ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY USING THE MEADE ELECTRONIC EYEPIECE Last updated: 8 November 2010

This page documents using the Meade Electronic Eyepiece comments, tips, and photos. Search the site for "Electronic Eyepiece" for other items about the Meade Electronic Eyepiece. Contributions welcome.

Subject:	Jupiter With ETX-90
Sent:	Sunday, November 7, 2010 05:56:27
From:	Navid Voghoofi (navidv1@gmail.com)
Just wanted to share a stacked and processed image of Jupiter taken on
Nov. 1, 2010.

Telescope: Meade ETX 3.5 inch Maksutov Cassegrain @ f28 
Mount: Orion AstroView(EQ3) with dual axis drives 
Camera: Meade Electronic Eyepiece 
Number of Stacked Images: 1465 
Filters: None 
Captured directly to laptop via frame grabber 
Processed with Gimp image processing software 

Clear Skies, 
Navid 

Subject:	EIE Blues
Sent:	Thursday, November 22, 2007 11:04:12
From:	Siddiqui, Irfan (irfan.siddiqui@eds.com)
I saw this webpage where there is a good discussion going on about the
"Electronic Imaging Eyepiece (EEIP)".  I want to put my
question/experience out there, which I just have had recently, to see if
I have an isolated experience with this device or there are others out
there who have had the similar problems, and maybe I will learn
something new about the usage of this device.

I have acquired the Meade's EIEP online via www.telescopes.com, for a
reasonable price, and after getting it delivered at home I hurriedly put
it to use the same night, and imaged the moon on a small color monitor.

However soon after, I lost tracking on the moon on my 6" Newtonian
reflector and after I resumed it, I lost the imaging capability via the
EEIP.  I played around making sure that I had the moon perfectly aligned
and centered in the eyepiece, but I could not get the image back onto
the monitor.  I also noticed that while placing the EEIP into the
telescope's objective, there would be a bright flash on the monitor but
when the EEIP is in place, the monitor went blank.

Not sure if I am facing user issues or there is something wrong with the
EEIP.  If someone out there could relate a similar experience of their
own, it would be highly appreciated.  Other questions I have about this
product are:

1. I could not figure out the aperture equivalence of this device.
(25mm, 21mm etc?)

2. Is there anyway to adjust the size of the object relayed on the
monitor?

3.  Are there any kind of adapters out there which could be appended to
the EEIP, so that one can play with the magnification?

Thanks for your help in this regard, in advance.
Cheers 
Irfan Siddiqui, 
Fort Worth TX.

Subject:	Another (nice) moon photo
Sent:	Saturday, January 18, 2003 9:04:11
From:	geheniau@xs4all.nl
Great site! Really. I bought a new ETX90 and some extra stuff 2 weeks
ago. Made a cable for my mac to update my autostar (pin connections
found on your site) and saw some nice things in the sky.

I live in The Netherlands (Europe) and till now I watched the sky from
my balcony in a light polluted area.

Yesterday there was for 3 hours a full moon (now it's cloudy again) and
because I don't have yet the appropriate things to use my Pentax MZ5
photocamera or my Philips Toucam Pro to make some good pictures (expect
them this week) I used the electronic eyepiece from Meade.

But the magnification is far too big to take a shot of the full moon, I
recorded the whole moon as a movie on my Sony Handycam.

Then I used Final Cut Pro to capture the movie and exported single
frames as TIFF. Next step Photoshop to puzzle all the pieces together
(hell of a job). Some brightness/contrastcorrection and sharpening and
there she was. Ms. Moon.

There was much turbulence in the sky when I took the movie of the moon
with the electronic eyepiece, but it worked fine after all.

Greetings Job Geheniau
www.xs4all.nl/~geheniau

Soon there will be an astropage on my website.

