Astronomy

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM^67

double or triple the system’s focal length,
making the planets much more viewable.

Required accessories
RunCam produces and sells the Night
Eagle 2 on its own. The Night Eagle 2 Astro
Edition, which contains the aforementioned
enhancements, is available only through
IOTA. That organization offers three differ-
ent kits. For $79 plus shipping, you’ll receive
just the camera with a wide-angle lens.
For $149 plus shipping, you get the cam-
era, plus all accessories (M12 to C adapter,
5mm spacer rings, camera C-mount to 1¼"
adapter) except the 0.5x focal reducer. IOTA
includes the Knight Owl 0.5 Focal Reducer
and everything else for $179 plus shipping.
In the picture to the left, you can see a
black bracket attached to the camera.
While the company designed this bracket
for mounting the camera in quadcopters
(an environment where there would be lit-
tle or no stray light), users found that the
mounting holes let in light that can
impinge on the sensor. So, I recommend
attaching this bracket both to seal out stray
light and to relieve strain on the delicate
power and video cables.
Even with the bracket holes sealed,
though, some light can get in around the
edges of the camera case. For advice for
dealing with this issue, visit IOTA’s web-
site: http://occultations.org/documents/
AstroMetalTapeLightLeakSolution.pdf.

Recording video
You can record the camera’s output direct-

ly onto a small portable video camera

(like the Canon ZR or Elura series, which

both use DV tape and little compression),

a full-size VCR recorder, or a computer

hard drive. For computer capture, a USB

3.0 port and a frame grabber (like the

StarTech SVID2USB23) are required.

IOTA does not recommend using small

portable digital video recorders because

they compress the images to a point where

their scientific value is degraded.

You can download for free all the soft-

ware offered by IOTA members in support

of occultation recording. You’ll find it at

http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations.

Most useful to the beginner will probably

be the IOTA Video Capture program,

which allows a Windows computer to cap-

ture the video stream and convert it to an

AVI file for later analysis. Further down on

the webpage, you’ll find the link to a dedi-

cated YouTube channel that contains

examples of RunCam Night Eagle 2 Astro

Edition videos and images.

Precision timing

In occultation work, accurate timing of

the disappearance and reappearance of a

star is extremely important. To help you

out, IOTA has developed the IOTA-VTI

v3 video time inserter, which you’ll find at

http://videotimers.com/home.html.

This small, battery-powered device con-

tains a GPS antenna and adds a time stamp

(accurate to milliseconds) to the bottom of

every frame of your occultation video. It

also allows you to record the exact location

at which you made the observation.

Recording stellar occultations allows

amateur astronomers to make real scien-

tific contributions to the study of the solar

system, double stars, and more. The combi-

nation of the RunCam Night Eagle 2 Astro

Camera and the IOTA-VTI v3 offers an

inexpensive way to get into this exciting

branch of citizen science.

Richard P. Wilds is a member of the American

Astronomical Society’s Historical Astronomy

Division and IOTA.

RunCam Night Eagle 2

Astro Edition

Image sensor: 1 1⁄" CMOS

Horizontal resolution: 800 TVL

Screen format: 4:3

Signal system: NTSC/PAL switchable

Signal-to-noise ratio: 50 dB

Electronic shutter speed: Auto

Maximum gain: 1–9

Minimum illumination: 0.00001 lux

Power: DC 5 to 36 volts

Work current: 90mA at 12 volts, 200mA

at 5 volts

Housing: Aluminum alloy

Weight: 0.56 ounce (16 grams)

Price: $79 to $179 plus shipping

URL: occultations.org/test-night-eagle-

ordering-page

PRODUCT INFORMATION

This computer reduction shows the first scientific results from an original
RunCam Night Eagle. It plots multiple results of the light curve of the
momentary disappearance of stars behind asteroid 206 Hersilia. DAVID DUNHAM

This montage of the Moon combines 11 exposures. The photographer set

the gain to 1 and the brightness to 8. This test image shows how well the

camera can handle saturation issues. TONY GEORGE/IOTA