Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

What CCD camera in todays market has the best value for the money in your opinion?
1)Color one shot
2)Monochromatic

I am looking at replacing my imaging software for acquiring images for use with my DSI II Color camera. The Meade software is OK, but I think you can do much better.
How many people here use MaxIm DL for their imaging?
How do you like it?
If you use another program, what is it? How do you like it and why?
Thanks!

I like pure alcohol, or 93% or better for cleaning EPs. Acetone will attack plastic, 93% alcohol will not unless it is painted with an alcohol based paint. Pure alcohol is a bit more aggressive in this respect and should be used only if you know the material around the lens is not effected, it will remove some paints that the 93% does not touch.
You can get the 99.4% pure at an electrons or electrical supply house. The 93% can be found at a local drug store and is much cheaper, the other 6-7% is just distilled water so it is fine.
I also recommend using specialized cleaned patches or cotton balls and white untreated Kleenex. I use some cleaning tissues I ordered that were recommended by Roland at AP.

I have been experimenting for a few weeks now with different focusing aids, masks.
So far I have tried four different types of masks.
1) Standard 3 hole Hartman Mask
2) Triangle 3 hole Hartman Mask with offset triangles.
3) 3 hole Hartman mask with two round and one triangle hole.
4) crossed hair type mask using different thickness crossed hairs
See picture that shows 3 of these type, with the 3 hole Hartman modified to have one triangle and two round holes.

Each of these masks seems to have a good side to them. But certain ones seem to be much easier to judge the focus. These are the crossed hair type. I then decided to try different thickness of crossed hairs ranging from thread to 1/2" strips of ABS.

What I have found so far is this.

The thin hair shows a thin long spike arrangement that is pretty easy to see and judge.
The very wide 1/2" is ok, but does seem somewhat harder to judge.
The medium thick, in this case coat hanger wire hairs seem the best overall.
The 1 triangle and 2 round holes is next in line for ease of focus.
The 3 round hole mask to me is the hardest to judge.

The coat hanger size hair does something unusual, I guess due to the round wire and thickness. Where the hairs cross the star creates a bright cross as it gets close to focus, then just outside of this cross, a single almost diamond shape appears in the spike. It gets brighter as focus is closest and dims as you pass prime focus. It makes the reading of the spikes a bit simpler as there is less distraction with trying to judge the entire spike as a whole. Not sure whether this is a fluke in my design and materials, but it certainly is a good thing.
I will next post a picture of the coat hanger wire mask for reference. It was made from a small plastic pot for plants that you get at Lowes.

I am looking forward to the first owners of these EPs coming forward with their honest opinions on these EPs. I am sure they are one of the finest EPs on the market.

Just another back yard photo with lots of light pollution. But I was out testing the mount for accuracy at longer exposures and decided to take one picture or M39 at zenith. Used the new focusing masks to try to achieve prime focus. I feel it was close, though maybe not perfect. But it does seem that pinpoint stars are just not captured with these cameras. I have not seen one photo with a one shot camera that gives perfect fine pin point stars. So I am satisfied I guess.
I found that I will be able to take 10 minute exposures and this should allow me to do narrow band images too. 8 minutes might be a better idea, but I am told that 10 minutes is a good time.

Well, under poor conditions, I was able to get one color image and one black and white image with my new DSI II Pro Mono camera.
Here is M17 in color. Not perfect as it was my first try with this set up. I used the Atik filter wheel and the Meade photo color filters. 32 minutes of Luminance, 12 minutes of Red, 20 minutes of Green and Blue.

Let's just drop this one, I deleted the original posts concerning the donation of EPs. Herb has stated the rules and I am enforcing them. 8)

Hi all,
Well, last night I got two images. M16 color and NGC253 luminance.
Thought I would post them for comment.
First my M16
5 minute 39 sec subs
141 minutes total
R = 3 subs
G = 5 subs
B = 6 subs
L = 10 subs

Ok, here is my latest attempt at processing and reduction of star size. What do you think, better?