Camera for Astro Imaging

[keramos]

Hello,

Long time reader but first time poster.

I intend to buy a camera so that I can take pictures of the planets and the sun, moon and hopefully as I gain experience more objects in space. I cant seem to decide which camera to buy, lots of posts but still confused.

To be honest I don't understand what I should be looking for in a Planetary Camera.

My budget is ~ £300, but I would prefer a camera that is supported on Mac.

KIT

Celestron SCT Nexstar 6 SE

Nikon D3300

Thousand Oaks H-alpha & ERF

Baader Solar Filter

Mac Book Pro

Guidance will be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[PeterCPC]

Lots of people use the ZWO ASI120 Planetary cameras which comes in your budget but I understand that they run on Windows. You could install Windows on your Mac and this would give you more options.

Peter

[lensman57]

Hello,

Long time reader but first time poster.

I intend to buy a camera so that I can take pictures of the planets and the sun, moon and hopefully as I gain experience more objects in space. I cant seem to decide which camera to buy, lots of posts but still confused.

To be honest I don't understand what I should be looking for in a Planetary Camera.

My budget is ~ £300, but I would prefer a camera that is supported on Mac.

KIT

Celestron SCT Nexstar 6 SE

Nikon D3300

Thousand Oaks H-alpha & ERF

Baader Solar Filter

Mac Book Pro

Guidance will be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

HI and welcome,

You need a planetary camera/ " webcam". The faster and more sensitive the better. With your budget two names come to mind. ZWO ASI 120 either MM or MC and the QHYLII either Mono or Colour this is the same for the ASI 120 MM is the mono one and MC is the colour camera. The compatibility of the drivers with Mac OS is a problem though as most imagers are on the Windows OS. There is also the Celestron NexImage camera that is well within your budget but not very popular judging by the amount of images that I have seen taken by it, there are very few. So you have some decisions to make, which camera first, then Mono or Colour and then you need to think of the operating system compatibility. Most of the image capture and processing are free but again these are by far for the Windows OS.

A.G

PS: You will soon find that your choice of target is realistically limited to the Sun, Moon, Jupiter , Saturn and Mars depending on the time of the year and their relative positions to earth.

[Davey-T]

Have a look at this thread, oaCapture by James F of this forum, I use it on MB Pro, think it supports QHY don't know about ASI. you could post in the topic to find out.

Dave

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/244564-oacapture-050-release/page-2?hl=%2Boacapture#entry2697244

[Owmuchonomy]

As above but does your Nikon have video capability? If so, you have the option to experiment with that first. I use a Canon 60D and 600D and my MacBook Air. Examples of planetary/solar on my webpage below. The 60D in my case has superior video capability to the 600D but both capable.

[beamer3.6m]

How about a cheap webcam to allow you to dip your toe in to the imaging waters.

SPC900NC which has been lx modded is useful as you can do both planetary and DSO - within limits.

Not sure if they work on MAC though.

There is one in the classifieds section.

[keramos]

Thank you all for the responses,

Well looks like I have some more researching to do.

To be honest I've just started off, and am having few issues with observing. Buying a cheaper webcam as suggested by beamer3.6m is not a bad idea, just to test the waters.

However thank you for all the responses 

[lensman57]

Thank you all for the responses,

Well looks like I have some more researching to do.

To be honest I've just started off, and am having few issues with observing. Buying a cheaper webcam as suggested by beamer3.6m is not a bad idea, just to test the waters.

However thank you for all the responses 

Cheap is good if you could get it to work properly but it can also put you off imaging for good.

A.G

[riklaunim]

No-name and alike cheap webcams have 90% to being unusable even with SharpCap. The best way is stick to proven models like MS Lifecam Cinema/Studio - but you will have to modify those for astro use (remove lens etc.). Dedicated cameras like ASI120 or QHY5L-II are ready to use without modifications. They cost more but offer much more control options and can do more in imaging.

Depends what image quality you are targeting