[sac-forum] Re: video astronomy info

Just to amplify a bit on the history of astrovideography (from an amateur perspective), which has been going on a bit longer than Bill McDonald talks about in his recent post, (quoted by Dan Gruber)....
(The late) Peter Manly and others started doing video astronomy (as amateurs) in the early 1980s. Equipment was very expensive, and given the lack of sensitivity (using tube-type TV cameras), to achieve much other than on the "shallow sky", i.e. solar system objects, required use of image intensifier equipment, which was VERY expensive and scarse, being derived from military technology. Dr. David Dunham, Paul Maley, Peter Manly, and others in the International Occulation Timing Association (IOTA) then started using such equipment to videorecord occultations. Peter is credited with achieving the first videorecording of an asteroid occultation, in 1982. The TV videorecording technique allows determination of time series events to a precison of about 1/30 second, and it "never blinks" -- valuable attributes for occultation work! The recordings can also be played back to large groups, for educational purposes. (Even at public star parties!)
Working with Peter, I started doing some videorecording of astronomical subjects here in the Phoenix area, and in 1985-86, we and others SAC members participated in a series of programs on Halley's Comet broadcast by KAET-TV at ASU. We engineered a setup using (at first) a commercial broadcast camera, transfer lens, and image intensifier mounted on Leroy Paller's C-14, and were successful at providing LIVE broadcast TV pictures of Halley's Comet. I believe we were the first amateur group to achieve that. We also showed live (and taped) televison pictures of other astronomical objects.
In subsequent years, Peter and I both did live local TV news broadcasts of partial solar eclipses. The equipment was also used to do extensive video recordings of lunar-stellar and asteroid occultations for the scientific timing programs conducted by the U.S. Naval Observatory and IOTA. We also set up the equipment and showed live pictures (and taped events) at public star parties and astronomy conferences and club meetings. I recall recording a lunar occultation during a public star party hosted by SAC and the Phoenix Parks Dept. at Reach 11, showing it to a nice crowd of onlookers, then going to Leroy Paller's observatory to capture images of the Supernova in M66!
Later, people such as (the late) Pierre Schwaar recorded occultations and shallow sky objects, such as the Moon and planets, and showed astrovideo tapes at SAC club meetings, using the newer color camcorders. More recently, the very inexpensive CMOS and CCD web cameras have allowed digital recording directly to a PC, and sophisticated software has evolved to "stack" frames and perform image enhancement.
Many others have became interested in astrovideo television recording techniques over the years, particularly as security type TV cameras became increasingly more sensitive and miniaturized, as well as much less expensive. Eventually, the technical need for the expensive image intensifier has waned, and the videorecording technique is now pretty much standard for occultations, the latest gadget being to add GPS-based time marks in the video frames. The field has really opened up for amateurs (in terms of affordability) since the advent of the PC-23C and PC-164C TV cameras, which employ the latest and most sensitive SONY EX-HADview CCD chips. These same TV type CCD sensor chips are also used in some of the less expensive "static" imaging cameras, such as the Meade DSI series, which we are now employing for (comparatively) low-cost astronomical photometry.
I find it astounding that deep sky observers are now actually making sketches of deep sky images right off the TV/computer screen! Richard Berry and I looked over Tom Ostypowski's Mallincam setup on his 20 inch Dobsonian at RTMC this past May, and found the performance (and pictures in full color) to be stunning. 

Cheers,
Gene Lucas
(17250)
Dan Gruber wrote:


Hello, everyone,
Bill McDonald, president of the Prescott club, joined us at Cherry last weekend with his Mallincam color video camera. Many of us took a look at the results (essentially real-time color images on a 13" TV monitor) and were impressed. Here's some additional info from Bill: 


[snipped - GL]

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