ZWO ASI224MC vs ZWO ASI178MC

[Aussie Dave]

I've come so close to clicking on the Buy It Now button on ebay numerous times it's not funny. I was set on getting the 224MC but I'm now leaning towards the 178MC mainly because of it being 6.4mp for bigger resolution for all sky work. The reason for this is apart from lunar, solar and some planetary at a lower res, I would like to do wider field all sky work, star trails, capturing satellites, shooting objects and perhaps the ISS.

My questions are, has anyone used the 178MC for all sky work? Does it pick up the fainter stars or just medium to bright stars?

If there is anyone that has attempted all sky, could you please post your examples of what it can achieve.

Cheers.

[Layton]

I live is a light polluted area so planetary imaging is about all I get to do but the 178 does take some nice images.  I've tried M42 but there's just too much light in my area.  Here's an example of Jupiter with Io and Europa.  I'm hoping to get out to some dark skies in a couple of weeks and I'll try some all sky with it and post the results.

edt: I just noticed I picked up one of the fainter moons.  Not sure which one but that's a good omen i guess for some dark sky work.

 

[SkyGibbon]

The 178 is going to be a large image scale due to pixel size. It is a very nice camera and is great for shorter focal length scopes to get the image scale up. It is definitely not the quickest of cams though as far as solar system imaging. I really like the camera at the end of the day.

 

Here is the image scale on a DS-60 with the 178, No reducer, barlow, etc for the Mercury transit.

 

And Jupiter through an Edge 8"

 

 

 

A good thing to do is download ccd calculator and view different objects with each camera and see what image scale you like.

Or go to

http://www.blackwaterskies.co.uk/p/imagingtoolbox.html

Insert appropiate numbers and see what scale you like.