic orbit), which is sometimes called a “supermoon” because the moon has a slightly larger-than-usual apparent size. It was also a “wolf” moon – the first full moon in a calendar year. During a total lunar eclipse, the moon takes on a reddish blood-like color. Thus the name “super blood wolf moon” for this particular total lunar eclipse. The next total lunar eclipse will not occur until May 2021.

I captured images once a minute before, during and after the total eclipse with a MallinCam DS10c camera inserted into my MCR-80ED refractor telescope on my SkyProdigy mount. I was inside where it was warm using Remote Video Astronomy to control the mount & camera and view the image live on my monitor.

I did periodically go outside and to look up and see how it looked to the eye. I also looked at it through my Canon Image Stabilizer 12x36 IS III Binoculars. Within a few moments of pressing down on the button on the top of these binoculars, the jittery handheld view transforms in to a nice stable floating image of the moon. (Its also great for viewing the stars and other bright objects without them jumping all over your field of view).

Speaking of moving around in the field of view, due to the long duration of this event and the tracking limits of my SkyProdigy Alt-Az mount, my image captures of the moon shifted some within the field of view during the eclipse. So I had to slightly adjust the telescope position every once in a while to move the moon’s image back toward the center of the image. You can see the shifting position of the moon in all of the images below. The following two images are of the full moon before the eclipse began and after it began to darken.

As it began to darken more, I began to wonder when I would see the “red blood” effect. I then realized I would only see black for the dark portion if I didn’t adjust my exposure. After lengthening the exposure slightly, the white portion became over exposed, but I then could see the red effect increase as the moon neared totality.

After awhile the moon began to brighten…

… ultimately requiring me to shorten my exposure to once again be able to see the details in the brightly illuminated portion of the moon. And when the eclipse was over, it returned to a normal full moon – but still a super one! 😊

If you compare the first image of the moon before the eclipse began and look through the images to the last one after it was over, the image of the moon appears rotated later in the evening. This is not due to the moon’s spin (once/month), but is due to the “field rotation” effect when using an Alt-Az mount.

I had thought about using an equatorial mount for viewing and recording the lunar eclipse to avoid any field rotation. The good news is the orientation of the moon would have remained the same in the captured image throughout the evening. But as the moon changes from being viewed to the east to being viewed to the west, a “meridian flip” occurs. The bad news is that to keep tracking the object past the meridian position with an equatorial mount, at some point you must stop tracking the object, flip your telescope from pointing east to point toward the west, and then resume tracking.

With an Alt-Az mount the telescope just keeps tracking the moon as it moves from east to west with no meridian flip to deal with. However, its view of the sky will rotate within the field of view. In fact, an Alt-Az mount “sees” the sky just like you do when you look up. If you had looked at the moon toward the east before the eclipse began and noted where a particular bright crater was located (like Tycho), and then looked again where the bright crater was located after the eclipse was over, you would realize the image of the moon that you now see has rotated somewhat. So an Alt-Az mount actually reproduces your point of view of the skies as you would see it looking up.

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DS10c LHDR averaging – Part 2

12/5/2018

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Yesterday, I repeated my Live High Dynamic Range (LHDR) testing with the DS10c, this time using a Celestron 6” Telescope with the Optec NextGen Maxfield 0.33X reducer, which produced about a f/3.3 setup.

As I noted in my prior post, this LHDR technique only works in video mode since you adjust the gain while average stacking (you cannot change the gain when looping in trigger mode). Because video mode only supports exposure up to 5 seconds, you need a fairly fast setup. I was able to use a 3 second exposure setting at this f/3.3 setup. I tried it both without binning and with binning.

As before I used three gain settings of 4, 40 and 80 without binning. I set the gain to 80 (my max gain settings) and adjusted the histogram lower setting to 7 to slightly darken the background. I left the upper setting at 255. I changed the gain to the low setting of 4, set the number of frames to average to 10 and turned on Planet averaging with align. After 15 output frames I moved the gain from 4 to 40. Note that the key is monitoring the number of output frames, not the number of input frames. After 15 more output frames (30 total) I moved the gain from 40 to 80. I let it run for 30 more output frames at gain 80 (60 total output frames) resulting in the following image.

3 second exposure, histogram 7-255, 15 averaged output frames at gain of 4 plus 15 averaged output frames at gain of 40, plus 30 averaged output frames at gain of 80 using live stacking.

I didn’t get as much detail at this point as I previously had using my 8” with Hyperstar at f/2. So I decided to try using bin 2, leaving all the settings the same and repeating the process, but changing the gain from 4 to 40 after 5 output images, and from 40 to 80 after 5 more output images, and let it run for 10 more output images (20 total output). The final captured image is shown below.

