Camera for close up lunar

[PatrickO]

I've now got a Celestron Nexstar 4se which I want to use for close up moon photography.

I had originally thought to use the ZWO ASI224MC. However, I've noticed there are several other ZWO cameras for £200 to £300.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what would be the best camera to use with the Nexstar 4se for lunar close ups?

I might try some Jupiter and Saturn imaging in the future. Not planning on any DSO.

 

[vlaiv]

ASI662 or ASI585 would suit you well without use of any barlow - just directly attached to said scope.

Get ASI662 if budget is limited, or get ASI585 if you want to get larger part of the moon in single go.

Both will work well for smaller targets as you can set ROI to wanted size, but ASI585 has larger sensor which means larger part of the moon in single go (if that is important to you).

[PatrickO]

7 hours ago, vlaiv said:

ASI662 or ASI585 would suit you well without use of any barlow - just directly attached to said scope.

Get ASI662 if budget is limited, or get ASI585 if you want to get larger part of the moon in single go.

Both will work well for smaller targets as you can set ROI to wanted size, but ASI585 has larger sensor which means larger part of the moon in single go (if that is important to you).

Thanks!

What is ROI?

[andy fearn]

Hi Patrick, it's region of interest.

[bosun21]

I would also go for the 585MC. It will allow you to photograph a larger area of the moon at a higher resolution. It will also provide frame rates up to 200fps using the ROI when capturing the planets.

[vlaiv]

10 hours ago, PatrickO said:

Thanks!

What is ROI?

As have been said above - ROI stands for region of interest.

It is handy little feature where you can select only part of the sensor to image with. This reduces the size of the image captured but allows for much higher transfer speeds. USB connection can sometimes be bottle neck when imaging and you simply can't transfer data fast enough, even if using fast USB 3.0 connection.

Planets like Jupiter and Saturn are very small on sensor so it does not make much sense to capture whole frame unless you want to say capture Jupiter with its moons - something like 640x480 or 800x600 is more than enough.

Anyways - if you check specifications for camera on ZWO website - you will find some ROI settings and associated max fps:

This is from ASI178mc

It looks like they stopped doing this for new models as it is now "common knowledge".

[PatrickO]

Brilliant explanation. Thanks.