ZWO Now selling INFRARED cameras?! Can we even use them?

[pipnina]

It's kinda freaky that I was looking at cameras capable of seeing further into the IR than our normal CMOS/CCDs (that almost vanish by 1000nm even on the most sensitive), going from google search to search, only finding cameras intended for military or industrial use.

And today I look at FLO and see... ZWO have released a SWIR camera which is sensitive from 400 to 1700nm! This means we could use our ground based scopes to observe the Paschen hydrogen lines (2 of 3 anyway), both iron emission lines (1.2 microns ish and 1.64 microns ish) and in general we can add to our planetary observations (jupiter for example, as well as see through some nebulae and create more variety in our colour pallets!

It is a tiny sensor mind you, only 3.6x2.4mm, but maybe some focal reducers can help us out?

What do you guys think?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi-990mm-pro-swir-short-wave-infrared-dso-cooled-camera.html

[scotty38]

You might want to check the prices before you get too excited 🙂 🙂

£15k and £30k roughly from what I've seen....

[pipnina]

Good lord, not a small tag then!

FLO wasn't listing a price so I was still hopeful it wouldn't be too unreasonable haha.

[scotty38]

Admittedly QHY versions but I can't imagine ZWO being any cheaper:

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/cameras/qhyccd-kameras/scientific-cameras/swir-qhy-990-and-swir-qhy991.html

 

[wimvb]

On 19/09/2022 at 00:46, scotty38 said:

You might want to check the prices before you get too excited 🙂 🙂

£15k and £30k roughly from what I've seen....

Still, a lot cheaper than that other IR camera hanging in the sky. But 15k is more than I’m willing to spend.

On 19/09/2022 at 00:41, pipnina said:

It's kinda freaky that I was looking at cameras capable of seeing further into the IR than our normal CMOS/CCDs (that almost vanish by 1000nm even on the most sensitive), going from google search to search, only finding cameras intended for military or industrial use.

And today I look at FLO and see... ZWO have released a SWIR camera which is sensitive from 400 to 1700nm! This means we could use our ground based scopes to observe the Paschen hydrogen lines (2 of 3 anyway), both iron emission lines (1.2 microns ish and 1.64 microns ish) and in general we can add to our planetary observations (jupiter for example, as well as see through some nebulae and create more variety in our colour pallets!

It is a tiny sensor mind you, only 3.6x2.4mm, but maybe some focal reducers can help us out?

What do you guys think?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi-990mm-pro-swir-short-wave-infrared-dso-cooled-camera.html

These cameras will need to have good cooling to work. The longer the wavelength, the more interference from heat and the higher internal losses.

Edited September 23, 2022 by wimvb

[robin_astro]

21 minutes ago, wimvb said:

These cameras will need to have good cooling to work. The longer the wavelength, the more interference from heat and the higher internal losses.

The other problem for deep sky work is the sky is pretty bright at these sorts of wavelengths from atmospheric OH airglow (see plot at bottom here)

https://sites.bu.edu/murdock-hart/airglow/

I already see it in my faint object spectra above ~7000A (examples on pages 8/9 here)

http://www.threehillsobservatory.co.uk/astro/ALPY200_VdS_BAAVSS_poster_2014.pdf

but it gets much worse beyond that

Cheers

Robin

Edited September 23, 2022 by robin_astro

[wimvb]

@robin_astro interesting references. Thanks

[DaveS]

There was another thread on the subject here

Similar conclusions.