Prima Luce EAGLE CORE (Pre-Owned)

Prima Luce Lab SKU: PREOWNEDEAGLECORE

$250.00

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THIS IS A PRE-OWNED ITEM WHICH HAS BEEN   DISCONTINUED BY THE MANUFACTURER.

Product has been TESTED for Full Functionality.  Everything
originally included from the manufacturer is accounted for.
Purchases of Pre-Owned items may be returned for
Refund or Credit for Two Weeks after the date of purchase.

 

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Prima Luce Eagle Core

 

DSLR and mirrorless cameras are great for astrophotography (even for long exposures of deep-sky objects such as galaxies, nebulae or star clusters) since they have high sensitivity and low noise, so they are able to record very weak details. Just use an equatorial mount with autoguide port and EAGLE CORE will allow you to record wonderful images of the objects of the Universe both using photographic lenses and telescopes! Thanks to EAGLE CORE, your instrument will have the high performance of an astrophotography telescope but with the portability and ease of use of a star tracker.

 

EAGLE CORE - Astrophotography Control Unit for both DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras!

EAGLE CORE - control unit for astrophotography with DSLR and mirrorless cameras

 

 

Compared to EAGLE, that thanks to Windows operating system and the ability to install any astrophotography software is perfect for the astrophotographer that wants to make advanced astrophotography, EAGLE CORE is designed for those who start to do astrophotography and are searching for a very simple to use system or for those who want an easily transportable system as "travel telescope".

 

 

 EAGLE CORE - control unit for astrophotography with DSLR and mirrorless cameras

In order to make high quality astrophotography, connecting a DSLR or mirrorless cameras to the telescope is not enough. It is necessary to be able to set and shoot the camera without touching it to avoid vibrations while recording and use the auto-guide to automatically correct normal tracking errors of equatorial mounts. When using an external computer, telescope becomes complicated because of many cables or power supplies, it is less portable and it is necessary to study the capture and guide software. EAGLE CORE simplifies both your telescope and software, making your instrument easier to use and transport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technical comment by Filippo:

"Using EAGLE CORE is like having a capture software for your DSLR or mirrorless camera, an auto-guide software, a focus software, and a planetarium software all in your smartphone or tablet!  Often I move to the mountains but I also photograph from my backyard controlling the telescope from the sofa!"

 

 

EAGLE CORE - control unit for astrophotography with DSLR and mirrorless cameras

 

As for other EAGLE control units, EAGLE CORE is installed directly on your telescope, it powers the elements of your telescope (12V, up to 3 instruments) and it has a modular PLUS case allowing you to install it on all telescopes and to personalize your configuration as you prefer. It has also been designed to allow you to do long exposure astrophotography even with telephoto lenses thanks to a special shooting mode with the guide scope positioned at the telephoto lens side (see photo below).

 

EAGLE CORE - control unit for astrophotography with DSLR and mirrorless cameras

In order to use EAGLE CORE together with a telephoto lens (and guide scope in parallel) you have to add "140mm PLUS dovetail bar" to be connected under EAGLE CORE body, in order to install everything on the equatorial mount. In the upper part the EAGLE CORE has a 1 1/4" photo thread to connect a photo ball head and then the camera. If you have an heavy photo lens (for example with focal length higher than 200mm) you can add the "PLUS Vixen+Losmandy dovetail clamp". Then you can connect the "PLUS 90mm Vixen dovetail bar" under the camera and then connect everything in the dovetail clamp. The guide scope is installed, using the optional "80mm PLUS guide rings" and "PLUS Risers" affixed to the side of EAGLE CORE's case.

In order to use EAGLE CORE with a telescope (and guide scope in parallel) you can connect it in many different ways and it's compatible with all telescopes available on the market.

- Eagle Core can be mounted atop the PLUS support rings (for example when you use a refractor)

- Dovetail Clamp Vixen+Losmandy PLUS can be attached to the base of Eagle Core and connect to any Vixen or Losmandy style dovetail bar

- Vixen / Losmandy Dovetail Bar can be attached to attach Eagle Core directly to the dovetail saddle to any mount that is Vixen or Losmandy Compatible

- EAGLE CORE allows you to connect PLUS guide rings with guide scope and guide camera on top

 

 

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH THE EAGLE CORE:

Control all the devices from your smartphone or tablet with a convenient WiFi connection: you can stay warm in your house or car and control every device of our telescope, without touching it.

