[AZ-Observing] Re: 2004 All Arizona Messier Marathon

At 19:32 -0700 12/14/2003, Steven Dodder wrote:
>Having been in the electronics business for the last 3 decades, I'd suggest
>that attempting the mods mentioned in S&T are not only not for the faint of
>heart, but are best left to a professional.  The "distance" between pins on
>the surface mount chips is 0.2 mm.  Very close, indeed.  Even if successful,
>and contrary to Jeff's blind optimism, you will not rival the quality of a
>CCD camera costing several thousand dollars.  Do it for a fun project.  Not
>for high quality CCD astrophotography on the cheap.
>
Hardly blind optimism. I stated messing with electronic circuits in 
the mid-1950's (Ham radio operator K2ITN). Having been a senior 
engineer at Motorola for over 10 years plus having designed and 
manufactured and marketed a photoelectric photometer, I can assure 
you it definitely is NOT blind optimism.

What I am seeing is an attempt to scare people off. Many of the 
people in SAC I have seen have more than sufficient skills to 
undertake this task. It truly is not rocket science. You must be 
careful. A magnifier is strongly recommended when working on the 
circuits. Use the SMT removal kit. Take your time.

Just look at how many people have built the cookbook CCD. With 
modifying a web camera 90% of the work has already been done for you.

As for not rivaling the high end CCD cameras, I'm afraid you are a 
few years behind times. They most certain do rival them and in many 
cases exceed them.

One of the first things I plan to do after the marathon is replacing 
the CCD with a monochrome version and using it for CCD photometry. 
There is a several fold increase in sensitivity right there even 
without a cooler.

This seems to be like back in my ham days. Many people were scared 
off by the electronic complexity of things. But then a bunch of us 
high school students didn't know we should be scared and ended up 
making and using some really good equipment. While still in high 
school I built and worked equipment from 160 meter to X-band. Much of 
it home built.

So to all those who have considered getting on the web cam bandwagon, 
DO IT!. Use a stock web cam, take many shots and stack the images. 
With no modifications you will see things that could only be seen 
with high end CCDs a few years ago. If you want to push the envelop, 
make the mods or buy a SAC (not related to the club)  commercially 
modified camera for around $500. But, whatever you do, join the 
QCUIAG list to see what the rest of the world is doing with web cams.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QCUIAG/

Jeff
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Jeff Hopkins
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