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Last updated: 8 June 2011
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Last updated: 8 June 2011 |
| This page covers the various models of the Meade Deep Sky Imager and DSI Pro with your 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: Re: help needed w/ my DSI ...Driver not recognized Sent: Sunday, June 5, 2011 06:27:58 From: Bill Frederick (wfrederi@gotsky.com) Thanks for the help! I uninstalled Meade Astronomical package, Envisage, and re-installed the driver. All works at the coffee table. Unfortunately when it all came together I let out a loud 'hoot" at 5 am. and woke my wife....and dog. Breakfast made up for my temporary insanity, and I appear to be forgiven...my dog..well, it may take some time. I enjoyed your web site! I am jealous. I live in upstate NY (lat. 43.19, long. 73.34) and do not have he clear skies that the Western States have. Time in my observatory is precious! Two nights ago skies were clear and low humidity <40%, and even though the camera did not function, I spent the night with a smile on my face. Thanks again!!! BillMike here: Glad to hear all is well with the DSI. Enjoy! As to your weather, well, I don't (currently) have any articles with tips about that!
Subject: help needed w/ my DSI ...Driver not recognized Sent: Saturday, June 4, 2011 14:05:16 From: Bill Frederick (wfrederi@gotsky.com) I was using my DSI with my old lap top (Windows XP). It worked well, no issues. I loaded A/S Suite to my new laptop ASUS (Windows 7) and stupidly thought that it would work!!!! After losing a partial night of crystal clear viewing I gave up with it. I downloaded the newest update from the Meade Site. Followed the instructions and the Driver is not functioning in Windows 7. I took ther camera and attached it to my old XP platform and it works. That laptop is on its last legs so I am very reluctant to use it. Any suggestions, or should I get more frustrated and call Meade for assistance on Monday? Thanks, Bill ps. Sent mesage out on DSI user group and no replies...Mike here: There are several DSI and Windows on the Helpful Information: Astrophotography page. Hopefully something there will help.
Subject: re: DSI Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 15:49:39 From: richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com) One trick i've used for indoor testing of the DSI (and LPI) is to: Holding the DSI (no telescope needed), stretch a piece of aluminum foil across the eyepiece tube. Poke a *tiny* hole in the stretched foil with a straight pin (or sewing needle). Point the camera at an illuminated light fixture in your home. See if it shows up on the Envisage screen. ------ What you're doing is creating a "pinhole" camera. The extremely tiny hole acts as a lens with a very long (near-infinite) depth-of-field. 5 feet to 5000 miles will all be in focus. good luck --dickMike here: Thanks Dick! Nice idea. And if it works, you get a "usable" camera!
Subject: DSI Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 22:23:36 From: blkhole (blkhole@shaw.ca) A friend lent me a DSI to see if I could get it working. When hooked up to the computer it is recognized and the envisage program opens up and is all ready to go. Problem is that all I get for any image is a bunch of vertical lines and no picture at all. Do you know if anyone else has had this problem and if there is a fix for it or do we just throw the DSI in the going going gone bin. Thanks GuyMike here: Sounds like the image is being overexposed. Have you tried adjusting the exposure settings?
And:
Thanks Mike, I turned down the exposure settings but still get no image just vertical line still but just fainter. Anyone else having problems similar to this? GuyMike here: It has been years since I used the AutoStar Suite (since it only runs on Windows). If there is a "gain" setting, try reducing that.
