Imaging the things I
observe has always been a dream of mine. Since I received my first
telescope when I was a small boy, I have always wanted to share the things
I see with others. Yes, it's probably just as easy to bring one's loved
ones out to the telescope to have a look at many beautiful sights that the
sky has to offer but when the cold temperatures of winter come around and
I'm the only one wanting to confront the cold night air of a Midwestern
winter, I feel it is nicer to image the object and then process it and
only then share it with others.
To
enter into the world of Astro Imaging, I decided to give web cam imaging a
try. Now web cam imaging generally works best with planets and brighter
objects but some have gotten it to work with objects like double stars. So
to star off I purchased a few cheap Connectix quick cams and modified them
for astro imaging vs. terrestrial imaging that they are truly made for.
After messing with these
quick cams and finding that the image quality wasn't quite what I was
hoping for, I decided to purchase an Orion Star Shoot Planetary imager
($99 at the time). This imager uses a CMOS chip as opposed to a CCD chip
for it image acquisition. Thus the image quality is reduce but so too is
the over all price.
At any rate, I began to work
with this camera (which has since been discontinued) and actually came up
with some decent images. To date I still use this camera despite the
number of complaints against the camera's quirky operation and less than
satisfactory imaging ability. For me, its not really a matter of personal
preference but rather budget (Orion is getting too expensive to consider a
worthwhile source of equipment).
To the left are links to
many of the images I've taken with this cam and with additional equipment
like CCD imagers and larger telescopes.