Celestron N-8 NGT 8" F/5 newtonian with CG-5 mount and NexStar controller;

Watec 902H2 Ultimate that I am starting to use. It replaces the StellaCam II and is much more sensative.

(prior to Apr 08) Unfiltered StellaCam II at prime focus yielding a 16 x 22 arc minute field of view (or larger with focal reducer), running at 30 (29.997) frames per second (StellaCam set to 1 frame).

Sometimes use a focal reducer, placed as to fit as much of the shadowed portion of the moon in the FOV.

JMI Motofocus with hand controller;

KIWI OSD In Line video GPS time stamper to insert time on each video od and even video field;

Canopus ADVC-55 to convert the video signal from NTSC to 1394 firewire DV-AVI, for input into laptop;

Blue Star BlueTooth adaptor for guiding from laptop.

PHD Guiding for auto guiding. I had a problem with my mount loosing its memory and the mount would do whatever it really wanted, whenever it wanted. PHD Guiding fixed that and also allowed the camera to be set at an off-axis angle while guiding! It required two video inputs to the laptop; one to record the DV signel to an AVI file and the other as a 640X480 USB2 NTSC video input for PHD Guiding to use. There was no preformance impact on the laptop.

AVI files captured live to a Western Digital MyBook Tera-byte drive (with USB2, 1394-a or 1394-b); this makes the operation much easier eliminating the need to change tapes.

Processing the AVI files:

AVI files are split into segments with Virtual Dub and then processed by LunarScan written by Pete Gural, for detecting and extracting lunar impacts.

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I use the stairwell in my basement as a little control room which keeps me from freezing during the winter.

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When the temperature is tolerable, I use a mobile Stanley wheeled Tool box Operations Control Center.
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