deep sky and planetary camera

[stevie1980]

hi guys. 

ive always wondered if there is a cheapish camera out there that will do both astrophotography aswel as for viewing and making short clips of the moon and planets. i dont want to waste money on a dslr to then have to mod it for AP. so is there a camera  that will do both so i havnt got to buy a dslr.im using a 200pSW flextube goto

many thanks peeps.

zwo.?

opticstar.?

bresser? n so on...

Edited April 19, 2020 by stevie1980

[Freddie]

Do you mean do both well or do both ok. Plenty will do both ok, none will do both well.

[vlaiv]

There actually are couple of them that would be good in dual role, I'll list them in descending order:

ASI294

ASI533

ASI183 (color model, or even mono model, but I prefer color model for planetary imaging).

For DSO astrophotograpy - you want larger sensor and cooled model (or rather set point temperature model). Good QE and low read noise is shared requirement for both types of imaging.

Pixel size is not that important - you'll increase focal length with barlows for planetary and you should match pixel size primarily for DSO AP.

For planetary you want fast download rates and ROI functionality.

 

[stevie1980]

Just now, Freddie said:

Do you mean do both well or do both ok. Plenty will do both ok, none will do both well.

yes im looking at an opticstar px 75c for planetary use but more for AP. i used to use the zwo 120mc but never tried it for AP

[vlaiv]

2 minutes ago, Freddie said:

Do you mean do both well or do both ok. Plenty will do both ok, none will do both well.

I don't think that is particularly true - last bit.

Let's take ASI294MC-pro. It's not mono camera + filters, but many people are rather happy doing DSO AP with this chip - certainly beats DSLR. It is fairly large as well - 23.2mm diagonal. Good camera for DSO imaging.

Let's see how good it is for planetary:

Read noise very decent at 300-350 gain - about 1.2-1.3e.

QE is to be determined, but I think it is about 75-80%

Frame rates are not stellar, but fairly decent. At 320x240 ROI, you can almost go full speed at 6ms exposure

 

[stevie1980]

Just now, vlaiv said:

There actually are couple of them that would be good in dual role, I'll list them in descending order:

ASI294

ASI533

ASI183 (color model, or even mono model, but I prefer color model for planetary imaging).

For DSO astrophotograpy - you want larger sensor and cooled model (or rather set point temperature model). Good QE and low read noise is shared requirement for both types of imaging.

Pixel size is not that important - you'll increase focal length with barlows for planetary and you should match pixel size primarily for DSO AP.

For planetary you want fast download rates and ROI functionality.

 

brill i will take a look, cant wait to see the prices lol

[vlaiv]

1 minute ago, stevie1980 said:

brill i will take a look, cant wait to see the prices lol

I would say comparable to modded DSLR?

Uncooled ASI294 is £718 which is ok for planetary but I would seriously recommend you to go for cooled model for dual role. Cooled ASI294mc-pro is £1000.

[stevie1980]

Just now, vlaiv said:

I would say comparable to modded DSLR?

Uncooled ASI294 is £718 which is ok for planetary but I would seriously recommend you to go for cooled model for dual role. Cooled ASI294mc-pro is £1000.

cheers for info, but i cant bring myself to pay that much for something that costs as much or more than my scope, in theory would a cheeper £200 cam do the job, obviously not nearly as good as the ones yo mentioned?  bt can it be done?

[vlaiv]

17 minutes ago, stevie1980 said:

cheers for info, but i cant bring myself to pay that much for something that costs as much or more than my scope, in theory would a cheeper £200 cam do the job, obviously not nearly as good as the ones yo mentioned?  bt can it be done?

Not sure if you can do what you imagined on such a budget.

You could however do it both on a slightly bigger budget. Purchase planetary camera for ~ £200 - like this one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi224mc-usb-3-colour-camera.html

Which is btw, probably one of the best planetary cameras available - it has ~ 0.8e read noise, 75% QE and very fast frame rates - over 200fps.

Then look for second hand Canon 450D or similar for deep sky. You can use above ASI224 with small finder scope as guide camera - so you can have guiding with minimal investment (you probably have finder - you only need adapter to mount ASI224 on it).

[stevie1980]

Just now, vlaiv said:

Not sure if you can do what you imagined on such a budget.

You could however do it both on a slightly bigger budget. Purchase planetary camera for ~ £200 - like this one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi224mc-usb-3-colour-camera.html

Which is btw, probably one of the best planetary cameras available - it has ~ 0.8e read noise, 75% QE and very fast frame rates - over 200fps.

Then look for second hand Canon 450D or similar for deep sky. You can use above ASI224 with small finder scope as guide camera - so you can have guiding with minimal investment (you probably have finder - you only need adapter to mount ASI224 on it).

ive just been looking at a 450d and decided to buy it as its less than £80 with only 4400 odd shots. i will give my local TS store a call in morning and get the 224mc,cheers for the help,much appreciated