ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WITH MEADE DEEP SKY IMAGER Last updated: 28 February 2005

This page documents the Meade Deep Sky Imager comments, tips, and photos. Contributions welcome. In order to showcase the DSI you may occasionally see images taken with other telescopes on this page.

Subject:	DSI
Sent:	Monday, February 28, 2005 08:20:32
From:	Alric Lopez (alric@mailblocks.com)
Thanks for the excellent astrophoto page.  A quick question.  Have you
had the chance to try Meade's DSI with a Mac running virtual PC?

Thanks,

Alric

Subject:	meade deep sky imager 
Sent:	Wednesday, February 16, 2005 19:42:31
From:	PTBKayak@aol.com
Thanks for this site. I tried over and over to get the driver to work on
windows 98 in desperation I found your site and saw a letter from
Stephen Bird about drivers for dsi on windows 98 after spending hours
trying to get the camera to image using the installation disk. The
camera worked as soon as the new driver was put into the system. For
some time I thought I bought a expensive paper weight from meade. Thanks
again for your site and to Stephen.------Paul Terrill --ps hope to get
some pictures soon.

Subject:	Re: DSI
Sent:	Wednesday, February 16, 2005 14:14:39
From:	R.L. Creedon (creedon@cablespeed.com)
Thanks very much for your joint input - pretty gruesome - I have printed
it & will fumble on.  Had a good night with the lpi last night, have
mastered at least 2 of the 40 controls & may eventually get acceptable
pics.  Lew Creedon

Had sick computer/internet interface,hence late response. All cables
good, am now on to powered USB. Will let you know how I get on. What a
maze the Autostar image processing is !

Subject:	Meade DSI Astrophotos
Sent:	Tuesday, February 15, 2005 10:26:42
From:	Jonathan Willocks (jonathanwillocks@hotmail.co.uk)
Here are some more Meade DSI astrophotos taken through a Meade LX90 with
f/3.3 focal reducer.

Regards

Jonathan Willocks

Subject:	Re DSI and  Use of tracking box on deep sky objects etal
Sent:	Monday, February 14, 2005 18:16:18
From:	John Pullen (john.pullen1@bigpond.com)
The first night I used my DSI on M43, using a 5 inch (f 600) refractor
and an equatorial mount, I got a brilliant result and was very impressed
with the LPI.

Since then I have been using it on my GPS 200 8 inch (Alt Az), and have
not been able to get the same good result,

My efforts on Saturn using LPI have resulted in poor quality images
compared to an unmodified Philips web-cam and stacking with Registax,
the Meade images lack the clarity and colour achieved using the web-cam.

Same goes for the Moon with the LPI images being grossly over exposed
and lacking detail.

LPI images taken of M43 using 15 second exposures result in stars that
are very oval and bloated suggesting that the mount is tracking poorly,
using 5 second exposures I get round stars but there is a lack of detail
in the nebula image.

To the heart of my question, the Meade instructions for the DSI indicate
to use tracking box when imaging planets (item 6, p 14) and does not
mention using a tracking box when imaging deep sky objects. I have been
using a tracking box when imaging seep sky objects assuming that the
lack instruction in the deep sky instructions was an oversight.

Should I use a tracking box in deep sky imaging?

John Pullen

Subject:	dsi
Sent:	Monday, February 14, 2005 15:15:51
From:	R.L. Creedon (creedon@cablespeed.com)
Can you put this on your page? After getting Meade download I tried dsi
in daylight. Result, laptop denies existance of dsi. Called Meade, they
said re-install Autostar, did so, got the message that dsi & lpi drivers
were installed. Will now press on.  Lew Creedon.

Subject:	RE: Sharing My DSI Experiences 
Sent:	Saturday, February 12, 2005 02:41:01
From:	stephen.bird@bt.com
Despite what the Meade instructions say, Windows variants (98, 2000, XP)
do not always, and in my personal and painful experience do not have
suitable default drivers that will run either the LPI or DSI. Further
the LPI and DSI drivers on the CD cannot be found automatically by
Windows by just clicking the CD option when installing the software.
This is because Meade have not put them as discreet files on the CD to
be found in that way. In fact even if you look in the most obvious
place, the folder called DRIVERS, they are not even there!

What happens when you install the Autostar Suite is the drivers are
unzipped from the main compressed files and written to a new folder on
your PC, the default is:

C:\Program Files\Meade\AutostarSuite\DSI\Driver\2K - XP   (for Windows 2000 or XP) 

Or 

C:\Program Files\Meade\AutostarSuite\DSI\Driver\98 - ME   (for Windows 98 or ME) 

You have to tell the Meade installation program to look exactly at that
specific location, or it cannot load the correct driver. You will find
with later versions of Windows 2000 (SP4) and XP (SP1 and 2) that
Microsoft does not like the fact that the Meade drivers are not
digitally signed or certificated, but ignore this, this is Gates
business craft! You must use the Meade drivers or the DSI will not work
and you get the "reload drivers" issue every time you try to connect the
DSI.

