Imaging with a video camera...

I have an old digital video camera lying in a box with nothing to do. The only thing I videoed was myself walking up Croagh Patrick in bear feet and losing a toe nail.

I was wondering if anyone has used a video camera to take AVIs and then stack individual frames.

Is there a way of clamping it to the scope so it can peer into the lens and replace the human eye?

I think RegiStax accepts AVIs and separates the footage into individual images.

With Mars in the sky I would like to see how it compares with my LPI. My Jupiter images were always touch and go.

I was thinking of doing this aswell actually. That was until I got Registax, and tried to open an avi that I recorded. It gave me an error saying that it coudn't decompress. So I went searching on the net, to which I found Virtual Dub (a program that could convert the AVI into something Registax would understand ), and even that didn't open it! So I just gave up.



Let me know if your AVI files can be opened by Registax. And if you find you've run into the same problems as me, please.... please let me know if you find a solution!

Hi,

I had the same problem. When you load the AVI, click "Show Frame List". It will give you a list of all of the frames in the AVI. Starting at the last one, click them off (the last 4 frames I had would not let me turn off, but they did, gray out). After that RegiStax worked as it would not try to process the ones I that were disabled.

Hope it helps.

Cheers,
Gary

OK, I will need a frame splitter to pre-process the AVI, manually select images and then use stacking software.

Windows Movie Maker performs grabs but I would prefer software that automatically grabs every frame available.

Now, I need a method for holding the camera to the lens like my DSLR uses a T-ring. Any ideas?

Hi Lads,
Registax should be able to open an AVI as long as its not going over the
Windows 'Limit'
I usually found this to be 1GB or around 3 min of an average AVI.

It's hard work to begin with and although there are other progs like
the ones you've mentioned and ones' like Handy AVI,
which rip out all the frames and let you create a smaller AVI from the best ones, to be honest, for what you are going to do, If it were me,
I'd just do a few tests to see how long the avi can actually be
so Registax will open it and then stick to that.

As for attaching the video camera onto the scope.
A google search will show you a lot clamps available for the task.

The only trouble with capturing an AVI from a Video Camera as
opposed to a Webcam is that you are stuck with the exposure
the camera gives you, (the image would probably
be overexposed and so the detail lost)with a webcam you would have a program
on the pc allowing you to set frame rates and exposure settings etc
which is almost a necessity for planetary / lunar imaging.

Hi James
I have experimented in a similar way with an off the shelf video camera for astronomy uses. I linked a frame grabber unit from the composite video output of the video camera to a laptop USB connection; the software that came with the frame grabber converted the video to AVI file. Be aware that Registax can only handle AVIs of finite size, the limit I cannot remember off hand, using PAL system here as we do running at 25 fps there will be a lot of frames, especially at higher resolution (proportional to digital information to process by your PC) as you can gather after a few minutes. I have had no problem stacking images using this method / system.
The frame grabber I purchased is a “Kworld Video Frame Grabber (PAL/NTSC)” has composite connections and S-video connection and a USB connection for your PC, see www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Ac...2&p=0_10_5_3_1_4 for more info.
I am not sure as to your level of knowledge of Registax, but if like me with a novice’s knowledge, I found Mr. Dave Lillis excellent tutorial on Registax to be most helpful, see link: www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?p=39009#39009

I have since moved away from the bulky video camera to a dedicated video camera such as this one: Watec 902DM2S www.norbain.co.uk/downloads/datasheets/wat-902dm2s_spec_eng.pdf
Which can be used for prime focus photography with a suitable t-adapter for your telescope and is quite small and light and very sensitive. I would highly recommend going this route if possible; they are other such sensitive video cameras suitable for video astronomy use, the top end for example would be the “MallinCam Hyper”.

Have a look at these brackets James; this may be suitable for your needs in experimenting with afocal photography. Of course this depends on the type of video camera you have: www.telescope.com/control/product/~categ...es/~product_id=05228 And
www.telescopes.com/telescope-accessories...adapteruniversal.cfm

A good software package for recording AVIs from your system is available from Stark Labs and is called “Craterlet” www.stark-labs.com/craterlet.html good news is that it is also free to download and use, I have used this already in recording images of the Moon in AVI format from the video camera.

If you go the same route as I did and purchased a dedicated video astronomy camera for use at prime focus on a telescope, there is another software package I would recommend called “UFO Capture”, don’t let the name put you off, this is an excellent software package (its not free unfortunately) which date stamps your video frames and records to your PC either in a time limit you dictate or it can be set to automatically trigger as in the case of a meteor event so that you only end up with a recorded event instead of lots of wasted disk space with nothing interesting on it. This software can be very useful for recording occultations as well. Hope this info helps, if there is anything else I can think of I will post here, or if you have any questions about this I will reply as best I can, good luck with your project.

Clear skies
Mike