Click for full size image

Subject:	Meade electronic Eyepiece
Sent:	Friday, January 17, 2003 12:31:01
From:	RRoday@wpcarey.com
I have shot the moon (can't miss) Jupiter and Saturn through my Meade
Electronic Eyepiece (MEE) and ETX 125 but each time, I have trouble
finding and centering on the planet. Its very hit and miss. Are there
any tips ? and Are there better CCDs that don't cost thousands ? I would
really like to get a hot image.

Rob

Subject:	Saturn picture
Sent:	Monday, December 16, 2002 14:35:55
From:	nop06339@mail.telepac.pt (Mrio Pina)
Here is my first picture of Saturn taken (11.12.2002) with my ETX-70AT,
Meade Electronic Eyepiece+2x-Barlow.

Mrio Pina

Subject:	more etx 70 and electronic eyepiece
Sent:	Wednesday, May 15, 2002 8:18:10
From:	bobgreef@hotmail.com (bob greef)
Just got a solar filter from Orion for the ETX70.  Teaming it up with
the electronic eyepiece allows relaxed solar sunspot viewing with
absolutely no risk of inadvertantly looking at our local star.  You can
even sit in the shade!

Attached video capture using Happauge WinTV 2000 from previously
recorded VHS tape. Perhaps a bit too much quality lost.

Bob Greef
Norwich
England

Subject:	Astrophotography
Sent:	Sunday, May 5, 2002 12:33:35
From:	r_shoesmith@madasafish.com (Richard Shoesmith)
Here are my first efforts at astrophotography using the ETX-70AT. Taken
using an Orion 60mm glass solar filter and the Meade electronic
eyepiece. Each is a composite of six 320 x 240 .bmp's using Astrostack.
The images were captured using the eyepiece plugged into an Hauppauge
WIN TV card.

Richard

Subject:	Moon, Images, ETX, 70AT
Sent:	Monday, April 22, 2002 10:48:44
From:	bobgreef@hotmail.com (bob greef)
Just a couple of images captured from video via Meade electronic
eyepiece/etx 70at.  This was done while waiting for planets to appear
from behind the clouds during the current alignment. Lots of cloud
drifting past the moon which gave an added interest to the video but
made selection of suitable frames to capture a bit of a headache.
Bob Greef
Norwich, England

Subject:	Meade Electronic Eyepiece
Sent:	Tuesday, April 9, 2002 11:33:28
From:	john@cuckney.net (John Cuckney)
I have recently bought a Meade Electronic Eyepiece which I am trying to
connect to my PC through Belkin USB video adaptor to both/either
AstroSnap or Vega software using Windows Me.

The Creative WebCam software I have on PC will find the Meade Eyepiece
through Belkin USB but neither of the AstroSnap or Vega software will
(they seem to only see my WfW drivers which are not routed through USB).

The Creative webcam sees USB video and VfW as two source options. Both
AstroSnap ans Vega only see Vfw as a camera option (they do see my USB
webcam when that is inserted into USB port!)

Anyone out there know what to do? Or does the Belkin/Meade Eyepiece not
work like a Webcam?

The eyepiece gives reasonable views through standard webcam software of
planets and moon - I would like to try it with specialised astro
software.

Any help greatly appreciated as I have seen some planets this week here
in UK.... and would like to try out my Meade Eyepiece.

John Cuckney

john@cuckney.net
www.cuckney.net

Subject:	Moon Photo
Sent:	Tuesday, March 26, 2002 14:47:03
From:	hosmer@cox.net (Bill Hosmer)


Electronic Eyepiece, ETX-90, VidCap to get the frame.



Same as Previous, One note, some Meade Department store telescopes come with
the electronic eyepiece.  It may be cheaper to purchase this way?  No touch
ups on either photo, very happy with ETX and accessories.