Bin 2, 3 second exposure, histogram 7-255, 15 averaged output frames at gain of 4 plus 15 averaged output frames at gain of 40, plus 30 averaged output frames at gain of 80 using live stacking.

I was pleased with the results of using bin 2 with 3 second exposure on a 6” telescope at f/3.3 using the LHDR process with 4, 40 and 80 gain settings.

Even though this is somewhat “like” an astrophotography process averaging frames with different settings, it still has the “live” feel that makes Video Astronomy so much fun. I get to see results in near real time in amazing detail and color that I never could see with these eyes of mine looking through a telescope! And you can experiment with different settings and quickly see the results.

To compare this result to using the LHDR process on a 8” telescope with Hyperstar operating at f/2 see my prior blog post at

remotevideoastronomy.com/blog/ds10c-live-hdr-averaging

12/12/2018 UPDATE:

Matt Harmston has done some outstanding work expanding the use of this LHDR technique! He found you could in fact make use of LHDR techniques while using trigger mode. This opens up LHDR to anyone since video mode is Not a requirement, and thus it is no longer limited to under 5 second exposures.

He found that while using trigger mode you can stop looping without stopping averaging, change the gain, and then restart looping right where you left off still averaging with the prior image! The key is to not disable averaging during this process. I have found it actually makes it somewhat easier since you can stop looping at a certain point and take your time to change the gain (and/or other settings). Then you just turn looping back on and the average stacking continues. You can do this as many times as you like to continue developing a LHDR image! Instead of changing the gain, you can also do this varying other settings like the exposure time, histogram, gamma, contrast, etc.

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DS10c on 80mm with SkyProdigy for RVA

11/17/2018

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I have been wanting to try out the Mallincam DS10c with my f/5.5 80mm ED refractor telescope (MCR-80) and decided to use it the last couple of nights in spite of less than ideal conditions. The moon was half full and the skies were not fully clear, but it did give me an idea of the field of view of this combination and what it could do (FOV is 2.24 x 1.68 degrees).

I used them on my SkyProdigy mount, which turned out to be a very lightweight and portable setup (with AutoAlign built in). I can easily set it up inside and pick up & carry the entire assembly outside to my driveway. Each component can also be carried on a trip without taking up a lot of room. I screwed the DS10c onto the 2” focus adapter of the MCR-80. Due to the Moon, I also decided use my 2” Baader Moon and Skyglow filter.

The following images show the Andromeda Galaxy and Orion Nebula from last night, and the Moon from the night before. I tried some fainter DSOs but due the conditions they did not show up as well. I plan to try again on a clear, dark night without a filter.

Here is the image of the Moon, which gives you an idea of the Moon light conditions and the field of view of the 80mm refractor combined with the DS10c 21.6mm sensor.

The following M31 Andromeda Galaxy live image capture is a 5 second exposure (video mode), bin 2, gain 40 and histogram 78-175 with live averaging of 10 frames (the image updated every 5 seconds)

This M42 Orion Nebula live image capture is a 2 second exposure (video mode), bin 2, gain 40 and histogram 20-165 with live averaging of 10 frames (the image updated every 2 seconds)!

The image below is a zoomed (cropped) image from the one above and is lightly enhanced (with less than 2 min of post processing using Windows Photo).

I used a Remote Video Astronomy (RVA) configuration so I could do my viewing inside to escape the cold outside. Once I carried the assembled telescope, mount and camera to the driveway and turned it on, I used the SkyProdigy Auto Align feature enabling me to be operational very quickly. I slewed to Vega and used a focus mask for focusing using my laptop at the mount. I then ran my USB3 active extension cables to extend the DS10c USB3 cable to my laptop inside (ahh, warmth). I used SkyFi at the mount and a tablet running SkySafari Pro 6 to control the mount from inside.

This portable configuration can easily be run completely on battery, or powered from a single AC extension cable. I can provide 12v power to the SkyProdigy mount from a small rechargeable Anker 14400mAh battery (or similar) and the SkyFi can run on 4 AA batteries. I can also provide 5v power to the active USB3 extension (which powers the camera) using a small rechargeable Anker battery as well. I have successfully used two 10m USB3 extension cables (about 64 feet total extension), and only had to supply 5v power to the one that connects to the Camera’s USB3 cable.

So far I have been very pleased with the DS10c using short exposures in video mode and live averaging of 10 frames with every telescope I have tried it on.

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DS26cTEC First Impressions

Dark Skies in Oklahoma

65’ USB3 Active Extension Cable for RVA

Portable Basic+ Remote Video Astronomy

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…for Remote Video Astronomy

2019 Grand Canyon Star Party (GCSP) - June 22-29

Reducing Glare from Viewing Monitor

2019 Super Blood Wolf Moon Total Lunar Eclipse

DS10c LHDR averaging – Part 2

DS10c on 80mm with SkyProdigy for RVA

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