Keiths next scope modding plans

Now this is very interesting and somewhat of a coincidence given what I was just talking about.

I was over at the XBMC forums seeing how the Linux/OSX port was coming along.

Anyway I was back on the forums because XBMC is being ported to other platforms and will then be able to be installed on much more powerful hardware. The ancient Xbox cannot playback hi-Def content. So I came across a thread about touchscreens and XBMC where they mentioned this.

tinyurl.com/5ap2xb

Upon further reading I realised that the device these guys were talking about wasn't just a Touchscreen LCD but had a built in PC with 160 gig HD, 1gig ram and a 1.6ghz intel atom processor.

Lightbulb went on in my head. What was I only telling the lads today? :laugh:

These new Atom processors are supposed to be uber power efficient so should be even easier on a nbattery than a laptop. (it uses just 2.5 watts of power--less than 1/10 of the 35 watts used by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor)

Question is. Would these atoms be able to handle starry Night Pro and maybe some image capture software etc at the same time I wonder?

So scrap the macmini under the false floor crapola, for less than the cost of a full price macmini, you'd have a power effiecient PC and 15inch touchscreen in one unit!! Bolt her on the side of the scope with the virtual keyboard thingie and jobs a goodin' :laugh:

Theres a guy over on Iceinspace forums using one of the new netbooks (microlaptops) called the aspireone. Its the same atom chipset as the Touchscreen PC monitor I posted about above. He is running SNP6.23 like me along with other guiding and capture software and he says it runs that lot very well.

I also say a vid of the touchscreen in action. The guy was able to scroll a browser window with his finger. ie, if a touchscreen can mimic the action of holding a left mouse button and moving a scrollbar with a finger well then it stands to reason that when the method of panning the sky view in Starry Night Pro is holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse, that a touchscreen could do this too.

How cool will that be!!:laugh:

The Virtual keyboard doesn't need to be 100wpm capable. For astro software purposes the keyboard generally acts as just a big array of button controls for various functions of the software that only need to be pressed once. So the fact that the virtual keyboard is only reliable enough for 30wpm matters not a jot to us. Lit keys that take up no space whatsoever!!:laugh:

Guess what else I found which will be great for the mallincam and outreach??

tinyurl.com/4pnmey

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I could project live images of galaxies for the public onto the back of Pauls (Lunartic) huge white parka jacket :laugh:

Everything I am talking about is so 21st century
Its not just for show. Its all very very functional.
Its all 12v and energy efficient for what it is and so easy on the battery
The best bit?? None of this is 1000's of €€€ (except altogether)

The Asus EEEtop touchscreen PC is only €500. A half decent laptop costs that!!!
The microprojector doesnt have to be great at displaying movies, A mallincam updates depending on exposure/iteration settings. 2-56 secs. Guess how much it costs? €384 !!
Mallincam is pretty amazing gear for a grand.

The way I look at is that for less than the cost of a 11 or 12in SCT on a decent mount I could have a

LB16 - 1600
Servocat & argo navis - 1350
Stellarvue F80 finder - 185
Mallincam - 950
EEEtop Touchscreen PC - 500
Virtual keyboard - 135
Marine Deep Cycle 130ah Battery - 190
Micro PJ - 384
Dew Controller strips - 300
Misc. for mods - 300

---

€ 5894

Sounds a lot but thats less than a CGE 925 !!! which is a lot I guess, but look what I get for the same money. 16in of goto apeture for visual. None of the crap I am talking about adds to the size of the scope. It'll all be built in. Scope will still fit in my car. It'll be an outreach dream machine. Thats not why I am getting most of the stuff, I want to see lots more stuff in glorious detail and colour with the mallincam. I want to see faint fuzzies. Not the 30 million LY away faint fuzzies that I can see now. No, the 2 billion LY away faint fuzzies like the Hickson 50 live. The servocat argo mallincam and SNP6 on the touchpanel gets me that. For only 384 more the micro PJ makes the setup an outreach dream machine too.

Do you know what my biggest problem is going to be? Power distribution. Even with all that gear, the 130ah battery is probably enough. but how does one convert the battery 12v to all the various voltage requirements of up to 8 different bits of kit ranging from 5v to 19-20v. Even the car pc suppliers seem to have only dual voltage output regulators. I suppose with a 130ah battery you could get away with an inverter. That changes it to domestic 230v doesn't it. Thats more dangerous though isn't it? You couldn't still use a powered groundboard solution either could you??

Factor in about 1500 for the resale of the current scope, platform and nearly new 17in Core 2 Duo laptop and that this lot would be aquired over a period of time. Well I think International Year of Astromy 2009 is going to be fun!!

