The film was shot using a DitoGear DriveCam Slider
More details at ditogear.com

©LookyCreative
lookycreative.com

Shot on 5D and Sigma 20mm F/1.8 @ F/2.8, F/3.2. Additional shots (the noisy ones) on 550D and Canon 24-105 L F/4 all in RAW. Processed using Adobe AE CS4, Edited using FCP7 and graded using MBL.

Music
“Gloria” by snowflake originates from ccmixter.org.

Location
Walim, Poland, June 2010

And a few BTS images:

Filmed entirely using Canon 5D MKII, Canon 550D and additional accessories.

Read more at lookycreative.com/bieszczady-2010-en

Altummundi observatory in wintertime

Right now as it became more accessible I enjoy taking the first pictures since autumn. I decided to try to catch the quickly escaping Orion constellation and pointed towards the Horsehead and Flame nebula. The image below was captured during 2 nights on 2010/02/25 and 2010/02/27, giving a total of 4.5h exposure in H-alpha band. It will not be easy to catch color for this image this year. QSI Imaging gave me a very favorable present this birthday with their new QSI 583 WSG firmware update, which allows me to reduce focusing time more than 3 times (50sec instead of almost 3 minutes).

Horse Head and Flame nebula in H-alpha

Let me update you on my Timelapse equipment that I am completing at the moment. I have recently got a new motorized head for my timelapse work. The new Meade DS2000 based timelapse setup is missing only a dolly right now and some more lenses. The new Sigma 20mm 1.8 is on its way and I’ll be able to get it on monday! The new Samyang 14mm F2.8 is also coming and I look forward to get it as soon as it is released. And about the dolly – I designed with a modular approach, it will be made of 3 parts, each of them 1.5m long. The dolly is based on a lightweight aluminium truss and will be driven by Meade 494 controller and motors taken from my old DS80 mount.  So I need to wait for the parts to come.

The power issues seems to be finally solved. The whole rig is powered by a portable 12V/12Ah gel accu and my 5DMKII is powered using a custom made adapter and a canon BP-970 battery. This is a lightweight and highly portable solution givin me more than 7500 mAh of power. Enough for long tiemlapses I hope. As a backup I am also planning on building a custom 12V»7.4V stabilized power adapter to be able to power up 5D right from the accu.

At last, let me share some shots on my observatory working. These were done mainly yesterday, I used also some older stuff. These are rough drafts just to check how the DS2000 and portable power performs. I think I understand how to avoid jerky playback, but still need to understand programming speed a bit more.

I have to say I am very impressed with the professional attitude of QSI and the way they interact with their customers. I wish it was a common attitude of other manufacturers and brands, especially on a polish astronomy market.

Please find below the official release from Kevin Nelson at QSI.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/QSI-ccd/message/5272

We’re pleased to announce the Beta release of new firmware for QSI 583 model cameras  Firmware release 5.2.6 adds the following functionality:
~2 second Focus Mode for small subframes with the 583
Reduces the read/download times for small subframes to approximately 2 seconds anywhere on the sensor. The faster subframe downloads can dramatically reduce focusing time whether focusing manually or with an automated focusing routine.

4×4 Binning with the 583
Expands the binning options on the 583 up to 4 pixels in either dimension. 4×4 binning is excellent for fast framing. A full-frame bin 4×4 image can be downloaded in approximately 6 seconds.

Firmware version 5.2.6 RC1 for the 583 can be downloaded from the Beta Software page.
NOTE: This new firmware version has received extensive in-house testing and limited field testing from several QSI customers.  We believe the release to be stable, however, as with any beta release software, there is some risk of encountering an unexpected problem.  If you’re not comfortable diagnosing potential problems we recommend waiting to load firmware release 5.2.6 until it has been production released, likely within the next week.

http://www.qsimaging.com/software-beta.html

A link to the new firmware and instructions on how to load it into your camera can be found near the bottom of the page under, “Field Upgradeable Firmware”.  Additional details about the firmware changes can be found in the “View firmware release details>>” link just below the link to the firmware.

If you have any questions or you encounter any problems with this new firmware release, please send an email message to “support@…” and we’ll look into it right away.  Please also let us know if you load the new firmware and everything works as expected.

Fiat lux,
Kevin

———————————-
Kevin Nelson, Quantum Scientific Imaging, www.QSImaging.com

Despite there are not many Losmandy G11 users in Poland and it is generally  underestimated, I think that it is a piece of equipment that can deliver results which are comparable to much more expensive mounts. The second-hand mount can be bought at a relatively good price. My thesis is that it might be a serious alternative for those astrophotographers, who expect really accurate tracking and, at the same time, can’t afford such mounts as AP900 or similar.

