Home Articles & How-To's Astrophotography & CCD Imaging Astro Imaging with a Digital Camera

Astro Imaging with a DigitaI Camera

by Justin TiIbrook
December 2002
In November 2001, I purchased a base model digital camera, (Kinel digital
webcam/camera maximum 640x480 resolution 300,000 pixels) with the
intention of using it for general photography. I had no thought of using it for
astro imaging until I was looking at the Moon one day and placed it in front of
the eyepiece and took a few happy snaps.
The images were quite good, so I thought I'd try it on my 8" equatorial driven
telescope. This required making a mount for the camera. The first mount was
okay but awkward to use, making it difficult to centralise the camera with the
eyepiece at high powers. I'm now on Mark 3 mount and it works well.
The probIems
There was also a lot of work to do on the 8" 'scope; backlash in the RA drive
caused the planets to wander out of view before the drive would take up,
especially with small field of view at high powers.
I had to make the telescope mount more rigid, and construct a declination drive,
the scope also needed to be remote controlled from my observing hut because
this is where the computer is housed. With these problems solved, and with
every adjustment a better result.
You might think all this un-necessary for imaging the Moon and planets.
However the camera is very sensitive to vibration. This produces blurred images,
and since the lens on the camera is very small (3mm), it must be precisely
centred with the eyepiece. Camera lens distance from the eyepiece doesn't
appear critical, but it seems the best is the same as eye relief distance.
The other problem with the camera is contrast adjustment. This was overcome
by stopping down the aperture and filtering. With more expensive digital
cameras, you usually get a display screen, with a cheaper camera you don't. This
meant I had to place a remote monitor at the telescope to achieve final
alignment and focus of the image. When this is done I switch back to the main
monitor in the observing hut.
Capturing the image
The camera itself is used in web cam mode - either on record or just as a
Astronomical Society of South Australia
www.assa.org.au
Astro Imaging with a Digital Camera http://www.assa.org.au/articles/digicam/
1 oI 2 16/05/2011 10:44 PM
continual unrecorded image. In continual, you do a frame capture when you
have a moment of steady seeing appear. In record mode you capture as a movie
in AVI format. You may then play it back and pick the best images from the
frames, then convert the appropriate frames into a still image format -- JPG,
TIFF or whatever you prefer to use. Now it's just a matter of playing around with
the images in a photo editing application to achieve the desired result.
Easy guiding
The other use I've found for the camera is as a guider for astrophotography,
imaging stars of magnitude 6 to 7 on a 8" scope. I defocus the star image, and
stick a scale in arc seconds on the computer monitor. Using the remote controls I
keep the defocused image centred against the scale, enabling precise tracking for
piggy back photography.
The contents of this website are copyright 1996-2011 Astronomical Society of South Australia, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Page Address: http://www.assa.org.au/articles/digicam/
Astro Imaging with a Digital Camera http://www.assa.org.au/articles/digicam/
2 oI 2 16/05/2011 10:44 PM