AVA - StellaCam EX TM Images
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Initial image captures were done on July 6th, 2002 - Maiden Voyage of this camera at a star party ! Everyone seemed to be impressed, I know I was. The REAL TIME visual viewing on the monitor was outstanding. Being able to actually SEE more detail than that if you were looking into the eyepiece was amazing. The VERY FIRST object I attempted that night was M13, a bright globular cluster in the Hercules Constellation. In the eyepiece, due to the fact that it had just gotten dark enough to do a 2 star alignment and the fact that it was a bit hazy, M13 was nothing more than a barely visible faint glow in the eyepiece. I put the camera on and BAM, there it was looking beautiful on the monitor. Needless to say, I had an eyepiece in my telescope 2 times that night, once to do the initial two star alignment and one other time to try aligning on an object first and then put the StellaCam in it's place. Our sky quality is not "great" actually, it was fair to good - light polluted and usually with a slight haze in the air. First actual object located was M13, visual in eyepiece BARELY revealed a slight glow visible..... when the StellaCam was put in place of the eyepiece, it was AMAZING ! StellaCam EX was used on a 11" SCT - F/10 - using the Optec MAXfield F/5 Apochromatic Telecompressor focal reducer, prime focus. Using this focal reducer brings my F/10 scope down to an effective F/3.3 for better video use. Highly recommended for slower scopes like mine, this really kicks it up a notch ! Images are stored on a JVC S-VHS VCR recorder. AVI movie files were then captured through my computer at about 30 total frames, then processed with REGISTAX stacking software. Excellent software for video processing. The DEEP SPACE photos are compiled from on the average of 20-30 frames of the video clip taken from the VCR. Minimal adjusting was done to the contrast, brightness & gamma to bring out a better photo. No dark frame was used and no airbrushing or altering of the photo was done. Starhunter - Scott VoganStellaCam EX Website : http://www.astrovid.com/astrovid__stellacam.htm
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