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Touring the UNIVERSE with your Video Camera
The Art of Astrovideography
About 10 years ago, a brave group of amateur astronomers set out to prove that video could be used for recording the beautiful sights they saw through their scopes. Initially, they concentrated on the Solar System, and they produced images far better than what astrophotographers had been able to do previously using film. Despite this triumph, today there's less interest in the Moon and planets when it comes to "traditional" video cameras. Mainly because the PC-connected webcam has shown it is basically unbeatable for Solar System work. That may be changing again, with the coming of powerful Firewire videocams, but for now the Toucams, SACs, and ATIKs rule the Sun's kingdom.
Strangely, though, video is making huge strides in a task for which we originally thought it was completely unsuited--deep sky imaging. The advent of insanely sensitive video cameras that can stack frames automatically means that video is not just capable of capturing deep sky objects, it is better at doing that than some more traditional formats--film and CCD--for many of us.
Video is, if nothing else, immediate and accessible. Schoolkids don't have to squint through an eyepiece to see the Ring Nebula; they see it up close and personal on a monitor screen. For them, the view on a 20 inch (or 40 inch) monitor has far more appeal than it does in an ocular. It's also much easier on the astronomer. No more: "Did you see it? Move your eye back a little. No, close the other eye!"
Yes, these cameras can show the wonderful universe in all its beauty to uninitiated friends, family and public IN REAL TIME. But they can also be wonderful for us veterans. For some observers, nothing will replace the "real real time"--viewing through an eyepiece--of course, but video can allow even these folks to see more with their telescopes than they've ever seen before. Sure, M51 may be more aesthetically pleasing by eye, but you'll see its spiral form far more easily with video and in far greater detail, and you'll be able to "see" those details with a reasonble-size, portable scope.
I've got to admit I've been on the periphery of the video astronomy fold for the last few years. But I'm BACK! It's just a fact that video, ASTRO video, is far too useful a tool to ignore anymore. As video trail blazer Jim Ferreria is wont to say, "VIDEO ON!"
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Latest Images
M42 from insanely light-polluted skies
For more video images, go HERE and scroll down to the "Astrovideo" section...
Astrovideography links
Jim Ferreria's Video Capture AstrophotographyPage
Click on Mr. Possum, return to Astro Land!