AstroCam 2

Well I began.  And at this point, I am a little pissed off.  I got the camera apart, all the way down to the naked CCD, and I was happy.  Then I plugged it in and loaded up the drivers and hence the pissed-offness ... either I munted it when taking it apart - a distinct possibility, or it's not talking to 64-bit windows very well, something I will check out today by putting it on a 32-bit machine.

Also there has been no chance for photography, or even observing, recently, mainly due to the clouds that seem to live above my house.  This is frustrating, as Mars is visible in the east at about 2.30am now, and getting earlier all the time.  So I will continue with the trials and tribulations of Astrocam 2, and of course letting you all know about them.

In the meantime, Flickr put me onto a very cool and free ebook - How to shoot the moon with a dSLR.  The cool thing about it is all the settings he uses and also the walkthrough of image stacking.software.

And of course, while we're on the subject, my good friend Rusty has just started a blog around his photography ... head on over to http://captiveaspect.vox.com/ and take a look!

Ok, and now, back to the cam.

Addendum
Let there be w00t! And there was, and it was good.  Turns out it was the 64 bit drivers just plain not working .. plugged cam into 32 bit beastie and we're running first time, no problemo.  Turns out that naked CCD = blurry, so time to do some reading :D  Back with a new report, soonish.

Photographic Addendum


OK, so same deal as before - old 35mm film tube, this time one that actually FITS in the scope, lots and lots of gaffer tape, and some cusswords and we're there.  Something I learned - do not re-cut the film tube with camera mounted to it ... plastic dust and crap all over CCD - cleaned with horsehair artists brush.  So now I'm just waiting for Bill to show up with the Laptop, and I will be testing the rig ... probabaly on the barn 2km over there as It's too cloudy for moon and stars.

So here's the pics

I shall return with test results as they come to hand.

Penultimate Addendum
It works! Oh yes!!  We have an almost unqualified success!  Course was testing in daytime by peering into a window 2-4km away, but she's a go!  Last thing now of course, the stars!  But then will have to wait for the clouds to disappear ...