Turning off noise cancellation/reduction

[SteveBz]

Hello Guys,

I have a cheap Chinese cam technically called a "Bosma TCE-200 CCD 2MP Camera", but as it's generic, you find it with all sorts of names.  It images at up to 1600x1200px.  It's called a planet cam, but really it should be called a bright cam.  It's not planets it images, but bright things.  If I look at a patch of sky with a 20mm Plossl, I get a rich field of stars.  If I switch to the cam, I just get the brightest star.

After a little research it appears the criminal is Noise Reduction (NR).

Is there anyway of switching off NR on a standard cam?

Regards

Steve

[Cornelius Varley]

1 hour ago, SteveBz said:

Hello Guys,

I have a cheap Chinese cam technically called a "Bosma TCE-200 CCD 2MP Camera", but as it's generic, you find it with all sorts of names.  It images at up to 1600x1200px.  It's called a planet cam, but really it should be called a bright cam.  It's not planets it images, but bright things.  If I look at a patch of sky with a 20mm Plossl, I get a rich field of stars.  If I switch to the cam, I just get the brightest star.

After a little research it appears the criminal is Noise Reduction (NR).

Is there anyway of switching off NR on a standard cam?

Regards

Steve

Something you take into consideration are the different requirements for planetary and DSO imaging. Planet are quite bright compared to stars and only need short exposures. DSOs, including most stars, are not very bright and need much longer exposures to capture an image. The Bosma camera is probably also sold under various guises, including microscope photography, so won't be suitable for long exposure DSO photography, or even sensitive enough to capture anything except planets and the brighter stars.

[SteveBz]

Thanks for your reply.  It has sharpness and gain settings.  I wondered if this would do anything.  eg sharpness off and gain high. What do you think?

[Stub Mandrel]

Try it on Mars and Saturn before they disappear for the Autumn. use sharpcap so you can play with the settings. you may be pleasantly surprised.