Camera choice

[Matt S]

I’m trying to decide what I should pursue in terms of a camera for planets. I was considering the ASI-224MC, but I’ve been wondering if I’d actually be better off putting a little more money into it and going for a ASI-678MC instead.

Largely I’m thinking the increased resolution (3840x2160 vs 1280x960) would actually give me some larger images I can better crop/scale once I’ve got the data.

For reference I’d be adding this to the back of a Skymax-127, so not the biggest aperture. I’ve not tried it with a dedicated Astro camera yet, so I’m wondering if there are any gotchas I need to be aware of (I’ve seen it used with lower resolution ASI cameras).

Does anyone have any advice on if it should work ok (i.e. I’m going to be able to fill the frame/sensor ok?).

 

 

[Elp]

A smaller sensor would actually give you a "larger" picture, in speech marks because there's less pixels so it fills the frame more. Most people use Barlow lenses to make the planets larger on the sensor too. It's your glass optics which will determine the scale/resolution of the detail you can resolve paired with its focal length for how close it will be. Usually the planet will be so small you'll be cropping a lot of it anyway or using region of interest via software to make the resolution smaller and frame rate faster. The 224 is a capable camera, I use it a lot despite having higher resolution cameras to use.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Elp

[Clarkey]

As @Elp states the 224 is a capable camera and many planetary imagers still use it. The smaller pixels on the 678 may mean you don't really need a barlow with the Mak - so the savings on the that will slightly offset the camera cost.

At the end of the day there are so many options.... Just to confuse things more here is a good summary of the ZWO range. Might be worth a read:

Agena AstroProducts Guide to ZWO Astronomy Cameras

 

[ollypenrice]

Resolution is not measured in pixel count. It is measured in arcseconds per pixel. That's to say, how many arcseconds of sky land on each pixel. Less sky per pixel means higher resolution (all being equal...) If the optical train is a constant, that means that the only variable is pixel size.  If you have larger pixels it doesn't matter how many of them you have, they will give you lower resolution.

Olly

Edited October 1, 2022 by ollypenrice
typo