Once you load the correct drivers successfully, some of your problems
will go away. Even modest PC's will then work with USB1. I have tried
and had success with 500MHz and upwards processors running USB1 and 2
and Windows 98SE, 2000 and XP. It is all a case of getting the correct
drivers loaded to start with.

The next problem is USB power levels, laptops particularly tend to have
a default low power setting and especially when you are on battery
rather than AC mains, typical if you are out in the field. What you need
to do is ensure that you check that your USB power setting for the port
you are using is up to the 500mA limit. Power hubs and cards when you
plug the power in sometimes automatically do this, and sadly if you
don't plug the power in some automatically reduce the power! Finding USB
power level settings is not always easy, but check your system devices
in Control Panel / System / Devices.

It is possible with laptops to have a number of power schemes whereby
the power consumption for various options is adjusted. You can access
these power schemes through Control Panel. I have a scheme that I have
set up called "Telescope". It gives full power regardless of battery
status, disks don't power down, screen stays bright (night vision
setting of course) and the USB ports don't die. Where possible I use AC
mains power (in the back garden / yard), if out in the field, I have a
$30 invertor running from a battery pack (does mean 3 battery packs, 1
for PC, 1 for dew heaters, and 1 for the scope).

I think that Meade needs to look carefully at its manuals and
instructions and get a copyrighter in to make them read as plain English
and incorporate customer feedback actively and modify their instructions
when a gap is discovered.

Hope this helps.

Regards 

Stephen Bird

Subject:	Sharing My DSI Experiences
Sent:	Thursday, February 10, 2005 18:04:55
From:	Al Asber (aasber@comcast.net)
Found your site via Google search on the Meade DSI; Excellent Site! I
received my DSI for Christmas and thought it would be nice to share my
experiences with other DSI users.

My telescope is a Meade LX200, 10 inch F10 scope and the Meade software
is running on an old Pentium II laptop (400 Mhz with  128 MB ram and a
USB 1.1 port).  I downloaded and installed the latest Meade update. 
After reading the manuals, I spent a Saturday afternoon getting use to
working with the DSI, the scope, and the laptop.  Thing went okay. It
was difficult to focus the image and make adjustments with due to the
slow refresh rate (4-5 seconds per frame).  Between life's demands and
snow storms (not unusual for Boston) I had to wait 2 weeks to try using
my setup at night.  My first image attempts were of Saturn.  It took
about an 1.5 hours before I was able to get a couple of okay shots.  The
slow update rate made thing difficult and time consuming.

We got new laptops at work and I was able to pickup one of the old
Pentium III (900 Mhz, 500 MB ram, and USB 1.1 port).  The update rate
was just a little faster (3-4 seconds per frame).  So I purchased a
Belkin USB2-PCMCIA card that comes with an external power supply (the
sales clerk assured me it was not required for the card to work).  After
spending two days trying to get the Meade drivers to work with this card
and the DSI imaging software started core dumping due to I/O errors from
the DSI.  The first Meade rep first wanted to try a new USB cord, which
they would send me at no cost.  A week later I received the package from
Meade, but it only contained the nine pin serial adapter, no USB cord. 
The second Meade rep was very understanding with my frustration and
issued a RGA (Return Good Authorization) number so I could send the unit
back.  Two weeks later, I received another unit from Meade, not sure if
its a new one or if they repaired the one I sent back.

The unit worked fine in the onboard USB 1.1 (still slow), but luck
getting the drivers to work with USB2-PCMCIA port.  Other devices
(mouse, web cam, external hard drive) all worked fine with this card. A
six hour backup with the USB 1.1 only took 45 minutes with the Belkin
USB 2 card.  So I formatted the hard drive and load XP professional
(previous running Windows 2000). Finally the USB 2 card recognized the
DSI and loaded the drivers, but the DSI software reported no imager.  So
I decided to try using the separate power supply (5 VDC, 3.0 amps).  I
plugged it into the card and then plugged in the DSI and everything now
worked.  The update rate was about 1 frame per second, but after about
30 seconds the software would freeze up for about 5 seconds and then
start updating again.  Determine to do better, I loaded the DSI software
on my new work laptop (Pentium M-755 processor, 2 Ghz, 1.5 GB rams, with
a native USB 2).  What a difference, continuous update rate of about 3
frames per second and no software freeze up.  But this laptop was for
work and was not for my personal use.

If figured the bottle neck was the USB2 card.  I found an Adaptec USB 2
card that had no indication of requiring an external power supply.  When
I opened it at home, I found that it had a similar external power plug
and the manual indicated some devices may require an external power
supply.  The bad news is, it would not drive the DSI until I used the
external power supply (that came with the Belkin card).  The DSI imaging
software now updates a little faster then 2 frames per second and no
more freezing up.  Hopefully this weekend I will have clear skies and
try the new setup for real inside.

