As all of you know, one of the most exhilarating activities for astronomy buffs is receiving, unpacking, and prepping new equipment for “first light”. The results can be brutal with so very many uncontrollable variables. But sometimes, the Weather Gods are smiling, Windows does what it is told, and everything in the Universe is good!

Hi [...]

I finally managed to get out with my new DMK 21AU04.AS and try my hand at some Lunar imaging with the new camera.

First thing I noticed was the Resolution which seems far superior than my trusted Phillps webcam I guess this is down to the Raw output and better CCD chip secondly, I noticed the frame rate which was caused a second WOW at the laptop screen I really felt like I was in orbit across the Moon when slewing from crater to crater.

After some time just looking at the screen and showing my family some Luna highlights I went about imaging. Using the software was a breeze simple yet all the features needed to adjust exposure/gain etc etc.

Here is a stitched image from the resulting images captured with the DMK [21AU04.AS] which was attached to my LX90 and a 2x Barlow. Each image was a stack of 2000 frames which were stacked in Registax 4.

Roll on more clear skies.

James

Below is the image to which he is referring:

Optique PK3 is one our French resellers, with their shop in Cholet. Although the main business of Optique PK3 lies in selling spectacles, the astronomy division, which was founded around ten years ago, is continually growing.

Optique PK3 has just published their catalog for 2008 and is currently shipping it to customers and prospects in their area.

They recently added the full line of astronomy cameras, manufactured by The Imaging Source, to their range of products. Indeed, their new catalog contains an entire page dedicated to our cameras.

If you live in or around Cholet and would like to receive their catalog, or if you would just like to go round and talk to them about astronomy, click on the following link for contact information:

• http://www.optiquepk3.com

Laurent Langelez has sent in the following impressive image of the Moon. We have already published some of his images in this blog and in the French astronomy cameras blog, but if you want to see more, go and take a look at his well maintained web site.

The image was captured on March 09, 2008 (third day of the Moon), using the USB 2.0 astronomy camera DMK 31AU03.AS, manufactured by The Imaging Source. The camera was mounted on a Newton 200/1000 telescope. Stacking was done in RegiStax 4 and iMerge.

Click on the image to download the original:

Great thanks go out to Laurent for sharing this image with The Imaging Source astronomy cameras community.

André Débackère sent us a first light image of the Moon, which he captured with the USB 2.0 astronomy camera DMK 21AU04.AS.

The image is the crater Maurolycus and was captured on March 11, 2008 from an observatory in Rivoire, France (click to see the full resolution version):

Accompanying his e-mail, André comments (translated from French):

Here is my modest contribution: 30 fps, 1/30s C8 Televue scope, 250 best images in RegiStax and Photoshop.

Thanks you André for sharing this beautiful image with The Imaging source astronomy cameras community!

Jean-Claude Briand has sent in one of his first images of Saturn, which he captured with the camera that he won in the recent Ciel & Espace competition. He was awarded one DMK 21AU04.AS as the runners up prize (third place).

The image was captured in the night between February 23, 2008 and February 24, 2008 from his observatory, located in Montlhéry, France:

We send out a great thanks to Jean-Claude for sharing this first light image with us! Well done for the great image.