Which Planetary/Lunar camera?

[Zakalwe]

Budget is £250~.

I'm looking for a Lunar/planetary camera to replace my modified Lifecam. Ideally, I think that I want colour as my limited time to image usually means no filters (plus I am trying to keep it simple).

I use a Celestron Nexstar 8GPS as the scope, sometime with a 2x Barlow.

Any suggestions? QHY5t? Imaging Source DFK21? Or am I better off sticking with a webcam?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice offered.

[Merlin66]

The DBK/DFK would give good results....

[riklaunim]

Old DFK would be hard to outperform the LifeCam. New with ICX618 should. QHY5t is rather below LifeCam due to CMOS of older desigh with noticeable fixed pattern noise. To push forward you would have to rather go with a mono camera. On the other hand you may try catching some IR luminance with the lifecam - either with red visual wratten filter or with deeper IR filter like Astronomik ProPlanet 742. That should allow getting better IrRGB images.

[Zakalwe]

Thanks guys. I'll look into the IR filter situation. I think I need an IR cut filter as the images that I am getting are overly "pink"

[riklaunim]

Yes, for standard color images with LifeCam you really need IR/UV cut as it's very IR sensitive

[Zakalwe]

Yes, for standard color images with LifeCam you really need IR/UV cut as it's very IR sensitive

I've ordered an Astronomik IR Block from Bern @ Modern Astronomy, so I'll give that a go. I'll see how that goes and then I'll look at the Pro 742 filter. I assume that I'd run an .avi with the block filter, then run a second one with the Pro 742? Stack both in Registax and then combine in PS, using the Pro 742 as luminance?

Sounds cheaper than splurging £250 on a new cam....

Might have a fiddle with one of the microsoft Studio Lifecams....the sensor looks a fair bit bigger plus 1080.

[riklaunim]

Yes, you record the avi with ProPlanet 742, convert it to greyscale (it will be pink/blue from the camera) and then try doing LRGB from the color image and the IR luminance image.

[Zakalwe]

Thanks Riklaunim.

Swapping filters back and forth must be fun when trying to image Jupiter (fast rotation)?

[riklaunim]

If you will be doing this without a filter wheel then probably WinJUPOS will be needed to equalize different angles of the AVIs + it will fix the planet rotation. Without WinJUPOS safe time is around 3-4 min or less. With WinJUPOS empty edge will show up after around 8-10 min but it's good to fit in 3-4 mins. Having two AVIs to make that shouldn't be a problem.

[TheThing]

There is a lovely mono SPC900, modified with the IXC618 chip for sale on the board. At only £90, it's a bargain and well within budget!

TheThing

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[Pete Presland]

surely the Imaging Source DFK21 is going to out preform any moded webcam or am i missins something?

[Gina]

I don't know that particular imaging camera but in general... It's a question of price. A lot of us can't afford a proper imaging camera. Me included.

[riklaunim]

surely the Imaging Source DFK21 is going to out preform any moded webcam or am i missins something?

The old one? it could be out performed by the HD webcams (like the LifeCams) that are too USB 2.0, but the sensor has more pixels if needed and the sensitivity is very high (expecially in red/IR).

[Pete Presland]

sounds interesting,which of the hd webcams is the preferred astro-imagers choice?

[Pete Presland]

I don't know that particular imaging camera but in general... It's a question of price. A lot of us can't afford a proper imaging camera. Me included.

absolutely,the prices are staggering even the "cheaper" ones are 6-7 times the price of a spc900