My guess is the PCMCIA card slot does allow sufficient amperage draw to
drive the DSI, even though the Adaptec software that monitor the USB
port indicates no power overload.  Its obvious that a newer, high end
laptop with lots of ram and a built in USB 2 port is the ideal setup. 
To be happy I feel you really need a USB 2 with the higher through put
rate.  This provides you with faster refresh rates that makes using the
DSI a lot easer (focusing, centering, adjust the image and tracking) and
less frustrating.

Another problem appears that Windows XP does not maintain the DSI
drivers for the DSI unit.  Every time its plug into the USB port (either
1 or 2), I have to go through the hardware set up to reload the drivers.
 The strange thing is XP recognizes and loads the ones it copied into
the "windows/system32" directory and run fine.

Lastly......
I wanted a longer cable, instead of ordering the longer one from Meade,
I used a volt meter and checked the pin out of the DSI USB cable.   Its
appears to be a standard USB cable, so I able to rundown to the local
computer store and picked up a 15'.  It works fine.  This gives you a
lot more working room instead of being right on top of the scope.

Hopefully all of this will be helpful to others.  One request, if anyone
finds a USB2-PCMCIA card that does not need an external power supply to
drive the DSI, please let me/us know.

Thanks,
Al

aasber@comcast.net

Subject:	Meade DSI: Widefield Mosaics
Sent:	Wednesday, February 9, 2005 14:28:24
From:	Graham, John L (Graham@udri.udayton.edu)
I had a blast last weekend using my DSI fitted with a 28mm SLR lens and
guided by a Tasco equatorial mount and an EQ-1 motor drive. On Friday
evening (Feb. 4) I experimented with assembling a widefield mosaic of
the region around M36, 37, and 38 in southern Auriga. The attached
example is a 2x3 image mosaic with each source frame being a 10x60sec
image combined real-time using the DSI software, saved as FITS, then
recombined into a BMP using the AutoStar IP software.



Click for full size image


Saturday evening I experimented using the same DSI setup to photograph
artificial satellites. The attached example is a 1x2 mosaic assembled
using the same 10x60sec method used for the Auriga image. In this case I
took the southern image first to capture the recon satellite Lacrosse 3
as it flew past the Hyades star cluster, then the northern image to fill
out the field. The satellite's track was too faint to see in the
combined images so I copied it from the single frame that captured it
and copied on top of the combined image.





-John

Subject:	Re: DSI mounting issue?
Sent:	Wednesday, February 9, 2005 09:58:06
From:	Stephen Bird (stephen.bird@btconnect.com)
In fact that is what the small print in the instructions says (hidden in
the DSI manual on the CD and when it says "see the picture to the
right", there isn't one!!!). USB connector should point to the right
when fitted to an ETX. It won't fit any other way unless you use a
barlow lens in the eyepiece socket as the DSI dimensions mean it will
foul the viewfinder if oriented any other way. Certainly with an ETX105,
you can't even get the DSI to seat properly even when placed with the
USB to the right. I can't help thinking that Meade doesn't check these
things when they design them.
 
Regards
 
Stephen Bird

Subject:	DSI mounting issue?
Sent:	Saturday, February 5, 2005 10:52:09
From:	Stephen Seman (sseman5023@insightbb.com)
Regarding the way the DSI is mounted to the etx125 with the finder
bracket being in the way of the USB, why couldn't we mount it with the
USB on the right,

and then just train ourselves to use the slew arrows in reverse? I mean
you could always rotate the image into proper orientation in
post-processing.

Do you think this is a viable solution?

Thanks,

Jim Seman

Subject:	Meade DSI with lens
Sent:	Thursday, February 3, 2005 15:14:11
From:	Sheridan Williams (sheridan@clock-tower.com)
John Graham's pics are pretty good, I'm impressed. He says:
For wide field work I've got reasonable results using the DSI fitted
with a 50mm f/1.8 lens scavenged from an Olympus OM-1 35mm camera.

Where does he get an adapter from to fit the lens?

Best wishes

Sheridan Williams

Subject:	RE: help me with the MEADE dsi
Sent:	Thursday, February 3, 2005 01:35:04
From:	Andrew Murray (MurrayA@irwinmitchell.co.uk)
1) I have not tried to use any webcam software with the DSI but I guess
that being a sony had ccd there is no reason that other software will
not work, however, due to the sensitivity of the ccd and the fact that
you would have very little control over exposure times and contrast,
gain etc I'd say you'd be extreamly lucky to get any pictures out of the
DSI using webcam software.

2) I use the 1 frame per second and above, I have now done some imaging
and find that 5 seconds works well and any electronic noise seems to be
reduced (which is odd as it should be the other way round!). Based on
the fact that the ccd is sensative I wouldn't have thought that sub
1.000 second imaging would produce any images at all.