Remotely control your Canon EOS or Nikon DSLR or mirrorless camera: set acquisition parameters, then start capturing a single image or a sequence. These are the cameras already tested and verified with EAGLE CORE:

- Canon EOS R, Canon EOS 1000D, 1100D, 1300D, 450D, 500D, 550D, 600D, 650D, 700D, 750D, 800D, 20D, 40D, 60D/60Da, 70D, 80D, 7D, 6D, 5D Mark III, 5D Mark IV
- Nikon Z6, Nikon Z7, Nikon D3300, D3400, D5300, D5600, D7000 (D7000 can't "B" mode), D600, D610, D750, D800E, D810

Focus your DSLR or mirrorless camera: thanks to a special simplified mode, you can focus on the smallest details of your image, moving the focuser manually and remotely thanks to SESTO SENSO, the robotic focusing motor (optional).

Control the computerized mount: connect the handpad of your computerized mount to one of the USB ports of the EAGLE CORE and use SkySafari PLUS or PRO (sold separately) to control it from your device connected to the EAGLE CORE WiFi. Mounts already tested with EAGLE CORE:
- SkyWatcher mounts with SynScan hand-pad (firmware at least 4.39)

Control Auto-Guide Camera: thanks to the integrated auto-guide software, the Eagle Core Control Unit can assist with automatically correcting tracking errors of the telescope's mount (compatible with QHY5II-L, ASI120MM-S, ASI120MC-S, ASI178MM, ASI290MM, ASI290MC and Lodestar)

- Guided and Unguided Dithering: Dithering is the process of shifting the image by a preset number of pixels between exposures.  This technique is used in order to reduce hot pixels, fixed pattern noise and read noise inherent to any camera sensor by stacking mulitple dithered exposures (Noise and Hot Pixels are averaged out increasingly with more frames integrated)

- Power up to 3 devices (12V): thanks to optional cables and adapters, you can power the DSLR camera, the mount, etc directly from the EAGLE CORE eliminating the need for other batteries and other external power supplies.

 

 

 

 

EAGLE OS: INTEGRATED SOFTWARE FOR DSLR AND MIRRORLESS ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Thanks to EAGLE CORE you will no longer need a laptop: in fact it includes EAGLE OS software to control autoguide and DSLR or mirrorless camera. You can control all capture and guide parameters directly on the screen of your smartphone or your tablet (compatible with iOS and Android devices) connected to EAGLE CORE through the convenient WiFi connection. 

 

 

POWER OUT PORTS TO BETTER ARRANGE CABLES CONNECTED TO THE TELESCOPE

Thanks to the innovative design protected by international patent application and Italian utility model, EAGLE CORE has 3 power OUT ports that you can connect (using the optional cables) to different devices such as camera or mount. In this way you will have only one power cable to power EAGLE CORE and other devices and you will reduce not only total consumption but also the number of cables in your instrument. You can also use the optional "Eagle-compatible power cable for Canon EOS and Nikon DSLR camera" to power them from EAGLE CORE (removing the battery you will no more have problems with batteries running out of charge during capturing!).

 

EAGLE CORE - control unit for astrophotography with DSLR camera

 

 

 

 

DESIGN: INNOVATION IN A COMPACT AND LIGHTWEIGHT DEVICE

All the incredible features of EAGLE CORE are enclosed in a compact, lightweight device with the great PrimaLuceLab design. EAGLE CORE case is made of aluminum blocks that are high precision CNC machined. The aluminum is then sandblasted to achieve a very smooth surface finish and is anodized (hard anodizing) to increase the hardness of the material and protect it from oxidation. EAGLE CORE weights only 520 grams so it does not add too much weight on your telescope mount and allows you to create an incredibly portable setup. All in a device 17cm long, 8cm wide and just 3cm thick. 

 

EAGLE CORE - control unit for astrophotography with DSLR camera

 

 

 

 

Using the auto-guide feature of EAGLE CORE, classic tracking error of the equatorial mounts are corrected: In the image below you can see how a 300 seconds exposition picture recorded at 200mm focal length shows stars not well tracked if the auto-guide is not activated (left) and perfectly tracked when we use the auto-guide (right).

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EAGLE CORE comes with an astrophotography introduction user manual (in english and italian) that not only shows how to use EAGLE CORE but also teach the basics of astrophotography like how to properly set the equatorial mount, what is the autoguide and how to set it properly, why stacking more pictures together, etc.

Example of the Manual Content:

Introduction to astrophotography with DSLR and mirrorless cameras
Planetary/lunar and deep-sky astrophotography
Astrophotography with telephoto lens or telescope?
Mount and sky objects tracking
Connecting DSLR or mirrorless camera to telescopes
Before starting to photograph: light pollution and power
Start taking pictures, step by step guide
Step 1: align the mount to Pole
Step 2: align the mount to the stars
Step 3: point the object to record
Step 4: focus DSLR or mirrorless camera
Step 5: start the autoguide
Step 6: advanced autoguide settings (optional)
Step 7: record pictures with DSLR or mirrorless camera