We have Moved!

My new site is at www.starrydave.com.

Hope to see you there.

Starry Dave

Motorized PST Etalon Demo Video

My PST has a motorized tuner which you can see in the picture. It gives fantastic control over the detail I can capture and a demo video showing the effects of small changes in tuning is shown here: https://vimeo.com/47357610

This consists of 35 frames which were captured with only 1 second of tuner movement between them. I can also turn down the motor speed for more precise control.

I read that the tuner ring varies the wavelength of the light and you can use this to identify which parts of the Sun are moving towards or away from you by the doppler effect. Something to investigate further.

Autoguiding Celestron and Skywatcher Alt-Az Mounts

DSSR now has the ability to autoguide certain brands of alt-az mounts to allow you to track and record the Sun, Moon, planets, comets, etc.

The guider can guide your mount to within 2 or 3 pixels which is good enough for solar system work. Below are some solar animations that were captured on a Coronado PST on a NexStar 4SE mount.

https://vimeo.com/46936043

https://vimeo.com/43058420

https://vimeo.com/42999166

Dave’s Focus Meter – Expiry Message Problem Resolved

We just found a glitch in DFM which was issuing a message saying your test version has expired. This has now been fixed and DFM should update itself the next time you run it and perform as intended.

Apologies to any users who were inconvenienced.

DSSR v3 Released!

We have just released a major upgrade to Dave’s Solar System Recorder (DSSR) which is now at version 3.0.

DSSR is detailed on its home page at right. The download link and the user manual are in the Support and Downloads page at right.

WHAT’S NEW in VERSION 3.0

DSSR v3.0 will be released on 31st May

Hi all, Version 3.0 of DSSR will be released on the 31st May, 1012.

It will be able to read your existing settings files but you may want to make backup copies now.

DVS updated for easier cropping and overlays

Hi Folks,

DVS should automatically update itself the next time you run it.

The crop routine has been changed to allow for easier crop adjustments and you can also preview with the cropped area blanked out. This makes it easier to spot rogue bright borders.

The overlay routine now allows for easier and more precise positioning of overlays.

The changes are documented in the DVS manual which is available here: http://wp.me/P1dpnD-61

New Astrometry Module for DVS

DVS now has a new Astrometry module that allows you to measure the movement of an object between a pair of images. You can use this to calculate velocities of asteroids, comets, minor planets, satellites, etc. It can also be used to measure object parallax angle during transits such as the 2012 Venus transit.

Successful trial of AzTrak!

I know there are a lot of users waiting for DSSR to be able to autoguide Alt-Az scopes using AzTrak. The good news is that the DSSR test version now has a working version of AzTrak which is accurate enough for Solar System targets.

AzTrak autoguided on a sunspot with a Celestron Nexstar 4SE for several hours yesterday and we are currently fine tuning the AzTrak algorithms to improve accuracy. We hope to release AzTrak very soon.

Here are some sunspot videos made with AzTrak

Sunspot AR1476 6th May 2012 6:49:49 to 7:37:16 (UT)

Sunspot AR1471 6th May 2012 6:21:10 to 6:45:34 (UT)

Adding Time Stamps to Animations with DVS

DVS now allows you to display time stamps on each frame of your animations for an accurate display of capture time. DVS can read the capture times directly from DSSR images or you can simply set the start and end times for your animation. Prefixes and suffixes can also be added to the time stamp. The relevant section from the DVS manual is copied below: