Digital photography

[Delphine]

Hang on there, don't go away!  I want to hear your technical questions and learning stages - I am finding this thread extremely useful.  This is a discussion forum after all.

Cheers
Delphine

[Ian]

Hi Carole,

I've just seen your PMs. We can carry on using email if you *really* want to, but as Delphine says there are several members doing much the same at the moment. Windows ME shouldn't be a problem, but I've never actually used that one myself. I can get drivers for the toucam for it, and K3CCDTools should work too.

[Mike]

Windows ME has a reputation as being possibly the worst Operating System that Microsoft have ever made. I know I have heard of lots of tales of instability and driver issues with that OS so maybe an upgrade to XP (if your system can take it) or Windows 2000 (if it can't) might be better. Test if first and see if you have any issues, if not then you won't need to do the above.

Carole you can only "tip up the base" if you buy a seperate wedge to convert the mount from alt/az to eq, which as Ian says, is pretty much essential if you want to eliminate field rotation.

[Carole]

OK, if there are those who want this discussion to continue publicly I'll continue. 

In response to Mike.  I have never heard of Me operating system before and it doesn't actually belong to me, so perhaps I need to obtain another laptop, although I don't particularly want to go out buying new stuff until I am sure it's all going to work (including my own abilities!).  I actually hate working with laptops as I find those little "mouse substitute pads" extremely fiddly to use, so would only be using a laptop for Astronomy purposes.  Unless I can plug a mouse into it.  There is no mention at all of such a thing as a wedge in the ETX instruction book, so how they expect any-one to know about it goodness only knows, so I now need some advice on that too. 

to Ian:  Many thanks for all your help.  I am planning to go to the Observing tonight, if I bring my equipment and instructions books with me, then if you are there we can chat further.  Will I need any applications on the laptop on which to download anything from the webcam?  If so, are they available on the internet, or can I use something I already have?  Sorry, but quite green about all this.

Carole

[Ian]

sorry Carole, I can't make observing tonight (in fact it's been waaaay too long since I have ) Of course, there'll be other peeps who can start the ball rolling...

I'll be at the meeting Thursday though. And yes, you can plug a mouse into a laptop. I'd see if we can get the one you have got to work before you start taking trips down to PC World...

You'll need to add some software, I'd recommend K3ccdtools version 1 from www.pk3.org I can bring it on cdrom, but if you download it and install it first, that'd be great.

[mickw]

Mike/Carole,
The ETX (PE anyway) does tilt for polar alignment, the base tilts and is locked by a sliding rod.
Not as accurate or rigid as a wedge, but it can be done.
Mick

[Mike]

The ETX (PE anyway) does tilt for polar alignment, the base tilts and is locked by a sliding rod.

Ahh yes you are right Mick. I forgot teh ETX had that on it. Oh well Carole that is good news, you just need to use that then - No cost at all !!

[Ian]

only if you have a PE variant...

[Carole]

Right then.  My next hurdle, and this is a non astronomical one, is getting the laptop connected to the internet to download (K3ccdtools version 1 from www.pk3.org).  As I mentioned before I couldn't use my latest broadband on this Plaptop but I could my previous broadband. (I was upgraded when I changed to Talk3 International).  Not sure whether this is going to cause a problem with my connection if I keep swapping PCs and types of broadband into the same telephone line.  Does any-one know if this will cause a problem?
I think I might contact my ISP to be on the safe side.  I will only be running one at a time.  If I can't download onto it will your CD be OK instead Ian?

So, one step at a time.

Carole

[mickw]

Did you get a setup CD from your ISP ?
If yes, run it on every PC you want to use, that should help for a start.
If not, turn on both computers and manually copy the settings from the "worker" to the other one.  You might have to do some of this even if you run the CD.
Good luck,
Mick

[Mike]

If you have a router and this laptop has a LAN connection then it will connect to the internet. You must have the wrong settings.

[Carole]

All I have is the laptop, I was only given this on loan originally to see if I could download my old broadband (as I was having troubleconnecting and to see if it was a problem with my desktop).  Since then the person who loaned it said I could buy it off him as he no longer uses it, but I said I would wait and see if I could use it for Astronomy purposes. I have never been given the CD, although I expect he still has it if required.  No I don't have a router.

I'm going to try out the internet connection as I'm not sure how to copy from one PC to another, I can't burn CDs on my desk top, it seems to be faulty.  If the internet works no problem, if it doesn't then I'll have to think again. will try this evening hopefully.

Once that is all up and running I'll look into getting a cordless mouse for the laptop as it only has 2 USB ports and I think you said I needed two for Astronomy purposes.

Carole

[JohnP]

Carole, Cordless mouse would be bottom of my list of 'wants'....! John

[Mike]

Exactly, and with the addition of a USB hub (£5-£10) you can plug in as many USB devices as it will take.

[Ian]

Sorry to put my oar in again, but bear in mind that you want to plug the camera into a port of it's own. It'll use all the bandwidth a USB1 port can give. Mice, serial adaptors, coffee cup warmers, SAM launchers and lava lamps can all be connected to another.