Losmandy G11 have been produced since 1992. It is an old and heavy duty construction, that had to prove itself on the field of astrophotography long time before the software guiding become a standard. I am not going to write a review of this mount here – it has been done many times already and you’ll find easily a lot of reviews, tests and opinions on this mount in the Internet. That’s it as for the introduction and let’s proceed to my upgrades.

Upgrade 1.

Tracking quality, precise guiding capabilities and the construction of the mount

G11 has a lot of  pros but at the same time has its cons. The most of G11 units have PE oscillating around +/- 10 arcsec. However, these mounts are not even – there are some units that have PE around +/- 5 arcsec whereas the others are as jerky as +/-30, up to 50 arcsec. Needless to say that the astrophotography nowadays assumes the use of autoguiding, in most cases via computer and software. Therefore the amplitude of the PE is not a key factor anymore as opposed to the micro-characteristics of PE itself (I call it ‘granularity’). And it is the granularity of the PE that decides whether guiding is successful or not.

How G11 performs?

From my experience, G11 can be guided quite precisely, but there’s one exception. The PE curve is generally smooth except for one fundamental of a ~76s period or 1/3rd of the main gear period, that is in fact unguidable. In case of my setup (5.4 micon pixel) this gives visible 2px radius blur in RA axis. It is something one can live with, but willing to achieve predictable results it needs to be improved sooner or later .

The graph below shows the 10-15 minutes guided exposure at bin 2×2 and the problem is clearly visible.

Losmandy G11 76s peak error

Shat causes the issue? Let’s have a look at the frequency spectrum and identified fundamentals contributing to the G11′s PE curve.

Losmandy G11 PE Frequency spectral analysis

1. 239,34 – Worm period – 1x
2. 76,00 – RA worm bearings rolling past a tight spot in the bearing race 3,15x
3. 31,91 – Intermediate Gearbox – if present gearbox is suspect
4. 9,58 – Motor – if present may be a bent pinion.

A detailed analysis of the harmonic fundamentals shows (apart of worm period) clearly visible fundamental of a 76s period.

Interpretation of the data

The construction of the mount has one serious flaw – the main RA worm bearings. The worm is held by two separate bearings in 2 separate points and this, sooner or later, results in non-coaxial worm bearing. This is the reason for 76s fundamental peak and obviously affects the mount’s performance significantly.

Solution – The Ovision NS Kit

The well known solution is provided by a French company Optique et Vision (Ovision.com). Ovision offers much more precise worm that is held within an unibody block with 2 coaxial bearings.

http://www.ovision.com/Losmandy_PresentationNS.html

What I’ve got after ordering a Losmandy G11 NS Kit from Ovision was one perfectly machined unit including the housing and a new precise worm. It goes right in place of the default G11 worm and bearings and can be mounted very easily. It is accompanied by convenient adjustment bolts to get rid of any possible backlash. The kit costs a lot, but makes a very good impression from the very beginning. Well designed, high quality of materials used, precise machining. The unit is delivered with a chart graph showing its individually tested performance. There also comes a lot of detailed instructions explaining mainly how to avoid accidental damage to the kit.

My NS kit was ordered on thursday and I got it in about a week. I have to admit that the company support and customer service is of high standards. However the site looks a bit ancient and archaic, my emails were replied very quickly and the NS kit is available in stock.

The upgrade proceeds as follows and takes not more than 10 minutes.

1. Balance your mount
2. Turn the OTA to the side and stabilize it (I put it against the pier body)
3. Disassemble the worm housing (2 bolts)
4. Unmount the worm coupling (2 bolts)
5. Unmount the worm and bearings (2 larger bolts)
6. Mount the NS kit module
7. Put all stuff back in a reversed order.

I already mentioned the high quality of NS kit. In addition it is worth mentioning that the Losmandy worm module is very likely to disassemble and fall into few separate parts – housings, bearings, the worm.
There is a quick comparison of the original Losmand G11 worm and a new Ovision Kit.

Losmandy G11 Original worm and housing

Losmandy G11 worm and housing - The Ovision NS Kit

The results

After having the new kit mounted it turned out that the tracking precision is highly increased. I did not perform measurements nor tests, but it is visible at a glance with a naked eye that the quality got much better. The graph speaks for itself.

Losmandy G11 with Ovision Worm - Tracking Log

15 minutes of a guided exposure under Maxim DL, bin 2×2, 4.7 arcsec/px. The graph is more stable and the amplitude is much lower. There are no more jerky moments that were unguidable.

To summarize, we can confirm the statement mentioned at the very beginning of this post, that the upgraded G11 can compete with much more expensive mounts. Also I personally think that the Ovision kit is definitely worth it price. At last it is worth mentioning that the Ovision company also offers the additional G11 module that shifts the declination axis slightly (about 10cm offset) – this allows to track past meridian a few minutes longer without the necessity to flip the mount.

