asi 174c or asi 1224c?

[chrisg18]

just received a asi 174c from 365 astronomy. having doubts now .don't know whether to send it back for a 1224.there is a £250 difference in price!!.usng a c9.25 mostly for imaging planets and dabble in dso's. please help me decide lol.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The 174 has a much bigger chip AFAIK, which is very handy for lunar in a scope like yours

[jambouk]

What made you go for the the 174 in the first place over the 224 or 120?

James

[riklaunim]

174 if mono, 224 if color.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

174 if mono, 224 if color.

I think that would be my ideal combination. I have the 174MM and a 120MC, but am seriously thinking of getting the 224MC

[chrisg18]

it was just the higher spec really.im not too hot on pixels/fov etc.only been into this hobby for a year.i get baffled by some of the comments the super intelligent people make on here.at the moment one camera is all I can afford,,just! I didn't want to get the 224 and then 6 months down the line wished I had gone for the 174. don't want to do filters rgb etc so colour suits me at the moment.i looked at the 174 chip spec and it looked very good,well to me anyway.it has a large sensor,very high frame rate,large pixel size,high resolution,pqe 78% very high,pregius global shutter. down the line I will probably go for a cooled ccd for dso's in a few years. thought this camera would still do some dso's for a while mainly concentrating on jupiter ,mars,saturn and the moon. don't know about solar yet which ive heard this 174 is very good for.would I get better detailed images with the 174 especially craters on the moon, polar hexagon on Saturn,volcanoes on mars etc etc with the 9.25 sct? ive got a f6.3 corrector and a 2.25 baader zoom, meade 3x,and a meade 5000 series 5x telemate to play with imaging. I just get baffled about what to use when etc.

[gnomus]

I'd stop worrying about it, and enjoy your 174. It sounds like a great camera - I would very much like to own one. The 224 does seem to be getting good results on planets. The 174 would come into its own on lunar and solar work (I am guessing). Yet the 174 will still be more than capable of planetary work - you just wont need the full chip.

Furthermore, if you are thinking of cooled CCD work, the 174 will give you experience of capturing and combining L, R, G & B data.

[jambouk]

It looks like a very nice camera on paper. I suspect the limiting factors when using it will be:

- the atmosphere

- the telescopes aperture

- the position of the planets in the coming years

- human limitation (focusing, how often you set up etc).

I'm unsure if you are just modest about your knowledge and ability, else you really did just click "buy now" without doing sufficient homework on the two cameras before making your decision.

If you want to inage DSOs with these rapid frame rate cameras, I suspect the 224 would be better as it has much lower noise. But these cameras aren't really designed for that, so as you say, in time you'd want to get a cooled CCD camera.

So that just leaves planetary and lunar imaging; others have suggested the 174 will give a bigger FoV for the moon, but you'll have to plug all the variables into a field of view calculator and see how much difference it makes for the moon; you'll always get the planets in the FoV of any camera. The larger pixels may contribute towards a greater dynamic range.

So that just leaves planets; the QE looks similar for the 174 and the 224, though the noise is less for the 224, but not convinced that is important greatly for planetary. The frame rates achievable are similar. Both are USB3. The 224 has this hightened sensitivity in the IR range, which seems a little odd seeing as most people use IR-blocking filters for bog standard planetary work.

So, I've not used either camera, but it looks like the benefits will come from lunar imaging.

So, I'd ask myself do I want to have the kit for some of the best OSC imaging of the moon, or have £250 back?

If you can afford the extra £250, I'd keep hold of it. If you are feeling hard done by, ask for a swap for the 224. I suspect you wouldn't notice much difference between the two, asides any difference in the FoV.

It's best to go through these scenarios before making the purchase

Good luck.

James

[jambouk]

OK, having now looked at the FoV calculators and comparing the two without a reducer, it becomes clear to me that you are still a long way off getting a full moon within the FoV of the 174. If you were to use a 0.66x reducer you'd still have to do at least a 4 panel mosaic, probably 6-8 to be safe.

If this was me, and it's not, I'd have gone for the 224 (after investigating the impact this improved IR sensitivity when imaging non-IR planetary targets). If I want to get a full moon I'd use my DSLR.

Good luck still.

James

174vs224FoV.pdf

[chrisg18]

I know I should have gone for the 224 but something evil made me press the button for the 174 lol. human nature I think. itll cost me signed for postage to send it back and who knows will it get lost? will 365 astronomy refund me? oh man should it go or should it stay?

[jambouk]

It won't get lost in the post; I sent something for next day delivery, insured for £500 today and it weighed a bomb and it only cost £11. A small ZWO will be half of that I guess.

Speak to 365 first. They don't want you to be unhappy. But at the same time, they don't want to be doing this sort of thing constantly. You need to say how intact the packaging is etc when you communicate with them. 

But if you decide to keep it, it is a great camera. You are not going to be disappointed with its performance, the only issue is whether you wonder if the extra £250 was worth it. If £250 is an absolute massive amount of money to you in the grand scheme of things then that should sway your decision. If it doesn't really matter you've overspent by £250 then maybe just use this as a lesson to do your homework before clicking buy now.

Life is too short to worry excessively about these things. Make a decision and move on.

James

[Freddie]

Also have a look at the position of the major planets over the next year or so. None of them are great so you may not get much planetary done any time soon.

[chrisg18]

Sure . I've already got an opticstar 137c which is similar spec to the 224 except usb3most Times when I check the details on the properties it says either 625or666 fps!.sometimes 30fps.I don't know what's wrong.obviously with the big numbers registax 4and5 won't work.No one else on here uses this camera so I thought go for one with support 

[jambouk]

The fact you have a 224-equivilant camera already, and must have thought "what the heck, it's only an extra £250", i suspect the money isn't really an issue.

Just keep it and report back to us how good it is.

James

[chrisg18]

LOL