I hope this helps, as you'll see from my earlier posts I'm no expert
with the DSI :-)

Regards
 
Andrew
 
-----Original Message-----
From: rober
I have copied your emails from thje web, because you are working with
the new Meade DSI camera. I bought one of these cameras, and I have 2
problems:

1) the only soft that sees the camera is the proprietary one, I cannot
see the camera from other free softs for webcams. Is that normal ?

2) Although I have a USB 2.0 card, could only get 1 frame / second
(aprox) using the "live" switch.   I expected to have much more speed. 
What frame speed did you achieve ?

Thanks in advance
 
Roberto Buenos Aires, Argentina

Subject:	Using a Meade f/3.3 focal reducer
Sent:	Wednesday, February 2, 2005 20:27:50
From:	hydrolus@comcast.net (hydrolus@comcast.net)
I guess I should call you the professor because you seem to have a
answer for everything!! I was wondering if you could help me on the
issue of focal reducers.  I'm using the meade DSI and I have been
reading a lot about these focal reducers mostly the F/6 on  MEade ETX. 
My question is is it possible to use a Meade f/3.3 focal reducer/field
flattener on a EXT model and is it worth it?
 
Michael Savoy

Subject:	LPI/Linux
Sent:	Wednesday, February 2, 2005 15:50:09
From:	Dez Futak (dez.futak@bcisgnet.co.uk)
I've just read the instructions at:
http://www.weasner.com/etx/astrophotography/2005/lpi-linux.html

..do you know if this might work with the Meade DSI (Deep Sky Imager) as
well?

Best regards,

Dez Futak.

- --
http://www.no2id.net SAY NO TO THE PROPOSED ID CARDS.  IT WON'T STOP THE
TERRORISTS.
http://www.projectgalileo.org.uk - Project Galileo page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Zedkatuf - More about me
Chat:  irc.uq.edu.au  #galileo - IRC channel

Subject:	DSI and Oolar Alginment
Sent:	Tuesday, February 1, 2005 08:18:01
From:	Charles Washington (charles.washington@ntlworld.com)




The above attachment shows a Polar Alignment in Fig 7 of the instruction
manual. In this position it would be possible to attach my DSI to the
either eyepiece holder or the visual back without fouling the base or
the finder. I also have that tripod as well.

However I read in Autostar information/polar home position with graphics
that this was not viable.

Could you please set me on the straight and narrow.
Thanks yet again for your time and patience.
 
Kind regards Charles Washington   (UK)

Subject:	RE: Meade Deep Sky Imager
Sent:	Tuesday, February 1, 2005 00:55:56
From:	Andrew Murray (MurrayA@irwinmitchell.co.uk)
Stephen

I removed the finder last night and the DSI now works fine, apart from
the fact that there is a lot of dirt on the chip and the IR filter,
which I will spend some time cleaning properly this evening. The problem
is that with the position and size of the DSI it is knocked out of
alignment if the finder is in place, as you suggested. Followed your
instructions re the drivers and I don't appear to have an issue with
those either now.

Thank you very much for your help.
 
Kind regards
 
Andrew

From:	stephen.bird@bt.com
Good news indeed. I would imagine that there are quite a number of
people who could solve their operational problems by using the Meade
drivers (XP default drivers are not always the same!), if they knew
where Meade put them when AutostarSuite installs.

The parfocal ring should help you get good alignment of the DSI without
removal of the finder. The weight of the DSI means that the grub screw
in the eyepiece tube needs to be tightened firmly, BUT NOT
OVERTIGHTENED, or the whole thing could rotate. In fact by keeping the
finder in place, with the parfocal ring carefully adjusted, the finder
bracket provides additional support against the whole thing rotating in
the eyepiece tube. It is important I find to ensure that your USB lead
does not wrap itself around the scope, or again the DSI can rotate in
the eyepiece tube.

Regards
 
Stephen Bird

And:

It's a tribute to the community you got started, my thanks as always and
thanks again Stephen.

Andrew

Subject:	Meade DSI: Asteroid 354 Eleonora
Sent:	Monday, January 31, 2005 05:45:28
From:	Graham, John L (Graham@udri.udayton.edu)
Last Friday evening I took advantage of the clear weather we had before
the Moon rose to test out the DSI imaging asteroids. After my experience
with the LPI I was pretty sure the DSI would do a great job and I wasn't
disappointed.

The attached image a composite of 140x15sec exposures of the asteroid
354 Eleonora taken between 00h55m and 01h47m on January 26th UT. The
images were taken in 7 groups of 20x15sec each with a DSI mounted at the
prime focus of an Orion StarBlast (4.5" f/4) guided by a Meade DS-2130
mount. The source images were stored as FITS, two-star aligned and
merged into a single BMP using the Autostar IP software, then
level-adjusted just a tad in Photoshop using Eleonora as the white
point. At the time Eleonora was located about 2 degrees south of
Bellatrix (gamma Orionis) shining at magnitude 10.48 approximately 170
million miles from Earth well out in the asteroid belt. For comparison
I've marked the brightness of several stars in the field. Prior work
with the LPI showed this simple imager could reach about magnitude 12
using 8sec exposures and this image shows the DSI can clearly reach much
fainter using similarly short exposures making it relatively easy to
image these little worlds even with a small telescope.

