Meade Autostar Suite w/LPI Digital Camera
by Meade

List Price: $198.00
Category: Digital Camera
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Digital product summary information

• Hook up your telescope to your PC, direct your scope with a single mouse click
• Includes LPI imager with a CMOS sensor featuring VGA-effective resolution
• Autostar Suite software package contains every imaginable capacity for both guiding your scope electronically
• Watch the confluence of computerized star charts with live electronic imagery

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Digital camera reviews of Meade Autostar Suite w/LPI Digital Camera

Digital camera Review: Good Camera, bad software
Summary: 2 Stars

Summary of Meade Autostar Suite w/LPI Digital Camera

A practice image taken with the Autostar Suite with Lunar and Planetary Imager.

Autostar Suite with Lunar and Planetary Imager combines hardware and software in one small package that is powerful but easy to use. The manual, which comes in PDF format on the program disk, recommends beginning with daylight images to get familiar with operating the imaging system. This is good advice. Using a Firstscope 90 refractor, I found I could get some nice snap shots of hummingbirds at a nearby feeder.

The LPI's real-time display allows for more accurate low-light exposures.

The LPI feature I like the most is real-time control of the exposure setting. Real-time display literally takes the guesswork out of adjusting focus and exposure times. I tested the LPI system by using my eight-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and 2x Ultima Barlow to photograph Jupiter and Saturn. Sunlight reaching Saturn, for example, is only one percent as bright as sunlight here on Earth. By increasing my exposure time and letting Autostar Suite automatically align and combine the best images, the Lunar and Planetary Imager easily brought out detail like the Cassini division in Saturns rings and cloud bands on the planet itself. When I turned my telescope to Jupiter, I was able to reduce the exposure time and still see Jupiter's moons.

The Lunar and Planetary Imager is based on affordable Web-cam technology, but it has been redesigned and optimized for use with a telescope. The LPI acts like an electronic eyepiece and is designed to fit standard 1.25-inch eyepiece holders. The LPI simply connects to a PC with an included USB cable, but the cable is only about five feet long. The Autostar Suite package includes a number of special features. The "par-focalizing" ring allowed me to use an eyepiece to pre-focus my telescope before connecting the LPI. The package even includes cables and adapters for updating Autostar controllers and operating Autostar based telescopes by remote control from your PC. Realistically, however, the cables are much too short to operate the telescope from inside the house.

Meade likes to claim that you can get great results "your first night out." It might be true. My first LPI images turned out very well indeed! --Jeff Phillips

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Very good image quality
• Wide exposure range

• Short cables
• CMOS (not CCD) sensor

Telescopes

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