Choosing a AP camera

[George Gearless]

I'm currently using a DSLR (EOS 7D Mark I) but looking to upgrade. I have a Skywatcher Evostar 80 Pro ap-refractor and a Skywatcher Mak 180 pro. Both are used on a Skywatcher EQM-35 Pro mount.

Maybe you already see the problem here. My Evostar I use for DSO's and the Mak for planets and moon. I may upgrade it all by getting the ASiair and a miniguide-scope bundle at FLO's. But that's a seperate issue. What I am looking for is a camera that can be used both for DSO's as well as planetary/moon photography. A tall order, I know.

So the key word here is versatility. 

Right off the bat, I'm thinking colour camera. I realy would like to avoid fidgetting about with filters and wheels. Uncooled would also be a plus but not a dealbreaker. The fewer cables the better, although I aknowledge the usefulness or even the necessity of cooling. Price is a HUGE issue 😱. But, if I do make the leap, I don't want to buy something pi** cheap that my current DSLR outperforms. Then why do it all, right? ZWO seems to be the natural favorite, if I'm considering the ASiair.

Ok, so I turned to the website of my now familiar astronomy pusher, FLO. oh my! So much to choose from. But I think I've got it narrowed down to two candidates. ZWO ASI 385MC USB 3.0 Colour and ZWO ASI 178MC USB 3.0 Colour Camera.

Would either of these serve my demands for versatility? Or is that simply a game I'm bound to lose?

Also, which of the two candidates would you choose, taking the above into account? Or would you go a third way?

Here's hoping for some good inputs.

[wimvb]

On 02/06/2019 at 01:19, George Gearless said:

I'm currently using a DSLR (EOS 7D Mark I) but looking to upgrade. I have a Skywatcher Evostar 80 Pro ap-refractor and a Skywatcher Mak 180 pro. Both are used on a Skywatcher EQM-35 Pro mount.

Maybe you already see the problem here. My Evostar I use for DSO's and the Mak for planets and moon. I may upgrade it all by getting the ASiair and a miniguide-scope bundle at FLO's. But that's a seperate issue. What I am looking for is a camera that can be used both for DSO's as well as planetary/moon photography. A tall order, I know.

So the key word here is versatility. 

 if I'm considering the ASiair.

Ok, so I turned to the website of my now familiar astronomy pusher, FLO. oh my! So much to choose from. But I think I've got it narrowed down to two candidates. ZWO ASI 385MC USB 3.0 Colour and ZWO ASI 178MC USB 3.0 Colour Camera.

Would either of these serve my demands for versatility? Or is that simply a game I'm bound to lose?

Also, which of the two candidates would you choose, taking the above into account? Or would you go a third way?

On FLO's site, there is a field of view calculator. Test your camera candidates with your scopes to get an idea of what part of the sky each covers. Both cameras have small sensors, and the 385 has larger pixels than the 178. The latter may be the better camera for planets. Neither is a first choice for dso imaging. On the other hand, if you match either camera with the best optics (size wise), and choose your targets with care, you could have a lot of fun with them in both planetary and deep sky imaging. Usually Astrobin is a good place to find out how people use these cameras.

As an alternative to the ASIAIR, consider the Stellarmate. It uses the same platform, but isn't limited to zwo cameras.

Edited June 4, 2019 by wimvb

[George Gearless]

 

 

 

2

5 hours ago, wimvb said:

 

As an alternative to the ASIAIR, consider the Stellarmate. It uses the same platform, but isn't limited to zwo cameras.

I was not aware of the Stellarmate option. Think I might have been too focused on the AsiAir that I forgot that there might be good alternatives.

Luckily, time is on my side. I won't be making the purchase for another couple of months or so. So I will definitely check out the Stellarmate option as well as Astrobin.

Thanks for the pointers.

 

[rickwayne]

A hearty +1 on StellarMate. IMO a very good deal for the functionality you receive. These are a few of my favorite things...

1. Remoting in is seamless via any VNC app; I use Apple's Screen Sharing on my Mac, a VNC app on my iPad, or the StellarMate app on my phone.
2. Once configured, you never have to dink with WiFi setup. It will happily log on automatically to your home WiFi network and allow you to connect via that, or it will fail-over automatically to running its own little WiFi access point in the field, or you can plug it into Ethernet. In any case, the networking Just Works.
3. To say that KStars and especially Ekos are "full-featured" is to sell them short. My only complaint is that occasionally I have to hunt for things in the interface because that software can do so much. E.g., if your chosen camera's FOV is too small for your target, you can tell Ekos that you want to shoot a mosaic with 25% overlap and it will do the pointing and sequencing for you.
4. Polar alignment: Once you're roughly aligned, Ekos can sequence and analyze three images around the celestial pole to guide precise adjustments, á la Polemaster. I'm usually well within one minute of arc afterwards.
5. Support: I rate them good to excellent. Jasem is very knowledgable, as you'd expect, and his suggestions have always fixed my issues.

It did take me a little while to figure out a smooth workflow with the software. But now that I'm there, it's really quite nice to use.

You can buy the entire gadget from them, or you can buy your own Pi (US$35), case (<US$10), and microSD card (<US$10), and the StellarMate OS software (US$49). I already had a Pi, so that's what I did. Actually I attempted to set everything up from scratch -- it's all open source, I'm a software developer, how hard could it be? Heh. After a day of futzing with it I gladly paid the fifty bucks to get it all pre-configured for me.