Upgrade 2.

New firmware – Losmandy Gemini Level 4.

My G11 unit was manufactured in 2004 and was equiped with Gemini v3 firmware. It is possible to live with the older version but it is better to upgrade it.

You can download the new firmware free of charge from the manufacturer’s website, but you need to be have the necessary skills and equipment to reprogram the EPROM. I don’t have such skills nor the equipment, so I decided to order the firmware upgrade at already preprogrammed EPROM from  Graeme Coates at chromosphere. It costed me  just a few pounds and the new chip shipped in a few days.

Losmandy G11 - Gemini V4 firmware EPROM

The EPROM chip is nothing particularly special. But during the installation I was very positively surprised with the quality of the Gemini housing, which (similarly to new MacBooks) is an alu monolith. In case of Gemini housing it is covered by a bolted steel cover. I guess It would stand even throwing it around the room. The quality and durability of the Gemini board is really impressive. I switched the EPROMS and after restarting my Gemini reported a new firmware properly.

The first impression? Gemini seems to start a bit faster, and the whole user interface seems much faster. There are no more lags and there’s a lot of new features. In Gemini firmware v4 we have a few interesting features worth to mention here:

1. V4 allows us to save in the memory up to 4 predefined locations that can be swapped easily later.
2. There’s much better improved mound limits management.

Some other features:

1. There are many more stars available for the alignment
2. There are 2 sync modes available at the hand controller: standard sync and additional sync that affects the model – that was not present in previous version and is really convenient.

The full list of features may be found at the manufacturer’s website.

Packaging and content
The camera arrived in a small Pellican Case.

The package includes:

1. Camera body
2. USB cable (standard, 3m)
3. AC power adapter with auxiliary 220V power cable in UK standard. Easy to replace to EU standard cable.
4. Excellent build camera cap
5. 2″ Nosepiece w/ t@ thread and T2 face plate adapter
6. home printed quick start guide and drivers CD

In my case I found also a couple of additional cables and a Starlight Xpress Lodestar guider.

First impression
Amazing! The camera build is excellent and it is visible at a glance. There are no plastic parts, all is solid and heavy.The quality of used materials and machining makes very good impression.

Software installation
Quick and trouble free. Camera and the filter wheel is visible as ‘QSI universal’ under Maxim DL. Simply select, connect and go!

Cooling and fans

Right after powering the camera up the instrument performs a quick self-test and turns the fans on. I have to admit they are quite noisy. Quick cooling test at 26°C ambient temperature allowed me to go down to -14°C in about 10 minutes. After reaching the desired temperature the cooling system adjust the power to the lowest necessary level. The fans work w/out a break.

The setup dialog window allows for 3 settings of fans:

- off (for liquid cooling)
- quiet
- full

The only disadvantage is that you can’t switch the cooling modes during the camera operation. You need to disconnect in order to access settings. I can’t see any difference between quite and full mode – the fans seem to operate with the same noise level and speed regardless of the setting.

Filter wheel
So far I can tell that it works quickly and silently. The filters installation requires that the camera body be opened. The filter wheel is well built, made of metal and the filters screw-in w/out any problems. The wheel is outlined with a rubber band and is friction driven using a small motor with friction-based gear. The position in this case must be recognized using an additional encoder.

Frame download time
Full frame download time is about 23 seconds. This is ridiculous, taking into account the state of the modern electronics. In binned mode the frame is downloaded a bit faster, but I couldn’t go down under 15s. Another disappointing thing is that sub frame download time is also not proportional to the frame size. It turns out that the sub frame download time is dependent on the sub frame location on the chip. You can get the quick download time for sub frames close to top-left corner, but 10x10px sub frame located in the bottom-right corner would download in 25 seconds – like a full frame. Focusing with this probably will be really time-consuming.

Bias
Nice and even curve, the values spread across 175 – 350 units. Visually the bias seems to be even, but the sides of the frame have a bit more noise.

Bias files – 5 frames (.zip 45MB)

Darks
Dark frames look quite OK. Noise level seems not to be high and distributed evenly across the frame. The following dark frames were taken at -10°C temperature.

Dark frames – 5 x 60s (.zip 45MB)
Dark frames – 600s & 1200s (.zip 17MB)

Vignetting
I was concerned about possible vignetting on faster optics around f/4 – f/5.  Quick test on Takahashi Sky 90 whows that the camera will go with such fast optics quite well.

QSI 583 & Takahashi Sky90 flat frame

First daytime light
The real “First light” will have to wait, but please let me share the daytime first light. Captured using Takahashi FS102 at 816mm and F/8, the object is in a distance of about 15m.

QSI 583 WSG Daylight first light test image

More detailed information will come shortly.
Stay tuned.