ASI120mc vs. ASI290mc

[Hawkeye164]

I have a 8 inch dob and want to image the planets. How much better is The ASI290mc from the asi120mc? Is it worth it to spend the $300 for the 290 or should I just get the 120?

 

thanks 

[david_taurus83]

I have an ASI120 and had a brief try at Jupiter this summer with poor results but as a result of my inexperience. Its a very popular choice for lunar and planetary as well as a guide camera. The 290 is probably a better camera but you might be better off with the 120 and using the saving in cash to buy a good quality barlow lens like a Powermate as its all about long focal lengths.

 

 

[Demonperformer]

You are not going to find it easy to image the planets with either camera through a dob. You will need to get good at tracking manually while not looking through the eyepiece! (Either use your finder or the image on the laptop screen.) This isn't to say that you should not try, but be aware of the frustrations you are likely to face while learning this skill. Planetary imaging is largely dependent upon taking a lot (in the thousands) of short images as a video and processing the best ones (which the software selects automatically).

In light of this, I would also go for the 120. If it all goes pear-shaped, you have spent less (and the 120 probably has a larger second-hand market). If you decide imaging is your thing and you upgrade your gear to that end, the 120 is a popular camera for guiding, so it won't go to waste.

The 120 is quite a capable camera for lunar and planetary.

[SIDO]

You could build a barn door tracker for your dob, these are typically constructed from wood and take limited diy skills to produce. The upside to this is it is cheap to build and will make your dob very functional for planetary and somewhat functional for shorter exposure dso narrowfield but for larger dso or wide field you would be better off with a ed or triplet shorter focus refractor on a sturdy equatorial mount. But indeed on the cheap with an asi120 and a little diy one could certainly get some great planetary images with an 8" dob. Your dobs aperture makes it good for planets, I would not use a planetary web style camera without tracking for planets though...unless you like frustration.

Hope this helps, Best of luck ?

 

                          Freddie...

 

 

 

 

 

[fwm891]

An EQ platform would give you circa 1 hour of reasonable tracking with a dob. Just about to build one for a 10-inch Dob. Plenty of examples simple/complex with a google search typical site: http://www.reinervogel.net/index_e.html?/Plattform/plattform_VNS_e.html

Good for visual as well.