"David Nakamoto" wrote in message
news:TvpZd.4827$wL6.1329@trnddc03...
"Robin Leadbeater" wrote in message
...

"George" wrote in message
news:fiWXd.52174$Ze3.19575@attbi_s51...

"Alan Shank" wrote in message
news I have a Discovery 14" Dobsonian. Can you use the Meade DSI on such a
scope?
Cheers,
Alan Shank

Yes. That is, as long as you aren't expecting to take long exposures
(you'd
need to guide the scope to do that anyway. But for solar, planetary
and
lunar
work, yes you could use this camera with your scope.


If that is all you are planning to do then you would save money and get
better results using a webcam (Though you will have trouble getting the
best
results with an undriven scope, as once you are at high enough
magnification
to give you the best resolution, you will find it difficult to keep the
target in the frame, tracking manually.)

Robin


While I have personal reasons why I advise anyone not to support Meade,
objectively I thought they were offering a webcam plus software package
that was
priced about the same as if you had to go out there and get it all
yourself, and
worked well as a package, probably because they didn't invent most of it.
But
if you can get the right webcam at a discount price that combination is
hard to
beat price-wise.

Hi David,

The DSI is not actually based on a modified webcam, but is a camera designed
from the ground up for deep sky imaging. (How well it works in that
application I will leave others to judge) It is not however optimised for
planetary work and is at a disadvantage compared with the webcam for this
application. Here in the UK at least, the best webcam for the application (a
Toucam Pro II ) plus adapter and IR blocking filter can be bought for less
than £100 (some excellent capture and processing software is available fee
on the web) compared with £250 for the DSI. I expect the price comparison is
closer in the US though due to Meade's pricing policy in Europe.

Robin