-John

Subject:	Deep Space Imager
Sent:	Monday, January 31, 2005 05:27:38
From:	Charles Washington (charles.washington@ntlworld.com)
Further to my previous missives here is the latest disaster report.

I obtained my visual back (still awaiting for the retail one this one
come from ebay for $9.95) and tried it immediately on terrestrial based
objects. On with the visual back in with the DSI and I got some good
colour pix of objects a mile plus away. So at this point no problems.
For a beginner it was quite exciting to be able to look through the
eyepiece then flip the mirror and the use the DSI and thinking this is
going to be my pathway to heavenly pixs.

On the first clearish night for ages (winter in the UK is getting
warmer, damper and cloudier) I was out with my ETX 125 just before dark
to give it time to stabilise the temperature and raring to go.

I set the 'scope up making it level and facing due North to go for an
Alt/Az two star alignment, it picked Procyon a nice bright star and so I
pressed enter and away it went.

After a few seconds "CLUNK" went my DSI against the base with the sound
of straining motors and slipping clutches.

Filled with horror I immediately switched off and turned on the light,
sure enough the DSI had hit the base.

I discovered that with the DSI mounted on a Visual Back the 'scope
cannot travel upwards more than about 40 degrees (a little more if you
use a 45 degree prism) without fouling itself.

The situation is becoming more and more frustrating and is borne out by
Tim Williams & Andrew in their quest for information.

I would seem that you cannot orientate it correctly in the eyepiece
holder because the finder gets in the way and you cannot use it with a
visual back because it fouls the base.

It would seem that nobody at Meade have tied to use a DSI on an ETX 125.

Was it designed not to work with on the ETX series?

Is there any solution to these very basic problems?

My basic astronomy is improving (it's harder to learn later in life) and
from that I get a lot of satisfaction. I wanted to pursue basic
astrophotography as part of the same learning curve and after investing
a tidy sum of money into Meade products and purpose built accessories
for the job have wound up very frustrated.

This really is a great site and I hope that Mike or some of the
knowledgeable contributors to Mike might be able to devise a way to
help.

Charles Washington  (UK)

PS   I am going to send a copy of this to Meade.

Subject:	Re: Meade Deep Sky Imager
Sent:	Monday, January 31, 2005 04:38:44
From:	 (stephen.bird@bt.com)
You are right about the DSI not fitting the ETX105 perfectly, it fouls
on the finderscope bracket, so even rotating the finderscope to one side
will not fix the problem. The only way it will fit all the way down in
the eyepiece tube is to remove the finderscope. It is plainly just too
big. My solution is to fit a parfocal ring on the DSI which holds it 1mm
to 2mm further up in the eyepiece tube, whilst giving it a good solid
"well seated" feel when the grub screw is tightened. The other solution
is to use an adaptor on the photo port on the back of the scope.
Scopetronix make a visual back and a field doubler that allows this, but
this does limit the range of altitude that the scope can reach
particularly in Alt/Az mode rather than polar mode. So if you go this
route, try it all out in daylight first. HNSky planetarium and scope
control software (www.HNSky.org) allows you to draw a limiting horizon
on the screen, so that you can show such limiting altitude for various
equipment setups as well as tree / house lines spoiling your view.

Regards 

Stephen Bird 

thanks for the response. I had another go last night. Same issues so
will be buying a new USB2 PCI card to try and sort my ever growing list
of frustrations. I've got a BC&F camera mount so have mounted a finder
on that and it seems to work just fine. Couldn't get any pictures out of
the DSI though, having said that my mainboard is quasi USB 1.1 - 2 and
was made before USB2 became a compliant standard so the PCI board should
sort it.
 
Many thanks
 
Andrew

My PC is running Windows 2000, 1GHz processor, 1Gb RAM and only USB1.1.
The DSI works fine for the limited use I have so far put it to. I would
say that the limitations found by some people are more to do with RAM
limitation or not installing the drivers properly, than USB 1 vs USB 2.

Certainly I had problems with the drivers that took me several hours to
realise that despite what the instructions say, that when you plug the
camera in for first use, you do not get a message saying "camera
detected" in the lower right hand side of the screen! Then even when the
PC detects the camera and it comes up with "New Hardware Detected", no
amount of clicking next will install the driver necessary, be it Win
98SE, Win ME, Win 2000 or Win XP. This is because when you tell it to
look on the CD ROM, you are telling it to look in the wrong place!!

