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Can you recommend an excellent planetary camera and filter?


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I haven't done planets in a long time, I was using an asi120mc but that is now exclusively my guider so I need a new camera for planets, I heard they're cheaper than deep sky ones as the chips are smaller. The last great image I did is shown in my signature below, I did do mars when it was bright early this year but I want much better images. I have a 8" scope now which Is better than my previous c5. I haven't tested it on planets yet because there is non till later this year. Any Ideas on what I should go for? preferably a zwo and I would like a filter to improve the image quality if that's possible, budget 500, thanks.

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Are you wanting colour or mono camera?

Your f/8 scope with a 2x barlow will be a decent match for one of the 2.9um pixel cameras, so you got the 462 (colour) or the 290 (mono) to choose from there. The 290 also comes in colour flavour too but is slightly less impressive on paper in terms of read noise than the 462. The 462 does have quite a bit of overlap between the different colours of it's bayer matrix, which isn't bad but can lead to a distinctive colour 'look', but as always colours can be tweaked after the case. It also has excellent IR performance so is a really versatile camera in my opinion.

The 224c is no slouch either and is an excellent camera with slightly larger pixels (3.75um) and it can be had cheaply. 

To be honest any planetary camera is capable of producing top class images. On the list of 'things that will harm the quality of your images', the choice of planetary cam is pretty low down. 

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2 hours ago, CraigT82 said:

Are you wanting colour or mono camera?

Your f/8 scope with a 2x barlow will be a decent match for one of the 2.9um pixel cameras, so you got the 462 (colour) or the 290 (mono) to choose from there. The 290 also comes in colour flavour too but is slightly less impressive on paper in terms of read noise than the 462. The 462 does have quite a bit of overlap between the different colours of it's bayer matrix, which isn't bad but can lead to a distinctive colour 'look', but as always colours can be tweaked after the case. It also has excellent IR performance so is a really versatile camera in my opinion.

The 224c is no slouch either and is an excellent camera with slightly larger pixels (3.75um) and it can be had cheaply. 

To be honest any planetary camera is capable of producing top class images. On the list of 'things that will harm the quality of your images', the choice of planetary cam is pretty low down. 

Thanks, probably Monochrome, as my asi533 is a MC and I don't want to get into the whole filter wheel business, not worth it IMO for my bortle 8 zone. I used a barlow lens with my f/8 and in the images you could actually see the sensor of the camera which can probably be fixed with a good IR filter. Speaking of filters do you know any that people use that bring out the details and better contrast, It probably doesn't matter much being where I live.

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My impressions from an IMX462 are quite favourable (got the ZWO version, but I guess that most editions will be comparable).

I use the ZWO IR cut and IR 1.25" pass filters.

If you want a larger sensor, the IMX464 offers double the megapixels (and it would be very useful in Moon mosaics etc), at least Player One sell a planetary camera based on this sensor.

N.F.

 

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3 hours ago, nfotis said:

My impressions from an IMX462 are quite favourable (got the ZWO version, but I guess that most editions will be comparable).

I use the ZWO IR cut and IR 1.25" pass filters.

If you want a larger sensor, the IMX464 offers double the megapixels (and it would be very useful in Moon mosaics etc), at least Player One sell a planetary camera based on this sensor.

N.F.

 

Does it even matter if you use a 1.25" filter rather than a 2". I use 2" lenses and LP filter

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7 hours ago, Quetzalcoatl72 said:

Thanks, probably Monochrome, as my asi533 is a MC and I don't want to get into the whole filter wheel business, not worth it IMO for my bortle 8 zone. I used a barlow lens with my f/8 and in the images you could actually see the sensor of the camera which can probably be fixed with a good IR filter. Speaking of filters do you know any that people use that bring out the details and better contrast, It probably doesn't matter much being where I live.

You just need a UV/IR cut filter for taking colour images. You can also use an IR pass filter for steadying the seeing and capturing a sharper luminance channel to add to a colour image (this works very well on Saturn in particular).

The QHY version of the 462 comes with these filters in the box, not sure if the ZWO version does. 

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14 hours ago, Quetzalcoatl72 said:

Does it even matter if you use a 1.25" filter rather than a 2". I use 2" lenses and LP filter

 

If you have already a 2"  nosepiece, that's OK. You shouldn't have any trouble with 2" filters (this sensor is quite small, even in the IMX464 version)

The price of 1.25" IR cut and IR pass filters is quite reasonable. If the QHY version includes these already, that's a plus.

 

The IMX464 is quite intriguing, if you want to make Moon mosaics as well as planetary shots, I don't know if the software support is good though:

https://player-one-astronomy.com/product/neptune-c-ii-usb3-0-color-camera-imx464/

N.F.

 

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On 19/06/2021 at 21:24, nfotis said:

 

If you have already a 2"  nosepiece, that's OK. You shouldn't have any trouble with 2" filters (this sensor is quite small, even in the IMX464 version)

The price of 1.25" IR cut and IR pass filters is quite reasonable. If the QHY version includes these already, that's a plus.

 

The IMX464 is quite intriguing, if you want to make Moon mosaics as well as planetary shots, I don't know if the software support is good though:

https://player-one-astronomy.com/product/neptune-c-ii-usb3-0-color-camera-imx464/

N.F.

 

bought the asi462 and ir pass and uv filters, i wonder if the pass filter would help with imaging venus when it is bright

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8 hours ago, Quetzalcoatl72 said:

bought the asi462 and ir pass and uv filters, i wonder if the pass filter would help with imaging venus when it is bright

 

It's my understanding that only a pricey UV filter offers some detail on the disk 9f Venus, but I am not an expert on planetary imaging.

At worst, you can try to get details at infrared.

N.F.

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For Venus i have UVenus filter, and it does the job, i didn't image Venus good yet at all, but the very few times it was fine, hopefully one day with a better scope i will give the filter a go again.

I have 4 cameras for planetary, not sure if i will stop there or i keep adding more, still not sure about 462, there is another manufacturer new in the game, and there is another manufacturer which also has some models cameras for planetary but very expensive, so i am not sure what will be my next fifth and sixth planetary camera then.

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Yes Venus does require some different techniques.

It can show detail when imaged in the NIR but I've only seen that from observatory class scopes and I've certainly never managed to get any details in the NIR (685nm and 850nm longpass I've tried). This detail comes from the lower altitude clouds.

Using a UV filter you can get nice upper altitude cloud details when conditions are good. 

If the mood strikes you can average the IR and UV captures to create a green channel, and then combine the three with IR as red and UV as blue. 

Here is an example from last year with a 220mm scope.

9FWsh5Rf5B6e_1824x0_ZUvMccD7.jpg

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