I have always wanted to investigate the world of using video and digital photography in astronomy. The primary goal is the timing of lunar and minor planet occultations using a sensitive video camera like PC164C. See the link below to Supercircuits for the full tech spec.

My observing buddy, Ted Dobosz has a SBig ST7 and I have spent plenty of hours watching over his shoulder as he imaged galaxies and nebulae and lately he has started using a 0.02lux colour video camera. Encouraged by Ted's work and by discussions on the IOTA egroup I decided that the time was right to purchase a camera and get cracking.

I have created this page to document my experiences with video astronomy in the hope of encouraging others to take up this fascinating and worthwhile activity...

Sandy Bumgarner (s a n d y @ v b b n . c o m) mentioned on list that he did a Gain Control Modification that enabled full control of the gain (exposure) and retained the automatic control to boot. I contacted Sandy who offered two configurations, an axial for newtonian scopes and a 'lateral' or side unit for those folks who care about length of the camera so that it will not hit the base of a fork mounted SCT. Sandy also offered to add a sensitive microphone. Please contact Sandy for an up to date price structure.

I placed an order with SuperCircuits and had the camera shipped direct to Sandy for the surgery. Sandy then shipped the modified camera on to me via FedEx. Special thanks to the Australian Customs Department for charging me $54:00 duty :-( and the 3 photos show how the camera arrived safe and sound and clearly shows Sandy's workmanship.

Top Deck -on/off switch, Red LED telltale,
manual/auto gain switch, manual gain control knob.

Left Side - 12v dc input
Right side -Yellow RCA = Video out, Red RCA = Audio out

First up I needed an adapter for the two inch focuser of the telescope and I had a suitable piece of Delrin in my offcut bin and 20 minutes later I had the job done.

Then I thought it would be neat to mount my Pentax lenses on the camera. I was a bit daunted trying to replicate the Pentax K bayonet but a bit of careful turning and a bit of filing the job was done.

A 135mm telephoto lens shows the whole moon with a comfortable field.

This is a shot is a single unprocessed frame of the Jewel Box Cluster, NGC4755 taken through the 10inch newtonian. The magnitudes marked are from "The Sky" planitarium software. As you can see, about the faintest star detectable is about mag. 13 although some stars marked mag 9.7 are very faint. I'm not sure why this is because the mag. 13 star and both the mag 9.7 stars are all spectral B9IV.

I know this single frame looks terrible but when the video is played the stars leap out of the noise which seems to even out into a plain(ish) background.

Field size in my telescope with 122cm focal length is... Width= 12'30" Height= 10'15"

These series of photos show the asteroid 16 Psyche appulse and occult the star TYC 5783-1228, a magnitude 9.8 star in Aquarius. At the time 16 Psyche was at magnitude 11.1 and it can be clearly seen on two frames 20 minutes and 15 minutes before and after the event as well as during the occultation. Please visit the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand Occultation Section, please visit RASNZoccsec for a full description of the data obtained from this event.

I have set up a web page featuring occultation movies and it can be found here.