Subject:	Moon Meade Electronic eyepiece
Sent:	Sunday, March 10, 2002 11:22:52
From:	drygulch_99@yahoo.com (Thomas Dorman)
This was a image I took of the Moon during the Feb.20 2002 occultation
of Saturn and the Moon. Jim Gamble and I are trying to make a movie of
this event.The image was shot through a 41/2 inch f8.8,FL 1000mm
reflecting telescope.The image was captured using Movie maker and
processed using Photo shop deluxe.I have a ETX 70EC but this is a wide
field telescope and not  good for planets.I believe the Meade electronic
eyepiece would work well on a ETX90 or larger scope.The longer the FL.of
the scope the better image the camera will deliver.Do not expect this
camera to give images as good as higher end digital camera, but as you
can see from the images they are not bad.
Stars in your eyes
Thomas Dorman
Far West Texas Sky Watcher
Note: forwarded message attached.

Subject:	Fwd: saturn moon
Sent:	Sunday, March 10, 2002 8:47:01
From:	drygulch_99@yahoo.com (Thomas Dorman)
I am forwarding an e-mail with and attachment that is
the final processed picture i took using the Meade
electric eyepiece of the Dec.26, 2001 occultation of
Saturn. In the picture Saturn is just about to start
its track behind the Moon.The image was captured and
processed by my friend Jim Gamble who email this final
image. Also Have Ok picture of the Moom if your
interested. I do not know if the problems some have
had is the monitors with no brightness or contrast
controls and you must learn how to adjust the contrast
thumb wheel on the camera. Hope all enjoy.
Thomas Dorman
Far West Texas Sky Watcher  

Subject:	Jupiter with the Meade Electronic Eyepiece
Sent:	Saturday, February 16, 2002 22:43:19
From:	don@tabbutt.com (Don Tabbutt)
I noticed some folks have asked recently what can be done with the Meade
Electronic Eyepiece. Although not taken with an ETX, the photo below of
Io transiting Jupiter illustrates the capability of this eyepiece. It
was taken with an 8" f/10 LX200 with the #140 Barlow. Thirteen still
frames were captured to the Memory Stick of a Sony DCRTRV-17 camcorder,
making sure that seeing was optimum for each capture. The frames were
then stacked and processed with Adobe Photoshop.

An 8" telescope has a Dawes limit of .6 arcseconds, and the ETX 125EC
comes in with a Dawes limit of 1 arcsecond. What this means is that the
125EC should be capable of similar results, since Earth-based telescopes
of any size are generally limited to 1 arcsecond of resolution due to
atmospheric artifacts.

I plan to attempt a similar image with my ETX 125EC as soon as my skies
become favorable, and I will keep you apprised of the result.

Regards,

Don

It is a pain, Mike, and that's why I only stacked 13 frames. I'm getting
MaxIm DL soon and saying goodbye to Photoshop for stacking. Briefly,
here's what I do...

I put each image, one by one, in a new layer, using copy and paste. The
first image is the only one that actually gets modified. I set the new
layer's opacity at or below 50% (this varies), and with the Move tool
nudge it around at high magnification, aligning with the one under it
(the background layer). Then I flatten the layers (becomes the new
background layer) and get the next image, copy & paste, etc. In the case
of Jupiter, I used Io's shadow as the registration point.

Subject:	EXT 70AT imaging
Sent:	Monday, February 4, 2002 17:15:14
From:	wilbur_ted@EMC.com (wilbur, ted)
I've been dabbling with taking images using the Meade electronic
eyepiece CCD imager that came bundled with my 70AT.  I wrote up some of
my initial observations which may be of interest to other 70AT users who
are thinking about using the electronic eyepiece.

As always, thanks for all you do!

Ted Wilbur

Subject:	Electronic Eyepiece
Sent:	Monday, December 31, 2001 5:35:50
From:	twopipers@home.com (george lilley)
I did get the chance to use the monochrome electronic eyepiece attached
to a video camera last night.  I thought I got some good results. I was
lucky enough to catch a 757 eclipsing the moon.  I attached a couple of
the shots I captured from the video.  The resolution was better than the
snapped photos, some resolution was lost in the capture process. All in
all I was very pleased with the electronic eyepiece.

George L.

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