My first time using my cheap ccd

[lynk1973]

I thought I would buy a cheap ccd camera to see how it would go.. below are some shots of Jupiter tonight (10/05/2017) from Farnham, Surrey, UK

For £50 camera attached to my Skywatcher 127... Thats me now hooked on astrophotography... This is gonna get expensive (for the wife)

[lynk1973]

I know the quality is not great... but for £50 its fantastic... way above my expectations

[michael8554]

Nice start lynk.

First expense for the wife should be a 3X Barlow.

Michael

[Andywilliams]

I was going to ask whether you had a Barlow attached to get this image.....presumably a 3X Barlow will make the image of Jupiter a lot larger in the frame? 

[lynk1973]

the 3rd image was with the x2 barlow... I didnt get the x3 out

 

[bobro]

Excuse me asking, but isn't a CCD camera very light sensitive and this isn't required for bright Jupiter? Perhaps you have another use planned for the camera?

[jambouk]

Nice work. Always rewarding to see bands on Jupiter, you are clearly doing something right

What is the make and model of the camera? Is it a CCD or is it a CMOS sensor? Most planetary cameras, capable of taking relatively rapid frame rates, are CMOS, CCDs usually have a slower read out time so the frame rates achieved are often much less.

With regards the comment above about CCDs being very light sensitive, this is partly correct, but... Traditionally CCDs were more light sensitive (higher quantum efficiency (QE)) than CMOS sensors, but things are changing. The reason why CCDs are traditionally used for fainter objects is to do with the inherent noise when taking an image. CMOS sensors have in the past been quite noisy, so any good data (photons from the target object) is lost amongst a load of unwanted noise; CCDs have had less noise for various reasons so they have been favoured for the signal to noise ratio they can achieve over CMOS sensors. The whole thing about noise in CCDs and CMOS is a massive topic in itself but a fascinating one. With bright targets like Jupiter there is lots of signal and so generally this overcomes the noise anyway, but also because planets and the Moon are more susceptible to the adverse effects of ‘seeing’ and there are benefits in having a rapid frame rate camera anyway which is where CMOS excel over CCD...

Anyway, cracking images, well done

James

 

[lynk1973]

Sorry, my bad its a CMOS

Bresser Full HD (1080p) USB 2.0 Microscope Telescope camera