2008 NEAIC/NEAF Recap

The annual North-East Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC) and North-East Astronomy Forum (NEAF) took place at the Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY on April 24th through April 27th.

Each year both events continue to grow in size and attendance. The imaging conference, organized by Jim Burnell, Bob Moore, and a host of other volunteers, sold out and, once again, Alan Traino worked his magic coordinating the astronomy forum.

Here is a small sampling of some of the products featured at the imaging conference and astronomy forum.

Quantum Scientific Imaging — 532wsg Cooled CCD Camera with Integral Precision Off-Axis Guider

The 532wsg is an innovative new addition to the QSI 500 Series family of cooled CCD cameras. The "wsg" model has an internal mechanical shutter and filter wheel like the 532ws, plus it adds an integral Precision Off-Axis Guider. This allows guiding using the light from your main telescope while picking off the light from the guide star in front of the filters.

The Precision Off-Axis Guider integral to the 532wsg solves a number of problems with other guiding solutions. Perhaps the key benefit is that RGB and narrowband imagers no longer have to struggle to find a star bright enough to guide by or worry about low signal-to-noise guide stars with filter changes. By positioning the pick-off prism in front of the filters, you always have all the star's light available for guiding.

Next, by integrating the Off-Axis Guider into the camera, they were able to place the pick-off prism very close to the internal filter wheel adding only 0.3" of backfocus and eliminating any possibility of flexure or rotation compared to a traditional OAG. Third, the close placement of the pick-off prism prevents vignetting on the main sensor even with very fast optics down to f/3.

Like all members of the QSI 500 Series, the 532wsg has high sensitivity, exceptionally low noise, and precisely regulated cooling.

The 532 camera system is supported by industry leading image acquisition software. Development tools are available for creating custom Windows or Linux imaging applications.

Visit http://www.qsimaging.com for the latest information on Quantum Scientific Imaging’s products.

Deep Sky Instruments — Astrographs

Deep Sky Instruments was founded to produce professional grade Ritchey-Chrétien Astrographs and other astronomy related instruments. Their vision is to make high-end astrophotography more accessible through affordable equipment. Their scopes are based on optics from Star Instruments- makers of fine RC optics for over 30 years and are purpose-built to provide excellent performance at an exceptional value.

Deep Sky Instruments currently offer two astrographs: the RC10 is a true 10" f/7.3 Ritchey-Chrétien, while the RC10C includes an internal corrector/field flattener. The result is a flat field over a two inch image circle. The RC10 is currently priced under $5,000.

For more information, please email Deep Sky Instruments at info@DeepSkyInstruments.com or visit them on the web at http://www.DeepSkyInstruments.com.

Software Bisque — TheSkyX

Software Bisque has devoted three years of engineering development to rewrite TheSky, its flagship product. TheSkyX is faster, more stable, easier to use, and more feature-rich than its predecessors. Most importantly, TheSkyX runs natively under today's most popular operating systems (Mac OS X, Windows Vista and Windows XP).

2008 marked the much anticipated release of TheSkyX Student Edition. Coming later this year is TheSkyX Serious Astronomer Edition, with cross-platform, native telescope control for many popular telescopes, including Astro-Physics, Celestron, Gemini, Orion, iOptron, Meade and Takahashi mounts, as well as support for most "push to" telescope interfaces. TheSkyX Serious Astronomer also brings optional TPoint telescope pointing analysis to the Mac, heralding a new era in telescope control.

TheSkyX Professional Edition, still under development, will bring observatory control to a single application. In addition to its renowned feature set, TheSkyX Pro optionally includes camera control, image processing (like CCDSoft), telescope pointing analysis (like TPoint), multi-target scheduling, and automated data acquisition (like Orchestrate), and dome control (like AutomaDome).

Visit http://www.bisque.com for the latest information on Software Bisque products.

Diffraction Limited — MaxIm DL 5

MaxIm DL Version 5 is the largest single upgrade made to the package since its inception. There are significant enhancements in all major areas, including imaging, equipment control, and image processing.

The camera controls have been completely redesigned for greater ease. The controls have been enlarged to allow all important imaging controls to appear on a single tab. Instead of flipping between Expose, Focus, and Sequence tabs, you can now define any number of Presets. You might have one Preset for focusing, another for locating and centering faint objects, and Autosave sequences for LRGB, luminance only, calibration frames, etc. There are now multiple autodark buffers, so you do not have to reshoot autodarks when flipping between presets. The camera controls can be expanded to show user-configurable status information, including a graphs field and two text status fields.

