Camera Board For Raspberry Pi

[Dave-Ryan]

Just read on the Raspberry Pi web site that the camera boards, they have been promising for months, will finally be available in April.

There is no mention of the specs of the cameras, so no idea if they are any use in astrophotography, but they are giving a few away to anyone who comes up with interesting ways to use one. I think this will also be a kind of beta test.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3432

[Steep]

If I remember correctly the cameras they were aiming to use were based on tiny mobile phone type sensors, not at all suitable for AP I would suspect.

[StuW]

Camera is an OV5647 (http://www.ovt.com/products/sensor.php?id=66) so not completely unusable for astro.. especially if we can remove the IR filter.

[Gina]

Interesting I think it would struggle with DSO AP but should be OK for planetary but then so are webcams.

[badgerchap]

They might be best used with eyepiece projection? I've seen some surprisingly good results from phone cameras in this way, though as Gina says, I doubt they'd be much cop for DSOs.

Posted via Tapatalk on an ageing iPhone so please excuse any erroneous spellings or accidental profanities!

[LeoLion]

There is hope for astro use the Pi camera by doing the IR filter surgery. Have a look here http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4088 .Some links to the surgery images on You Tube in the last couple of days .

[riklaunim]

It has very small pixels so you get theoretical optimal/maximal resolution at around f/5 so anything than a bright Newtonian will be likely over-scaling the image

Removing the lens would good for prime focus imaging, but that may not be possible. Also good storage would be required (if you want to shoot Moon or Sun then each frame is big as it has a lot of pixels) and software for easy capture of BMP or AVIs.

[Phantom]

Looks like the makers of the Pi are making the camera module without the IR filter and selling for the same price as the regular camera.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/5089