clear sky chart

Job 9:9

Job 9:9-10
9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
10 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.
NIV

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Quickcam 4000 First Light

Well, it came today from ebay.  Picked up the quickcam 4000, removed the lens and took it outside to have a look at the moon.  The images were so sharp and detailed, once I had figured out all of the settings, and there are a lot more than what I was used to with the newer cameras.  What is nice is that you can adjust the shutter speed independent of the frame rate.  I'm beginning to understand why the older cameras were so popular.

This camera is a CCD, whereas all of my other ones are cmos.  I'm going to have to get another one of these, for sure!  I want to do the lx mod on one of them if I can get a 2nd one.  This camera makes an incredible planetary and lunar cam.  Here are a few of the images I have taken with it.:
Appenine Mts

Clavius

Plato and the Alpine Valley
The Straight Wall

As you can see, the detail is so much better with this camera, I was amazed at what I was seeing on the screen!

While I was at it, I thought I'd shoot a video of Saturn, being the moon pics were so detailed, so here's what I got:
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Ok, now for the complete story.  The sky was filled with thin clouds, transparency was not very good.  Seeing appeared good to average.  I took the saturn image too dark, and had to boost the light level to stack it.  It is not as good as it could be.  The camera will take some getting used to before I get everything correct.  Even though the conditions werent too good, this is one of my best images of Saturn so far.

5 comments:

Carolyn Jones said...

These pics are awesome they rock!
congrats on the new cam it does make quite a bit of difference.

NiceGuy said...

Mike those pics are awsome!

Mike H - KD0AR said...

Hey Frank, glad to see you're following the blog! These arent bad for a home made telescope. I had a scope when I was in Rapid City, but was never into it like I am now. Being able to take these pictures adds a new dimension that was unavailable back then. Its sure a lot of fun. Keep an eye on this blog, I've been out almost every night that its clear, which lately, for northeast Ohio, isnt very often, but we have had a few nice days. I have a lot more from last night that I'll be working on and will most likely post in the next few days.

Unknown said...

Hi. Did you check which CCD chip you have in this camera as I read that the best chip is the Sony ICX098BQ which also in the Philips SPC900NC. The next best chip is the Sony ICX098AK. Then a bit later the quick cam 4000 started using the Sharp LZ24BP to save cost and this CCD chip is no where near the sensitivity of the other 2 Sony chips I mentioned.
Thanks
Don

Mike H - KD0AR said...

its one of the Sony chips. I also have one with a Sharp chip, and it is far less sensitive and is also much noisier.

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