K3PGP - Experimenters Corner - First Light GMV-EX6K / MINTRON 12V1E-EX 11-07-03

One day before FULL moon plus thin clouds. The wide field camera consists of a GMV-EX6K / MINTRON 12V1E-EX based on the sony ICX248AL EX-VIEW CCD and a 16 to 160 mm Fujinon Zoom Lens with a 93 mm objective. Photos of the widefield scope used to take these photos. All photos on this page were taken with the wide field Mintron camera setup unless otherwise specified. Photos of the original '-garbage can-' widefield scope are HERE.

NOTE: Most of the photos on this page were taken before a serious flaw was uncovered in the widefield scope which resulted in the inability to focus properly. See FILTER for more details. You will notice how the photos are improving as refinements are being made in the system. Stars down to 17th magnitude are visible in many of these photos and in several photos 19 to 20th magnitude stars are visible which is incredible considering my light polluted location.

^^^ Moonlight lighting up the trees !!!

Light from the nearly full moon ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The bright stars are overexposed
resulting in some some loss of detail.
This can be corrected with proper camera setup.

See photo at the bottom of UV-IR Filter page!

M45
VERY close to eclipsed moon which is
wiping out the dimmer features.

Unknown
This object which radiates strongly in the infrared
pointed to a serious flaw - See UV-IR Filter !

Mirfak (Mirphak) Starry Night skymap

Mirfak (Mirphak) 11-08-03

Same area of the sky 1 year later showing improvement of the widefield scope

Cartes du Ciel skymap

Same area of the sky 1 year later 11-15-04
showing improvements in the widefield scope!

Comparison with Starry Night skymap 11-08-03

Comparison with Cartes du Ciel skymap 11-15-04

The moon at 750 nm (NIR Near Infrared) and Visible 400 - 700 nm	NGC0869
Somewhat overexposed shot of the moon	M81 and M82 through light clouds

Remember to turn AGC off before trying to make a composite!
Otherwise you may have difficulties trying to match brightness as above.

M42 PC164C camera 16 - 160 mm zoom lens
100 stacked frames in COAA AstroVideo

Real time (ONE frame!) image of M42
Mintron Camera at ETX-90 Prime focus

False color version of Mintron ETX-90 photo

		Gain reduced on camera
As the clouds roll in AGAIN! REAL TIME one frame image Mintron camera at ETX-90 prime focus 2X mode	Saturn This is with the Mintron camera at prime focus of the ETX-90. More magnification is needed.	False color version of M42 REAL TIME one frame image Mintron camera at ETX-90 prime focus 2X mode False color added with Micrografx Picture Publisher