Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Sat, 06/02/2012 - 23:54
The Van Slyke MegaPort SideWinder has provision for two (2) ports in addition to the off-axis guider port (top) and the main imaging port (rear), were the main QSI 516 ws CCD camera (blue) is located. These two other ports are presently used to accept 2" eyepieces, but because of the back-focus necessary to reach the main CCD imaging plane, the two eyepiece ports in question require extension tubes to bring the eyepieces into focus. I opted for the TeleVue 3.5" long extension tubes (X3C-0009) to accommodate my TeleVue 17 and 31 mm Naglers.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 12:19
I saw a D-Link 932L IP Camera on sale at a local computer store, and, after doing a little research, I decided to get one and install it to stream video as well as snapshots of the inside of the dome and telescope. While not a great IP camera, it is good value for the price.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 13:06
I don't know how it happened, but I noticed that one of the two stainless steel, braided cables that open and close the dome shutter started to fray at one location along the cable length (about 1 meter from the end of the cable near the bottom of the shutter opening). Technical Innovations supplied a replacement cable, and it took about an hour to replace the cable.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 16:56
After speaking with Technical Inovations, I got a new (I think beta) version ofthe Digital Dome Works ASCOM Driver. I'll be testing it in the hopes of finally ridding myself of the "Refresh Timer Exception Phase=5" issue.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Fri, 07/15/2011 - 15:34
Did some experimenting with ADU targets for flat frames. The full well of the KAF-1603 in the QSI 516 is 100,000e-. Gain is 2.6 e-/ADU. So, full well of a single pixel binned 1x1 will occur about 38,500 ADUs. It is best that ADUs reach about 80% of full well, which is a little over 30,000 ADUs. For higher binning values, full well will be close to 65,000 ADUs. A good target for flats there is about 50,000 ADUs.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Fri, 07/15/2011 - 07:15
I hooked up with Michael Poxon today who is leading a program to monitor Young Stellar Objects. This looks like a very interesting program, and I hope my observations become useful.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 20:04
Afer struggling with some photometry issues, I decided to leverage the AAVSO mentor program. I connected with Mike Simonsen at the AAVSO and he connected me with a knowledgeable AAVSO member who has been a wonderful resource. I'm looking forward to soaking up the knowledge.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 21:35
DC-3 Dreams released Hot Fix 1 for ACP. I upgraded ACP tonight.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 23:00
Learned about applying the correct aperture radius as 0.8x FWHM. The PinPoint engine provides FWHM. The FWHM is measured by doing individual Gaussian PSF fits to the 20 brightest unsaturated stars in the plate. Checked to see that the UCAC3 catalog downloaded successfully.
Submitted by Michael J. Cook on Sun, 04/10/2011 - 23:00
Earlier this afternoon, Dick Berg was kind enough to have a look at my images that did not plate solve (see ACP forums). He had some good advice, but I don't think it explains away all the mystery of why one image solves, and the immediate next image on the same target, doesn't solve. He mentioned more hot pixels in the second image, but that's only part of the problem.
Pages
AAVSO Observer Code CMJA / Minor Planet Centre Observatory Code H61 / Global Telescope Network Partner GTN-33 / Center for Backyard Astrophysics
