Live Deep Space Camera
When sessions are in progress at the JSL Observatory (see column to the left or click here) and the Deep Space Camera is switched on (depending on conditions) you can enjoy the same views as visitors to our observatory.
The image refreshes automatically approximately every 20 seconds. If the image appears incomplete, simply reload the page. Note that sometimes the image may be blank (during testing, etc).
The HAS Deep Space Camera is a special high sensitity video camera fitted to a small telescope which is fitted to our big 14 inch LX200 telescope and thus shows the same field observed by people at the Observatory. The dimmest stars on the image can have magnitudes as low as 15 when conditions are right and the width of the field is 2 degrees.
Specifications
For the astro nuts among us, here are the specifications of our Deep Space Camera:
- Mintron PD2285C-EX camera (www.astrophoto.co.uk)
- Polaris 0.5x focal reducer
- Skywatcher Startravel 80, 80mm, f/5 rich field refractor (f/2.5 with focal reducer)
- Generic video to USB adaptor
- Yawcam version 0.3.9 (www.yawcam.com)
The field of view is 120 x 100 arc minutes and the resolving power is 9.6 arc seconds per pixel. The live image above has a slightly lower resolution than the images directly from the camera.