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Recommendations for beginning planetary imaging

mwayne

By mwayne
in Getting Started With Imaging

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mwayne

mwayne

Posted
Posted

Need some advice from seasoned planetary imagers please, for a beginner, between the choice of the Celestron Neximage or the Orion Starshoot cameras which would be the better choice? The focal length of my scope is 1000 mm, how much do I need to extend this with a Barlow?

Thanks, Mike

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JamesF

JamesF

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Posted

You don't say which of the Neximage cameras you were talking about, but from that range the Burst C is probably the one to have for planetary imaging.  However, there are a number cameras on the market based around the same AR0130 colour sensor including both the USB2 and USB3 models of the ZWO ASI120MC.  They're all worth considering.  My preference is probably for the ASI120, but I've not tried them all.

As regards barlows, the focal length is mostly irrelevant.  Ideally you want to optimise the focal ratio and that's dependent on the pixel size of the camera you eventually choose.  Any camera based on the AR0130 is going to have a 3.75um pixel size suggesting that somewhere in the region of f/20 is where you want to be.  A reasonable rule of thumb is that you want the focal ratio to be five to six times the pixel size in um.

"The daddy" of planetary imaging at the moment appears to be the ASI224MC, but that's more expensive.  Despite that I think it's probably comparatively cheap when comparing its performance against other cameras.

James

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miafey

miafey

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Posted

Did you mean the QHY5L-II rather than the QHY5-II ?

James

Sorry my bad - their naming system always drives me crazy. 

Yes I meant QHY5L-II which has both color and mono versions. QHY5-II has only mono version I think. 

Mia

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mwayne

mwayne

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As regards barlows, the focal length is mostly irrelevant. Ideally you want to optimise the focal ratio and that's dependent on the pixel size of the camera you eventually choose. Any camera based on the AR0130 is going to have a 3.75um pixel size suggesting that somewhere in the region of f/20 is where you want to be. A reasonable rule of thumb is that you want the focal ratio to be five to six times the pixel size in um.

James

If I understand correctly since my scope is f5 then ideally I need a 4x Barlow to achieve f20.

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D4N

D4N

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Remember that a Barlow won't always give its exact multiplier when used with a camera. Depending on the design the spacing between the Barlow and the camera can greatly effect the resultant focal ratio.

I believe Televue publish data on what multiplication factor different spacing will give but not all manufacturers are so forthcoming.

/Dan

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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jimbo747

jimbo747

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The image I took in my profile was with a £5 PS3 eye cam and a cheap £20 2x barlow, with my 127 Mak. Bought a QHY5L but not had chance to try it out on planets. The eye cam is superb for the price, decent sensitivity, well built and high frame rate. I doubt the qhy will do much better.

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JamesF

JamesF

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This animation was created from images captured using an ASI120MC, 127 Mak and a sub-£40 barlow, so I'd expect the QHY5L-II to be able to achieve something similar.

jupiter-anim.gif

This one is the same camera and barlow (as far as I recall), but in the C9.25

jupiter-2014-03-04-03.png

James

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