I just want to introduce myself.
I'm an international (Mexico City) grad student in the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Been interested in astronomy since I was around 8.

I've posted some images in the Gallery section taken from the backyard (front yard really ) of my house here in Fayetteville.

I'm waiting for clear skies and less humidity to be able to try more imaging, meanwhile I've been hypertuning my mount, modded the webcam, etc. I hope all these work will alow me to share some better photos than the ones posted.

Best,
Pablo

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Hi Pablo -

Welcome to the AOAS.ORG website!

I've had a look at your Gallery Album. Your images are pretty good for just starting out. In fact, I'd like to see more of them. I'm not sure you're going to see a whole lot less humidity in this part of the world, but it will be drier when the weather turns colder.

I sure hope you can make some of our meetings and/or some of our star parties, we'd like to meet you in person. Just have a look at our calendar for upcoming events.

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Dave - Morrow, AR

Hello Pablo,
Welcome to AOAS and N.W. Arkansas! I visited your album and site... most impressive! Are you teaching at the U of A?

Keep the images coming!

Clear Skies,
Larry

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Clear Skies-Larry

HI Dave, I'd love to make it to one of the meetings. I'll try to be there on September 27, but for sure will be in the one on October 25th. Do we have access to AC outlets or should I bring my batteries for guiding the mount?

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Hi Larry,

Thanks for the comments! I'm teaching Calculus 1 as an assistant and working on my dissertation.
I'm just waiting for the weather to settle to try my upgraded mount and autoguiding for the time!
I hope I'll be able to capture 2-5 minutes subs instead of my 20 sec. subs you've seen.

Pablo

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Hi Pablo,

Did you mod your web cam or did it come that way? I thinking about modding mine to use as a autoguiding camera, but I'm not brave enough to perform the surgery myself... I guess I could take to a electronics repair shop of some kind and pay to have it done.

Clear Skies,
Larry

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Clear Skies-Larry

Hi Larry, I did the mod myself. What webcam do you have? Maybe I can help making the mod for yours. I even have some spare parts that might be hard to find locally like the 4066 chip.

Best,
Pabllo

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Hey Pablo,

I have the Philips SPC 900NC and Mogg adapter. I've done some more research and I might be able to guide without the mod. I have downloaded PHD Guiding and they say it is possible to use the web cam. I just need to order a interface module and some DB-9 cable to link my mount to my lap top, then I can begin testing. My new/used DSI should be here Friday... I can hardly wait to try some unguided imaging this week end. I think if I get good polar alignment, I might be able to get 45-60 sec. subs. I'll will let you know how it goes.

Clear Skies,
Larry

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Clear Skies-Larry

Pablo -

We are having a Deep Sky Night at Coleman Observatory on October 25th, but I won't be at the one on Sept 27th due to our activites at the RRAC event in south Arkansas that night. We'd love to have you out to the Star Party at Diamond Bar G Ranch on November 1st if you can make it. The ranch is only 25 miles SW of Fayetteville, so it would be an easy drive for you. Maybe we will see you there?

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Dave - Morrow, AR

Hi Larry,

That's right. You can use the webcam without modding it BUT the longest exposure you'll get is 1/5 of a sec. So, unless you are lucky enough to have a bright star close to the DSO you want to image, the camera will not be able to register a guiding star for PhD.
While if you LX mod the webcam then you can allow PhD to take "long exposures" for guiding where for "long exposures" I mean something in the 1/2 - 2 sec range. I'm pretty sure that with 1 sec exposure you can register a 10 or 12 magnitude star.

I envy your atlas mount (mine is an LXD75). You should get your 40-60 sec unguided subs with it.
I'd love to see some pictures!
Best luck
Pablo

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Dave,

I will be there on November 1st. I already marked the day in my calendar
Please let me know what can I bring to the Ranch when we get closer to the date, OK?

Thanks,
Pablo

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Hello, Pablo, and welcome.