Hey I've no other vices. Don't drink and giving up the smokes :laugh:

Well Keith,
I didn't realise the 9.25 SCT costs so much, :ohmy:
anyway, your power problems are easily solved with some DC-DC converters, or if you have a little electronics knowledge you could build some simple voltage regulators.
It's interesting that your concentrating on all that outreach equipment, I'd personally go for some better eyepieces, although it would be fun to see how well this projection system would work projecting images of galaxies and the likes.

Dave_Lillis wrote:

Well Keith,
I didn't realise the 9.25 SCT costs so much, :ohmy:
anyway, your power problems are easily solved with some DC-DC converters, or if you have a little electronics knowledge you could build some simple voltage regulators.
It's interesting that your concentrating on all that outreach equipment, I'd personally go for some better eyepieces, although it would be fun to see how well this projection system would work projecting images of galaxies and the likes.

Well I got the price off the Astronomy Ireland Webshop. Thats the 'Sale' price. Perhaps I am wrong but under Carls excellent captainship the prices did drop to competitive levels (from 'taking the pi.. " ) didn't they? Now thats the CGE version with the excellent CGE mount. The CPC925 version is 3300. Even if you exclude all the other stuff to compare like with like, the 16in Lightbridge Scope and the servocat/argo is still 100 quid less than that!!

If one has the space to accomodate and transport a 16in dob and the back to carry it I don't really see what the advantages of a CPC925 would be in this comparison.

Nice to hear that the power problems are not insurmountable. So you reckon its definately doable to have 12v coming in from a big marine deep cycle via a powered groundboard to a custom power-rail with regulators to convert to all the voltages I'd require. Excellent.

As for Eyepieces. Well I already have a full set of Baader Hyperions. These are no Naglers or ethos of course but they're not €300-600 each either. Certainly light years ahead of the Sirius Plossls that came with my Orion. Think I'm happy enough with my EP's. I think for visual I am already sorted on the EP front. I do however need one longer FL EP. Thinking of the Hyperion 36mm asepheric. Will have to live with the F4.5 LB16 for a while to see whether I see the need for a paracorr.

I think I mentioned it somewhere in the last post but the list up there is pretty much all for personal use as it where. All to make the scope as compact and transportable and functional and easy to use as possible and to give me peronally the best views visually and the mallincam gives me the equivelent of a 40in dob via the wonders of the new field of video astronomy.

There is actually only one thing purely Outreach related on the list. The micro projector. I talked about a mallincam and projector for outreach in some of my very first posts after I joined the forum last year. I was picturing a conventional LCD home Cinema projector (ie a big sized power sucker) back then. Little did I know that in the space of a year that technology would have outpaced my wildest dreams. ie an LED projector that fits in the palm of a hand that can run on an internal battery for 60 minutes or when connected to a 12v supply draws negliable power. Simply amazing. Even more amazing is that one would think this new tech would cost a fortune. €384 is pennies in comparison to what I imagined.

So its not as if I am spending 5 grand for outreach. (woah, Keith must really love outreach to spend that kind of money) All that money is to do what I want to do in astronomy atm. The only specific spending for outreach is the microprojector. So yes, I do like outreach enough to spend an extra €384 on the projector.

I think it would be amazing that not only could we show the public the usual really bright objects like the moon, the planets and maybe M42. With the Mallincam and projector under street lights we could be showing them virtually live views of a galaxy 30 million lightyears away with colour and dustlanes clearly visible, with full spiral arms and the M51 bridge and tell them how the Globular cluster we just looked at say M13, well now you are looking at a globular cluster around that other galaxy etc etc. How about showing them the horsehead and flame neb from Sandymount promenade. How about showing them the reds and greens and blues of M42. How about showing them Hickson 50 and telling them that those 4 or 5 tiny smudges while not visually impressive are galaxies so far away that we are seeing them as they were before life evolved on earth.

I think its worth me paying an extra €384 to bring that to outreach and the public.

I've actually only done one outreach event believe it or not. 2 others were clouded out. But what I realise from that one event was that I got my biggest astronomy kick yet out of showing kids and their parents objects with my scope and telling them all about what they were looking at.

Hi Keith,

Just saw this post the scope you are comparing it the price to is the CGE 91/4 witch works out at 5.700 Euro and is the top of the line mounts that Celestron do.Then the next mount down is C91/4-SGT that comes in at 3,200 Euro and last is the CPC 9/1/4 GPS witch comes in at 3.300 and is an fork arm altazimuth mount.

The one thing about buying a Dob is that you get great apature for your few bob but none of the technology.

Hope this clears thing up.

Carl.

....until you add a servocat and argo navis which brings it up to the same price, so now you have the technology and 16in of apeture

All joking aside I do know there are many other things to consider other than price and goto.