The new Observatory window replaces the original Telescope Control window. It can now directly control a telescope, two focusers, a focal plane rotator, and observatory dome. A mini planetarium is included, with both all-sky and Zoom views. The flexible FOV indicator permits direct Rotator control, and images can be automatically overlaid on the sky display. The integrated dome control provides a convenient graphical display of Dome status.

The biggest improvement in image processing is the new Stack command. The goal for MaxIm DL V5 was to automate stacking in the same way V4 automated image calibration. The Stack tool can scan folders for images, check their FITS headers, and automatically assign the images into groups according to object and filter. It then builds LRGB sets as required, allowing you to process multiple images simultaneously. It calibrates each image as it is loaded, optionally performs de-bayer for one-shot color images, assesses each image for quality, aligns the images, stacks, and merges LRGB sets to produce a final image. This can all be done automatically, or you can manage each step of the process manually, if desired.

Other improvements include Wavelet filters, background color removal, the ability to save and load all program settings including equipment configurations, a new Log window, and many other minor enhancements.

Visit http://www.cyanogen.com for the latest information on Diffraction Limited products.

CCDWare Announces Exciting Enhancements to CCDInspector and CCDAutoPilot

CCDWare has announced new versions of CCDAutoPilot and CCDInspector. Currently in beta testing, these versions will be released in the spring of 2008. This note focuses primarily on the new features beyond the current version performance.
CCDInspector v2.0
Continuing its tradition of providing useful assessment tools for your imaging system, the newest version of CCDInspector v2.0. provides a unique camera extrapolation tool. Working from measurements on your existing camera and OTA, this tool will project the field curvature, vignetting, and star aspect ratio changes that may be expected with a larger sensor. A new aspect ratio mapping tool shows how star shapes vary across the field due to coma or tilt in the optical path. Vignetting can now be precisely and quantitatively measured from either a star field or a flat frame.

Working in concert with the current release of CCDStack, CCDInspector v 2.0 will add a powerful new registration plug-in called CCCDIS. This fast registration algorithm easily handles images misaligned by as much as 180 degrees or of a different image scale and quickly brings the images into registration to sub-pixel accuracy.

Over 100 new RAW image formats are supported for DSLR users, including Canon 40D, 1D, along with many other pro-sumer cameras from Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, Leica, Pentax, Samsung, and Nikon.

Additional sorting tools are included to assess sub-exposure quality and enhance measurement activity. Automatic dark scaling and improvements in noise rejection algorithms allow better measurements of curvature and collimation with fewer stars. And of course, many new minor features are included in response to user requests.

CCDAutoPilot v4.0
Representing the seventh generation of automatic image acquisition, CCDAutoPilot version 4 moves to the next level: an imaging platform. This version provides tools to quantify your system in order to maximize data gathering efficiency through a combination of improved user interface and new tools and techniques.

A new automatic color ratio tool selects suitable G2V stars (using Thesky6) and calculates the filter combine ratios, correcting for extinction. This data is used during the course of an evening’s run to give the user extinction corrected combine ratios for RGB data, regardless of the altitude of the various sub-exposures. Automatic camera measurement of gain and read noise, coupled with automatic sky glow measurements, helps set your optimal sub-exposure time, camera operating temperature, and number of dark frames needed. Heuristics applied during the course of automated sessions measure and refine various activities such as download times, focus times, and other variable events to optimize data- gathering efficiency. Tools are provided to suggest dither amounts and guiding parameters, along with handy calculators for critical focus zone and dust donuts.

New automation is provided for setting the guide exposure to a given level, maximizing sky flat efficiency, and even allowing automatic flat acquisition using a local light source in the telescope’s park position.

The Professional version provides automatic email/SMS text notification of significant events during the course of the evening. Tight integration with the Boltwood Cloud Sensor and other compatible weather systems can shut down your observatory if desired in the event of high winds or humidity. This same facility allows control of CCDAutoPilot by other systems such as observatory control systems so that loss of primary power can stop the session, park the telescope, and close the roof on UPS power, notifying you via the same email/SMS system.

Both CCDInspector v 2 and CCDAutoPilot v 4 will be available this spring. Any users purchasing the current versions on or after April 1, 2008 will receive a license to the comparable new version at no charge. Less costly upgrade pricing will be available for CCDInspector and CCDAutoPilot Professional.
Information on both products will be made available on the CCDWare web site at http://www.ccdware.com