Subject: Horsead Nebula has bolted Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 10:17:38 From: Jim Beston (james_beston@sky.com) I hope you are well and enjoying life. I hope you have a very Happy New Year. This concerns my LX200 GPS (10"). As it might be of general interest I hope you don't mind me sending it to your etx site. I tried VERY hard to image the Horsehead Nebula last night using the the LX200 (with f 6.3 field flattener) and a DSI II imager. After setting up the LX, I successfully imaged M42 first. When M42 appeared on the "Envisage" screen on my laptop it was a little offset to the right, nevertheless the trapezium and the other main stars within this nebula could be seen. I then slewed the 'scope to the HH Nebula but despite various manipulations of exposure time and the image histogram, I found no sign of the object. I then started looking at the faint star patterns that I could discern when I applied the image auto-contrast function and checked their positions with my "Starry Night" software. I was not sure if the image I had on-screen was the same way up as shown on Starry Night but, assuming they were I moved the 'scope in such a direction so that I should come upon stars shown in Starry Night if I was pointing to where I thought I was. This "star-hopping" seemed to indicate that the 'scope was pointing either directly at, or very close to the position where the HH nebula should be. Despite doing a fairly thorough grid search of the area I was completely unable to image it. What I would like to know: Is this a particularly difficult object to image and if there are any tips you, or your readers can give me. Of course I am now determined to image it! Thanks JimMike here: Yes, the Horsehead is a difficult DSO to image or even see at the telescope. I have imaged it with my 8" LX200-ACF with D70 and D7000 DSLRs using long exposure at high ISO settings. With the DSI you will likely need to take many many many individual images and stack them.
And:
Futher to my mail on the above subject, it occurred to me to look in your guest astrophotography Deep Sky images. Imagine my surprise when the second image I looked at was a perfectly decent image of the HH nebula. It seems that I must have done something stupid not to be able to find the nebula! Kindest Regards JimMike here: Not "stupid". Just going up the steep learning curve!
Subject: M42 from holland Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2010 11:34:51 From: Sidney Strangmann (se622739-t@telfort.nl) This time no ETX 70 but a 4 inch Skywatcher F5 with my good old DSI1 color. 1 picture made at 15 sec, 1picture made at 30 sec stacked with Registex end reworked with PSP7 Best Reagards and a clear 2011 Sidney from Holland http://home.kpn.nl/eiwi02sg
Subject: ETX-LS Feedback Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2009 13:06:16 From: Jim Widmann (jwidmann909@msn.com) I am looking for any info on using a Meade DSI with the ETX-LS. Every where I read leads me to believe that you can interface the DSI with the ETX-LS without a computer and save pictures to the SD card. Can you shine any light on this subject ? Thank You Jim Widmann.Mike here: I haven't heard that the DSI will interface directly to the ETX-LS miniSD card or the ETX-LS without a computer running Windows.
And:
On Meads website in there four page flyer on page two it says , "BUILT-IN IMAGING EXCitement The built-in ECLIPS CCD lets you capture images of your favorite celestial wonders and display them in real-time* or save them to an SD card**, with no external computer needed. You can even connect and control another DSI CCD camera and view images on an external monitor or save the images to the SD card or an external computer. Either way, you can start astro-imaging on your first night out! "
Subject: DSI Cooler Available Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 16:07:39 From: Digital Phase Support (equipoiseloudspeaker@comcast.net) New Active Regulated CNC machined Coolers for all Meade DSI Imagers! (Patent Pending). Download and see the full specifications from the Camera Bug Website at: www.camerabug.com Thank You, Daryl - Digital Phase Loudspeakers, Inc. www.digitalp.com Voice: (423) 485-1266 Fax: (423) 485-0719
Subject: Meade image processing Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 08:49:13 From: Andrew Schilling (schilling.andrew@yahoo.com) I have taken some pictures recently with my DSI pro and have tried to get them opened in Meade's image processing program. I have not been successful in getting the JPEG image converted to the FITS format and I was curious if you knew of way that this can be accomplished. I have tried google and it has been as clear as mud trying to figure out those options. Any advice or programs you know that can make this happen would be appreciated. Thanks, from a fellow Hoosier. AndyMike here: If you are using Mac OS X, you can use GraphicConverter (http://www.lemkesoft.com). It can handle many file format conversions, including to FITS. But I thought the AutoStar Suite image capture app could handle Windows BMP files, although it has been a LONG time since I've used it (since it is a Windows application). If you use Windows (or a Mac) you can convert the JPEG to BMP (assuming that file format is still handled).
And:
Mike, The BMP format did work. Thanks for the quick response and help. Andy
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