RE: [APML] First serious attempt to get decent astrophotos

["Gene Horr" <genehorr@houston.rr.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: astro-photo-bounces@seds.org
[mailto:astro-photo-bounces@seds.org]On Behalf Of Chris Heapy
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 1:09 PM
To: 'Discussion of Film Astrophotography'
Subject: [APML] First serious attempt to get decent astrophotos

> Will the webcam do as good a job as the ST4 - anyone have any experience
on this?

Possibly not, but it may work with your setup.  The advantages of the ST-4
are fist that it has a very good centroid calculation algorithm.  This
allows it to calculate the positition at 1/5 pixel accuracy (around
3u IIRC).  To the best of my limited knowledge the webcam software
does not work to this accuracy.

Also the ST-4 is cooled, which gives you better SNR.  Last of all
the ST-4 allows relatively long exposures and has a wide variety
of settings (too many it sometimes seems for the newcomer) to
adjust for a variety of conditions and equipment.

But since you'll be guiding at a FL close to that of the imaging
system, plus with a relatively large aperture guidescope, that
will help close the gap between the ST-4 and the webcam.

Don't forget to factor in that the ST-4 is standalone = fewer things
to carry/go wrong.

Good luck!

Gene Horr
genehorr@texas.net

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