www.astrotasmania.com - L.P.I Images-page 1

The Lunar & Planetary Imager by Meade, is a very simple low cost introduction to using a USB digital camera with a telescope & computer.

It fits directly into the 1.25" focuser or by unscrewing the outer tube, fits the old 0.98" focuser & microscopes.

Also there are examples here, with standard old 35mm camera lenses

The two images of the microwave tower have been taken through the camera lens using a homemade adaptor and an ordinary 80mm f/5 finder scope. This tower, which is approx 1 km away from me on a hill, makes a very useful 'standard' target for comparing any camera/lens/telescope combination. It is easy to assess sharpness and any obvious spherical defects. (Pentax 200mm shown left)

Low power shots of Jupiter and its four bright moons, are an easy target for the 80mm f5 telescope.

The supplied software did work OK once the installation problems were overcome - unable to find the camera and a dead USB cable, which I changed for a longer much higher quality cable.

Image capturing sometimes had a mind of its own and needed some restarts to get things working again.

For the price and the fact that capture & image processing software is included, the results should please any newcomer to astrophotography.

I would strongly advise anyone just starting out to try out the camera/software etc. in daylight to familarise themselves with how it all works. So much easier than in the dark on a telescope for the first time.

The LPI is not a unique astronomy only camera and can be used for a variety of daytime applications, i.e surveillance & microscopy etc.

Capturing planetary images requires good seeing and a well collimated telescope operating at a high f/ratio. Here I have used the 12" f/5 Newtonian with a 4x PowerMate. Processing is also very important to bring out the fine detail and subtle colours.

Saturn is not an easy target and I have not had much opportunity to really work on this, however, I have included an image taken with the same setup used for Jupiter.

There are other cameras on the market that far exceed what the LPI can achieve, but like everything else to do with astrophotography, how deep is your pocket!

Southern Cross Observatory