PGR Flea3 or Grasshopper Express for Planetary/Solar Ha

[ixalon]

Hi all,

I'm looking at getting a decent camera for both planetary (through my C11) and solar (though my Lunt) and have arrived at the Point Grey cameras.

I was all set to get the new Grasshopper Express (ICX674 mono) but when contacting their distributors for the UK, they said I might like to consider the Flea3 (IMX036) instead as it costs considerably less.

I'm not bothered about having to use either USB3 or FireWire 800, so it's down to the features of the camera.

The Grasshopper is CCD vs the Flea3's CMOS sensor.

The Grasshopper has a global shutter rather than the Flea3's rolling shutter.

The Grasshopper is significantly more sensitive than the Flea3 - larger pixels and a high QE (76%!) across a wider range of wavelengths.

The Flea3 supports a slightly higher resolution (2080x1552 vs 1932x1452)

The Flea3 supports higher framerates (for a full frame, 60fps vs 26fps - both support higher framerates when imaging an ROI)

Seems like either would make great solar system imagers, with the Grasshopper also being capable of other jobs (e.g. guiding and DSO video astronomy)?

[riklaunim]

For solar I wouldn't choose a rolling shutter. It doesn't work well (like in DMK72, QHY5 etc. - if the seeing is bad it unfreezes the rolling shutter).

Grasshopper Express with ICX674 is used by A. Wesley for planetary/alike imaging, but it's 2/3" diagonal so with a ICX285 based camera you can fit the same amount of the Sun (but bit less powerful). Less expensive - USB2 Point Grey Chameleon (ICX445 CCD - used already) or FW800/GigE with that CCD slightly faster.

CMOS options are those with global shutter - CMOSIS CMV4000 (1") or CMV2000 (2/3") - should be in GigE Basler Ace Q1 2012 (so not tested yet, > 1000 EUR), or USB3 in ximea cameras (no software for this one! future cams), or something with EV76C560 CMOS (IDS Imaging UI-1240LE or alike - not tested yet)

[ixalon]

Thanks riklaunim, that's a really useful roundup of what's out there at the moment and what's coming soon. A 2/3" diagonal sensor seems the best fit for my 60mm Lunt (i.e. 500mm focal length) - it should comfortably fit the full disc. Think I'll stick with my original idea to go for the ICX674 Grasshopper Express.

[Ibbo!]

Does anybody know where a Point Grey Chameleon can be sourced ior shipped to the UK

Cheers

Steve

[riklaunim]

A 2/3" diagonal sensor seems the best fit for my 60mm Lunt (i.e. 500mm focal length) - it should comfortably fit the full disc.

Yes, 2/3" will cover the whole Sun at once so that G. express should perform nicely (do you have a fast HDD? )

Does anybody know where a Point Grey Chameleon can be sourced ior shipped to the UK

Cheers

Steve

US Point Grey store probably can. Within EU they are in astromarket and shop.tecnosky.it.

UK shops could get some Point Grey cams too Chameleon is the most known. Firefly 0.3MP could be entry level alternative do D*K21AU618 (but that needs to be tested). Both are USB2 and cheap.

[Ibbo!]

Thanks for the info and links

Steve

[ixalon]

Yes, 2/3" will cover the whole Sun at once so that G. express should perform nicely (do you have a fast HDD? )

Going to be using this with my MacBook with a 500GB SSD. My main worry is running out of disk space

Steve, also might be worth dropping Imaging Components | Clearview Imaging an email. They're the official distributor in the UK and am who I'm talking to about the Grasshopper Express. Prices seem reasonable comparing their initial quote to the USD price direct from PGR.