FYI, yes, we DO HAVE electrical outlets on site at Coleman Observatory. You can setup beside one permanent pier, or within a few feet of our small building and the outlets are right there for use by anyone. Should you like to fit your equatorial head to that finished pier, or to any of three other available but still unconnected permanent piers, I'll help all I can and we can modify any pier to accommodate any mount with a little oxy-aceteline cutting and welding we might need to do on site. With a little help, we can do that for anyone, anytime as well.

Since we haven't brought up the subject in a good while now, the grounds at Coleman are open to anyone, anytime......you do NOT need to be a member, nor do you even need a telescope to simply have a safe place to go and throw out a blanket and kick back for meteor watching, or for a place to set up a small telescope and practice finding objects from a dark-sky site. I'm always on-site as caretaker, and I'll introduce myself when someone we haven't met comes up, but I only offer to help if anyone asks for or needs it. You can be as interactive with me or as private for yourself as you wish to be, so please, welcome to Coleman Observatory, to one-and-all.

Come visit, and see what we have. Tomorrow night, September 20 is an available scheduled public night, and there WILL BE folks here to observe on September 27th, as well. While David, myself, and member Leonard Lynch will be at Nashville, AR next Saturday, anyone can come and enjoy a view with our other members who'll be here that evening.

Bob Moody
Van Buren
Coleman Observatory
Caretaker and Director

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Bob Moody

Hi Bob,

Thank you so much for the information.
I have made a lot of upgrades to my equipment, still need to do some more. As soon as everything is ready I'll pay you a visit!
Would love a dark open site. From home I basically have open view to the West and, guessed correctly, most of Fayetteville's light pollution comes from there.

Pablo

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

"While if you LX mod the webcam then you can allow PhD to take "long exposures" for guiding"

Hey Pablo, what is a LX Mod and how do you do it? I hope it doesnt require a microscope...

Clear Skies,
Larry

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Clear Skies-Larry

Hi Larry,

LX is short for "Long eXposure". It is the first mod from Steve Chambers, aka SC1. You don't need a microscope for doing the mod. In fact for the SPC900NC it is pretty simple. My camera was modded following the instructions found here:
http://home.zonnet.nl/m.m.j.meijer/D_I_Y/spc900nc.htm for the work inside the camera and here: http://www.pk3.org/Astro/index.htm?k3ccdtools_serial_port_adapter.htm
for the serial port. (I really connected the cables outside the camera directly to the serial connector).
I know it looks hard, but once you start the work you realize it is not that hard.

As I said before, I have the spare parts (alomost all) and tools for doing it and would be happy to help mod yours.

Pablo

P.S. Let me take some pictures of how it looks after the "surgery" and I'll post them here, OK?

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Here is the view of the webcam, the usb cable (left) is the original one I didn't touch it. The one to the right is standard phone cable for the serial interface that controls the long exposure mode:



Here is a close up. Notice that a grommet and a drop of glue make the serial cable stay in place and looks good



Finally the inside of the serial connector. Sorry it is fuzzy but the "macro" of my camera didn't get in focus that close.

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR

Very nice and clean! and pretty cool that you are still able to use the original housing. I've taken peak at the mod link you posted and I've visited there once before, several months ago...I still got a little weak at the knees. I did take a longer look this time and I guess if a guy took his time and went step by step looking at the pictures, it wouldn't be too scary. I'd feel a lot better if I had a pair of cams though, just in case...

What is the maxium exposure you can take with this mod and do you have the amp-off option? If I'm only needing 1-2sec. for autoguiding the amp-off wouldn't be necessary, right?

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Clear Skies-Larry

You can take as long exposures as you want. I made some tests in the dark and with 20 secs I could see the details of what was placed in the table of my living room

I didn't make the amp off mod. That one is scary since you need to either cut one leg of the ccd chip or scratch the circuit board!!
You are right. The amp off mod is worth only if you were planning to image with the webcam for two reasons:
First, the amp glow start showing with really long exp (10 sec or more).
Second, for guiding all you really need are long enough exposures so as to register faint stars. The quality of the image is not relavant.

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Pablo - Fayetteville, AR