Meade in their infinite wisdom, decided not to put the drivers direct on
to the CD in the CD's "Drivers" folder, there is something else nothing
to do with drivers there!!! The drivers get unzippped onto your hard
drive in the folders created by Meade. These are something like:

c:/program files/meade/autostarsuite/dsi/driver/2k - xp

or if you are 98 or ME, then the last sub folder is 98 - me instead.

So when you get the "New Hardware Detected" message when you first
connect the camera, then you should tell the PC to look for the drivers
as above. If you let XP pick a default driver, then that is when you
might get problems.

Oh yes you should also install the Meade Autostarsuite Update from their
website before you install the camera as well, as that update also fixes
several problems to do with XP.

You might like to try the above before spending money on a USB 2 card
unecessarily.
 
Regards
 
Stephen Bird

Thanks for that, will give it a whirl and try and image the watertower
across town this evening.
 
Regads
 
Andrew

Subject:	ETX-125 - DSI Star Streaking
Sent:	Monday, January 24, 2005 10:07:51
From:	rwiley@dallas.net (rwiley@dallas.net)
Sorry to trouble you but I was wondering if you could take a moment to
look at the images at the links below and offer your comments. The
streaking stars are killing my (amateur) imaging attempts.

http://www.wileys.us/ETX125/m42-200-1sec-exposures.bmp - 835 kb
http://www.wileys.us/ETX125/m42-200-1sec-exposures.jpg - 89 kb
http://www.wileys.us/ETX125/m42-HELP.jpg - 22 kb

I am using my beloved, trusty ETX-125 with Meades DSI. Also in the image
train are an ATIK 0.5 focal reducer and a Baader UV/IR cut filter. All
optics were cleaned very well (many times) with Dr. Clay's magic
cleaning solution. This phenomenon has been occuring for awhile now. The
streaking occurs with and without the ATIK FR and/or Baader cut filter.
The surface of the CCD appears clean as well.

The scope was decently polar aligned using Dr. Clays Kochab clock. The
target star was continously on the chip for 10 minutes without user
intervention. I am running the latest s/w (33Ef) and Dick Seymour's
patch. The ETX has been thoroughly disassembled, cleaned / degreased and
tuned up per the numerous mods on your WONDERFUL site.

I have reset, calibrated and trained the drives NUMEROUS times as well.
Training performed on Polaris using the LPI imager. I have also recently
replaced the worm/main gears on the DEC drive as well as on the AZ
drive. I bought an ETX-125 base from Dr. Clay awhile back. I used those
gears to replace mine which had minor flaws. Worm gear backlash adjusted
and practically removed and the gear mesh was also refined through
careful adjustments.

Additionally, these images were taken fully remote controlled from
indoors thus ruling out user vibrations. Zero wind and a Meade dew
shield in place to block stray street lights. I am in the 'country' and
have decent skies (5.6-5.9 limiting magnitude).

Truthfully, I am almost ready to give up on the ETX-125. Besides the
streaking, I cannot, despite my most careful alignment and tuneup
efforts, get more than 2 second exposures without smudging the stars on
the CCD.

Can you assist with this matter? Is this a collimation issue? The stars
are fairly sharp so I am unsure of the actual steaking mechanism.

Thanks in advance!

Robert Wiley
McKinney, TX

Subject:	Meade DSI Astophotos
Sent:	Saturday, January 22, 2005 13:54:11
From:	Jonathan Willocks (jonathanwillocks@hotmail.co.uk)
I've had about 6 weeks practice with the DSI and despite a lot of
disappointments in the early days it is now reaping the rewards. With
practice and patience you can get decent images out of this camera
despite what many have said. Attached are a few recent images using the
following equipment:

Meade LX90 UHTC
Meade Series 4000 f/3.3 focal reducer
Meade DSI
Post-processing in Autostar IP, Maxim DL & Adobe Photoshop CS

Best Regards

Jonathan W
UK



Moon


M46


M51


M81


M82

Here are some more DSI shots done last night. I've included a much more
true colour version of M82 and a picture of Caldwell 7, a 16.8 arcminute
spiral galaxy in Ursa Major (mag 8.4). Hope you like them.

See ya

Jonathan W
UK



C7


M82

Subject:	Meade Deep Sky Imager
Sent:	Monday, January 17, 2005 05:26:57
From:	Andrew Murray (MurrayA@irwinmitchell.co.uk)
I have just received the Meade DSI and it's driving me banana's. I'm
running Win XP Pro SP2, the drivers install, then I update using the
Meade patch and evrything seems to work for a while. The I unplug the
DSI and have to reinstall the drivers each time I plug it back in.
Sometimes it works, sometimes I just get error messages.

I haven't had time to do any imaging but it all seems a bit of a farce
at the moment. Meades instructions for an ETX-105 state that the imagers
USB connection should point to the left had side of the optical tube
assemby, but the finder is in the way and has to be removed first.thus
I'm then without a finder. Getting annoyed with a meade product again..I
really should wait a year before taking the plunge with any new product!

