Has anyone ever put a camera on their antenna rotators to track the moon ?
To check the pointing angle etc
Andrew VK4TEC
Has anyone ever put a camera on their antenna rotators to track the moon ?
Yes, at our school, the surplus 12 meter dish had a big camera with an 8" lens. I restored it (40 years of dust and bird-poop on it) and when zoomed in, the Moon would just about fill the screen. Since our 432 MHz beamwidht was only twice the diameter of the moon, this made an excellent visual tracker!
Bob, WB4APR
A camera on the cross boom is useful for lots of things. I have had one on my setup for years. It was really useful for knowing where AO-40's S-band downlink was in relation to the many trees that surround my house. It was also a bit scary to watch the whole rig moving to the wind of a storm, and comforting to know that the antennas were still aligned properly after the storm had passed.
But, I presume you had some protection for those times when a satellite's path crosses within camera view of the sun, right? I rigged up a solenoid/spring driven shutter in front of the camera lens, as protection, reminding myself to only energize it when pointing in a safe direction. What did you use?
Greg KO6TH
From: vk4tec@tech-software.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:11:42 +1000 Subject: [amsat-bb] Tracking the moon
Has anyone ever put a camera on their antenna rotators to track the moon ?
To check the pointing angle etc
Andrew VK4TEC _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
_________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/
participants (3)
-
Andrew Rich -
Greg D. -
Robert Bruninga