Ad Astra Observatory

http://www.thomasandamy.com/jimbo/D70Ctrl.zip

There is an exe in there, if you pass in a config file at the command
line, i’ll run that, otherwise the menus let you pretty much do
anything you want with the camera that you can do on the body. There
isn’t much in the way of docs, so i had to pretty much just guess on
what the hell is going on.

On 8/22/06, Jimbo S. Harris <jimbo@jimbo.net> wrote:

> At 10:52 AM 8/22/2006 -0700, you wrote:
> >On 8/21/06, Jimbo S. Harris <jimbo@jimbo.net> wrote:
> >>Well, I can sign up for the SDK on Nikon’s website, but I’d like a copy of
> >>the app; it’ll be good to see what can be done with a little elbow grease…

> >
> >I had some company last night and wasn’t able to prep the program to
> >send to you, i’ll should be able to do this tonight.
>
> Take your time. I’d love to have it, but I’m also loving the amount of time
> I’m already having under the stars. The moon doesn’t come back around to

> spoil my fun until Monday or so…
>
> You only do upgrades when the system is not in production. (:
>
> >>those “component drawers” are all about… (: With a solderless breadboard,
> >>you can test out your circuits heavily before committing them to solder.

> >>soldering skills are still… um, sketchy. But I can get the job done.
> >
> >I think every time i solder, instead of a dab it’s more like
> >unleashing the red sea. 🙂 lol – Cool stuff though.
>
> 😀 The Red Sea… hehehe I just feel like I need about 3 more hands when

> I’m soldering. One to hold the thing I’m soldering to, one to hold the
> wire, one to hold the solder, one to hold the iron, one to dab the sweat
> from my brow… (:
>
> >I’ve been looking in to some sort of camera that can do up to 60fps

> >and has the resolution of the D70.
>
> I guess they make them: http://www.visiblesolutions.com/ They look pretty
> spendy. (: Not quite the resolution of the D70, but more fps than you could
> possibly ever need (there’s a 1600×1200x1000fps version).
>
> > The biggest restriction for them is

> >that i need something that will lets me swap regular to camera lenses.
> >I’ll run multple cameras as you’re suggesting as well, but will
> >depend on cost i guess. 🙂
> >
> >Where did you find the info to make a nikon lense adapter?
>

> Strangely enough, out of Sky&Telescope magazine. Here’s the basic concept:
> remove the webcam’s original lens. Then, drill a round hole in a Nikon rear
> lens cap (the kind that has bayonets on the inside, just like a Nikon
> body). Attach the cap to the webcam’s body (I used my 1.25” telescope

> adapter that I bought here: http://webcaddy.com.au/astro/adapter.htm, but
> you could also use glue, and it also looks like Mogg has started to build
> these adapters himself, which could be a good option). You now have a
> webcam that is adapted to Nikon lenses. It will get a lot more
> magnification out of the lenses than a normal 35mm film frame would (35mm
> film is 43mm in diagonal, D70 is 28mm diagonal which is why it’s about a

> 1.5x magnification over filme, webcam usually has about a 5mm diagonal, so
> about a 10x magnification over film), and obviously it doesn’t have
> autofocus. But it’s a cheap way to get a *lot* of flexibility out of your
> webcam.
>
> >>The signal increases as the sqrt of the # of frames, so if you shot as few as

> >>10 of each site, you’d have a 3x cleaner image.
> >
> >Doing the over scan you mentioned should work for me as well, i’ll
> >have to try that, although with the type of processing i’m doing, i’ll
> >have to test it to see if the gain from that is offset by the

> >potential movement in the subject.
>
> Actually, the stacking process does help to minimize blur — shooting
> through atmosphere is like taking a photo from the bottom of a swimming
> pool; stuff moves around (and changes size, shape, and brightness) a *lot*.
>
> I put up a photo of the imaging rig sitting in the observatory, as well as

> a photo of the gizmo on the website (it’s on the “gear” page).
>
> Jimbo
>
>
>