Yours 

 Andrew 

And:

According to the manual it should be to the left of the optical tube.
Having siad that the manual is rather basic and the whole product smaks
a bit of being a "beta" model. I'm sure Meade will get it sorted and
I'll be mailing them tonight to report the bugs. I'll keep checking the
site over the next few weeks as I'm sure that there will be a wealth of
information re the DSI posted over the next few weeks.

Thanks for the quick reply, as usual.

Subject:	Question from beginner
Sent:	Saturday, January 15, 2005 17:25:40
From:	Tim Williams (skylab@xmission.com)
I've looked over your website and thank you for your efforts to help
people.  Despite all the information, I have a few questions that
weren't answered and which I've been unable to find satisfactory answers
to.

I'm totally new to astrophotography.  I've used a small refractor for
years until I purchased a Meade ETX-125 UHTC last year along with a
variety of filters and eyepieces.  I've enjoyed it a lot, despite living
in the Salt Lake valley which has tons of pollution most of the time.  I
just bought the Meade Deep Space Imager (DSI) and have been trying to
figure out how to use the thing.  Here are the questions I can't seem to
find answers to.  Perhaps you can assist.

1. I've set up all the software, but I can't figure out the best way to
use it or connect it to the telescope.  I can control the scope just
fine with the software and Autostar controller, but the DSI is another
story.  I see it fits into the eyepiece hole, but not into the direct
pass through hole at the back of the telescope.  Which place is best? 
If the connector at the back of the scope is best, how do I go about
connecting it?  Any thoughts on what you deem best if you were to set
this up?

2. Even with the DSI in the eyepiece hole, I'm guessing I can't use my
eyepieces with it.  If this is the case, what type of magnification
eyepieces do you buy to use with the DSI?  Any recommendations?

I'm sure I can figure out the rest but those two items have me stumped. 
I'm planning on using my notebook to connect to it and control the scope
and DSI and then use remote control software like PCAnywhere to connect
to the notebook via my wireless network from inside the house so I can
do winter observing from the comfort of my home. ;-)  I just need to get
things figured out first with the DSI.

I appreciate all your help.  I'm sure there are a lot of newbies who are
going to buy this device and wonder what I'm wondering...how the heck
does this work?  Thank you for your help.

Tim Williams
West Jordan, Utah

Subject:	Deep space imager
Sent:	Wednesday, January 12, 2005 12:12:15
From:	Charles Washington (charles.washington@ntlworld.com)
With regard to my previous email I have since found out from Meade UK
that I need an adapter to use it on the rear photo aperture (straight
thro' as if using a 35mm camera). A friend of mine in the States is
looking to find something to meet this requirement. I will inform you of
the outcome as it seems to be an  easy procedure and will allow me to
use the flip mirror for checking on guidance/alignment.
 
Regards Charles Washington  (UK)

And:

Thanks for your help. Located and ordered part no STVB from Scopetronics
@ $29.95. Will keep you posted as to the outcome and hopefully some good
pix for the 'photo gallery. Without a dedicated site like this these
apparently small problems would seem insurmountable.
So thanks again and kind regards

Charles Washington (UK)

Subject:	Meade DSI doughnuts
Sent:	Thursday, January 6, 2005 14:13:44
From:	WS M (alt_az@yahoo.com)
I just received the Meade DSI.  Yesterday, after I installed the
software, I tested the setup in "Terrestrial" mode when I noticed there
were 10 to 12 small "doughnut" shaped rings on the image (some the size
of pencil erasers ... some smaller, some larger).  These items
maintained a fixed position on the display screen, so I can only assume
they are camera related and that they are probably caused by some "dust"
on the CCD.  I checked but could not see any bits of dust.  Would you
have any suggestions as to what I can do to correct this issue (short of
returning it to Meade)?

Thank you for your time ... your web site is truly a major reference
source.
Scott

And:

Mike, thanks for your time and for responding so quickly.
I am using the DSI in conjunction with my EXT-125 and I cannot see these
objects through my eyepiece.  I removed the DSI from my scope and the 
objects stayed "fixed" on the screen.  I also noticed in the Quick Start
documentation (hard copy) which came with the DSI, there is a Caution
note which states: "The Imager is shipped with the IR filter installed.
Be careful when removing the nosepiece from the imager as the IR filter
is loose and may fall out." ... do you know if this is a screw-on type
of filter?, I do not see one on my unit.
  
Thanks again for your time.
 
Scott

And:

I found the filter is in place and I think I'll just let it be.  I've
read some messages of how extremely delicate the filter itself is.  A
strange thing happened ... the "doughnut" shaped objects on the image I
mentioned in my previous email seem to have vanished ... hmmm.
 
