Astro-Land

asa ddm 85 fix

Erwin Kats — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:07:05 +0000

last night i was having troubles with the USB connection to my asa ddm 85.
after asking Karel Teuwen, a belgium astrophotographer ( he also got a ddm 85 )

i heard he also had troubles with the connection, his reason was the USB-serial converter cable.
yesterday i did a small fix to it, using a big piece of tape i was not getting any problems.

but i will order a new convertor because its not reliable enough for me !

QHY 5 guider camera

Erwin Kats — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:01:41 +0000

After looking the stats of my website i see that there are alot of people looking for the QHY 5 camera.

in my last post about the qhy 5 on my website i was writing about the cmos.dll that you had to copy and paste etc etc.
in the mean while Tom from www.astrosoft.be has made ascom drivers for the QHY camera’s.
now the usage of the QHY 5 is very easy.

just install ACOM it self, and the ascom driver from Tom’s website and you can select the QHY 5 in PHD Guiding.

Now when you go to PHD Guiding and find your camera, you click ASCOM v5 Camera.
then you will get a drop down menu with the camera you would like to select through the ascom driver.

here a photo, click on it to enlarge it.
(for me also the QSI is availble)

sail 2010 ijmuiden

Erwin Kats — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:17:15 +0000

last night we had fireworks from the beginning of sail 2010 but also the ending of some local events.
here a sneak preview, now i go to bed and edit the pics tomorrow morning.

*update* photo’s can be found here

QSI 583 WS with baader planetarium 7nm HA filter

Erwin Kats — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:20:09 +0000

during a 1 week astrophotography holiday in southern france i did some more testing with the QSI 583 WS and baader planetarium 7nm Ha filter.

on this photo i did 2×20 minuts chip was cooled down to -10 degrees celcius. ( lens was 70-200 2.8 IS L from canon on 200mm f2.8)
on the photo you see the gamma cygni region.( butterfly nebula near the star Sadr )

First light with the QSI 583 WS

Erwin Kats — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 08:05:03 +0000

i already had a few days to play with the camera, to know how the filterwheel works, how to take exposures etc.
tonight i had the chance to photograph a part of cynnus.

i photographed it from my normal holiday location in south limburg in holland.

ive used 5×10minute exposure with the canon 70-200 2,8 IS on 135mm and baader 7nm Ha filter
the chip was cooled to -10 and there were no dark frames used.

QSI 583 WS

Erwin Kats — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:53:05 +0000

last wednesday my Quantum Scientific Imaging 583 WS arrived.
this ccd camera with an Kodak KAF 8300 chip has an internal filterwheel ( mine has an 1,25” filter holder so 5 filter can take place )

at the moment i only got a 7nm Halpha filter from baader planetarium.

the store were i ordered the camera www.telescoop.nl from Guy de Nooij was so kind to send the camera just before i went to an astroholiday to southern france.
i wish there were more stores so kind and with such a good service

more photo of the camera can be found here.

asa ddm 85 #2

Erwin Kats — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:33:29 +0000

After all the shitty damages, bad service etc from asa here a first pic.
after a 10 star pointing file i did a 10 minute unguided exposure with the vixen r200ss( 8” F4 ,800mm ) ( still out of collimation )
M51 has been cropped, photo is made on iso 1600 with eos 40D

ASA Direct Drive Mount 85

Erwin Kats — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:28:20 +0000

today i picked up my *edit* Astro Systeme Austria Direct Drive Mount 85.

well, that sounds like something professional don’t ya think?
the company ASA makes some stuff in the astronomy world.

their custumor service sucks so hard that i have trown away my vacuum cleaner.

but here a picture of the arrival of my ddm 85.

More pics van be found here

Sony DSC HX5

Erwin Kats — Sat, 22 May 2010 11:07:13 +0000

Today I received my Sony DSC HX5 black.
when i saw the specs on this camera I was thinking, i want it !
ive been testing it for a hour or 2 now and i love it, the HD movie function is great, indoors the sound is awesome also.
the photos look great, the panorama function works very good as well.
this cam will be in my pocket for each day of the week from now on !.

see some pics of the cam Here

The Great Zany Show

Erwin Kats — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:17:14 +0000

tijdens het rustig aan wakker worden ben ik met de pics bezig.
ze zijn Hier te vinden en het album zal langzamer hand gevuld worden.

als je een foto op groter formaat wil ken je een meeltje sturen naar erwin.kats@gmail.com

Grtz Erwin