Meade Deep Sky Imager (DSI) Camera with Autostar Software Suite

SKU: MDDSI

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2007-09-25T21:00:00

Rated 5 out of 5

Impressed

I was not expecting much, given the price, but I was pleasantly surprised. I have played around with web-cams etc. but this is far better, and the software and provided video overview are a BIG plus.

Cav

About Meade Deep Sky Imager (DSI) Camera with Autostar Software Suite #04522

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Impressed

By Cav

I was not expecting much, given the price, but I was pleasantly surprised. I have played around with web-cams etc. but this is far better, and the software and provided video overview are a BIG plus.

This hardware/software package features a Deep Sky Imager (Meade DSI electronic camera) designed to take long exposure deep sky photos in full 16-bit color with a minimum of fuss and at a fraction the cost of conventional CCD cameras.

The Deep Sky Imager is a high-performance, easy-to-use electronic camera that allows every astronomer to shoot and process stunning deep sky photographs of galaxies, nebulas, star clusters, and planets their first night out. It works with any telescope. The package also includes the renowned Autostar Software Suite planetarium/imaging program.

USB cables are supplied to connect your imager to your PC or laptop, so you can display your images on your computer screen and store them to print out later and display.

<B>Automatic dark subtraction -</B> Dark frames are automatically stacked and averaged, then subtracted, eliminating hot or cold pixels and giving you a clean final image. “Fix Cold Pixels” removes “holes” in images resulting from saturated dark pixels during long exposures. “Fix Hot Pixels” removes cosmic ray strikes and noise pixels from images.

<B>Telescope control -</B> Click on an object on the Autostar’s star map display on your laptop or PC and then click “Slew Telescope.” Your Autostar-equipped Meade telescope automatically slews to that object.

If you prefer, you can use the Autostar’s PC Control Panel. This new software tool from Meade gives you full control over your telescope’s Autostar hand control keypad from your PC. A menu tree on your PC screen shows all Autostar menu items and functions. Clicking on a menu item on your PC screen activates that menu item or function at the telescope.

The selected item displays in text above the control buttons. Any item that appears in text can be audibly described through your PC's speaker system by activating the included Talking Telescope synthesized speech program. You don’t have to take your eye away from the eyepiece to keep track of what the Autostar is doing. The Autostar will tell you.


<B>Star map display -</B> There are over 19 million stars and objects to choose from in the Autostar Software Suite's catalogs. The basic catalog is the 19 million Hubble Guide Star Catalog, which you can enable or disable at will. You can also enable or disable any of the many custom catalogs and add new catalogs.

You can choose any object by its catalog name or number and set magnitude limits for what will display on-screen. You can set the viewpoint to the current zenith or to any R.A. and Dec. coordinates. You can flip the star map for the orientation that you see through the telescope eyepiece. You can zoom the star map display from 180° down to tiny fractions of an arc second.

You can adjust label fonts and colors, coordinate grid colors, brightness and contrast, and enable or disable a red ligh