Thank you for your time -
Scott

Subject:	Meade DSI: Horizontal Lines
Sent:	Thursday, January 6, 2005 13:58:30
From:	Graham, John L (Graham@udri.udayton.edu)
In some of my early test images I also I had some problems with dark
horizontal lines across the image. In my case I tracked the problem to
imaging relatively bright objects (or long exposure times) with the
Color Balance set to Sharp and the histogram clipping the high and low
ends (shadow enhancing On). Setting the Color Balance using
Auto-Balance/Soft and making sure the shadow enhancing was Off got rid
of them.

-John

Subject:	Deep Sky Imager
Sent:	Thursday, January 6, 2005 11:52:12
From:	TIM (tim1053@nycap.rr.com)
I am anxious to try my hand at astrophotography. The Meade Deep Sky
Imager seems to be a economical start for CCD capability. The question
that I pose is,Do you have to use the imager with a laptop or PC plugged
into the ETX or can you take the photos  with the imager and scope alone
and then load them into the PC once done. I do not own a laptop and my
PC is quite some distance away in the house. Any help would be
appreciated. Thanks Tim.

Subject:	Meade DSI: Auto-Contrast
Sent:	Monday, January 3, 2005 10:12:06
From:	Graham, John L (Graham@udri.udayton.edu)
The 'snow', blank image (white screen) and washing out are all related
to the way the DSI software sets the histogram when the auto-contrast is
checked. When there's very little light entering the DSI it sets the
high/low levels very near each other and you get snow, when it sets them
the same the screen goes white. On bright objects like the Moon it will
often set the high level a tad lower than it should causing the bright
areas to wash out. You can avoid this by un-checking the auto-contrast
and setting the high/low levels manually.

When first starting to image with the DSI I suggest using exposures of
15seconds or less so you can use the camera in Live mode which will be
similar to the LPI. Initially set up your shot (framing and focus) with
auto-contrast on, but when you're ready to take a real image turn auto
contrast off, set the high/low levels manually, set the color using soft
auto balance, then reset the histogram if needed. For your first couple
of images consider saving the pictures as BMPs as these are fairly easy
to work with. However, as you gain experience learn how to use the FITS
file format as these preserve all of the dynamic range of the DSI and
give you the best data for image processing to bring out all of the fine
detail in faint objects the DSI is capable of capturing and this output
is not effected by the histogram settings.

As an example I've attached a recent image of the Moon. This is a mosaic
of two images taken with the DSI at the prime focus of a 4.5" f/4
Newtonian. The source images were 10 frames each averaged in real-time
using the DSI software and stored as FITS.





Good seeing and transparency helps, but not necessary to get images like
the ones Meade shows in their ads. The key is in the image processing
step where you can remove the background sky glow and enhance the
contrast of diffuse objects. It's exciting having the capability to
experiment with advanced image processing techniques.

-John

Subject:	DSI mounting
Sent:	Sunday, January 2, 2005 05:53:28
From:	Charles Washington (charles.washington@ntlworld.com)
Hi I have for xmas acquired a Meade DSI to use on my ETX 125.

On page 6 of the DSI manual (the basics) it says that I must mount it
into the eyepiece holder with the USB lead facing the left-hand side. Is
this a mistake? If I try to mount it this way it fouls the viewfinder
which is on the left also. Instructions for the LX series say mount it
to the right!.

If it orientated into the wrong position it follows that using the
controls in the computer software will react in different directions.

Am I reading or interpreting the instructions wrongly or just plain
thick.
 
Regards Charles (UK)

And:

Thanks very much .......... this really is a great site.

Subject:	Re a significant problem with a new DSI and new laptop.
Sent:	Saturday, January 1, 2005 04:01:54
From:	John Pullen (john.pullen1@bigpond.com)
I went out and purchased a new laptop and the Meade DSI package two days
ago to use on my LX200PGPS.

Found that DSI and autostar worked on my PC but would not work on my
brand new laptop.

New laptop was to Meads printed on their box specification but Autostar
would not recognise the camera attached to the USB 2.0 port.

Late last night (11 PM on 31/12/04) I found that Meade had just
published a software update on there website. Downloaded it and all my
frustrations dissipated, the USB problem was cured.

I think the software update was dated the 20 December and I purchased
the camera on the 30 December.

The Meade dealer in Australia assured me at the time of purchase that
all the bugs had been fixed in the software.

I would have thought Meade may have at least issued a warning with their
camera at the time of purchase, I was 6 hours off returning both the DSI
and my new laptop for a refund and an apology.

Time will tell with the Camera.

John Pullen.

And:

Not quite, I thought Meade could issue a notice to their dealers to warn
customers of the bug and fix.

First night was better than expected on M42, Question when I first turn
the camera on and select image live I sometimes get a series of straight
black parallel vertical lines which don't want to go away. Have to power
on and off camera and Autostar.

Any clues on how to avoid and cure the lines without turn/of gymnastics.

John Pullen

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