planetary camera thoughts

[bottletopburly]

right heres my dilema got 250 pound to spend 25 yrs service at work so just thinking what to buy dslr,tablet,mp3 what would be a step up from a spc900 webcam is there anything around 150 ish thoughts please

[JamesF]

I don't think I've seen anything around that budget that is definitely significantly better than the SPC900.

James

[JB80]

The Imaging Source 21 cams are just a little over that budget they seemed to be the main cam for a while although now other cams have come along but I've seen some great images with the ASI120MC which is $278 USD.

[Kropster]

What about a used DSLR body off ebay?

I picked up a Canon 350D for £45, so you could probably get something quite nice for £150.

[todd8137]

Save up some more cash ,the planets come back every year a dslr is ok for the moon ,not so good on planets ,save up or check the second hand market out

at

[Fordos Moon]

So much fun to be had imaging DSOs with DSLR too :-)

[Hairycamel]

I definately second the ASI120 option. I have the mono version and they are a huge step up from the SPC. About £190 delivered if I remember rightly....

[Avo]

Hi Hairy Camel

Did you get your ASI direct from USA ?

Did you get clobbered by HMRC ?

I'm tempted on a colour version, should be a big improvement on me modified Xbox cam

[JamesF]

The ASI camera is definitely going to be an improvement on the Xbox camera, but my feeling at the moment is that you really need plenty of aperture to get the most out of it. See my recent postings in the planetary imaging section if you'd like some idea of what it can do with smaller aperture scopes.

My ASI120MC came via Saudi Arabia I think, but I'd expect them to start off in China rather than the US. TS in Germany also sell them I believe.

James

[Hairycamel]

Mine came via Dubai and I was not clobbered by HMRC. Result!

[cgarry]

Mine came via Dubai and I was not clobbered by HMRC. Result!

Ditto!

[bottletopburly]

cheers going to bide my time for a 350d so going to get a ipod touch and maybe a pair of binoculars with vouchers cheers everyone for input

[Grotemobile]

http://www.modernastronomy.com/camerasPlanetary.html

This is what i have bought the, QHY 132E

Works very well .These were taken with a

C11 scope.Takes a bit of setting up .

Gives you some idear what this camera can do.

Steve.

moon.tif

Saturn-0(2)(2).tif

[lukebl]

After my initial doubts, I have renewed respect for the IMG132e, and it is cheaper than most alternatives. Here's one of my captures with it. It also has a relatively large sensor (1/3" compared to the 1/4" of some other cams) , which is handy when imaging the moon or sun.

[JamesF]

That's a nice image. Were you using the 250PDS for that one?

James

[Grotemobile]

Hi luke.How do you get detail on the

planet like that.I cannot get to see ,any thing

like that.Do u use the EZ Planetry

software.Any help that you can give me.

Thanks.

Steve.

[lukebl]

Yes, it was with my 250PDS and 3x Televue Barlow. Captured with the IMGVideo software, 2000 frames, 1/60 sec @ 60 fps. Stacked in Registax5 and tweaked in Photoshop.

Steve, I think I was just lucky. They're rarely like that! Seeing was good. Focus is critical. I fine-tuned focussing on a bright star first with a Bahtinov mask (it's handy that Aldebaran is nearby at the moment), and then slewed to Jupiter. Something I've learnt is not to underexpose the image, otherwise it'll result in a grany image.

[JamesF]

How do you get detail on the planet like that.

Buckets of aperture and a good dash of focal length help enormously

James

[Grotemobile]

My scope is the C11,so it is not to bad.

Did you down load in Tff format & then

stack in registax.The most i can use with

this camera is f15.How do you get 60fps

with this camera.20fps is about my max.

I usually down load about 750 tiff frames &

then stack them.That takes some time.

I think that i am under exposing the image

is my problem.I have spent hours with this

camera,& still dont seem to get it right.

Keep triying.

Steve

[lukebl]

Hi Steve. You should be able to get better images than mine. I'm sure it's just a matter of tweaking your capture settings.

I've just checked and I was a bit misleading about my capture settings. The exposure was 20ms (i.e 1/50 sec), and captured at 40 fps with the standard IMGVideo software. c. 2400 frames stacked from 3000 frames. I also captured it with a small ROI (region of interest) of about 350x350 pixels, rather than the full frame. Hope that helps.

[Grotemobile]

Hi luke,yes it has.I could not work out what this MS setting was.

At least i have got a starting point .What does the number in

the top L/hand mean.Windows will not let me stack 3000 frames

because of the 2MB limit. The most i can do in avi format is 350.

Tiff is about 750.I am still playing around with it.I seem to be getting,

20ps in 640 x 480 mode. How do i find the ROI.in the capture software.

Wish there was a manual on this camera, so i no what all the settings are.

Thanks for your help.

Steve.

[lukebl]

Steve. Hope this helps. These are the settings I use with the IMGVideo capture software.

[Grotemobile]

This is totally different to mine.

Mine is EZ Plantary V3.16.

I will have to have to look on

the disc they sent me.I thought this

was the latest one.Thanks any way.

Steve.

[lukebl]

This is totally different to mine.

Mine is EZ Plantary V3.16.

I will have to have to look on

the disc they sent me.I thought this

was the latest one.Thanks any way.

Steve.

My disk came with both EZ Planetary and IMGVideo. The latter seems to work better.

[Grotemobile]

I will dig that out & give it a go.

I did not think it would work with

the IMG 132E.We will try.

st