New Web Cam

[oshb5]

Hello All

i have a friend who livers in Canada and he sent me this link of a new 3 mega pixel CCD Color Imager he has just got . Its

Canadian Telescopes 3 Megapixel Planetary CCD Color Imager

And here is a couple of photos one from the SoHo pro (expencive between $7000-$9000) and one from this camera.$199 Looks very impressive.dont it. Maybe a lttle less light but hey for that amount of price differance. Infact so much so iv asked the Canadian Co If and how much it would cost to send one over here. If they wont or its to much My friend well get it and send me one. But yes it looks rearly wotyj the mony..

http://www.videoastronomy.net/sun2.htm

Andy

P.S. Im not sure if the $199 is in American or Canadian dollars? i will ask

[Peter Drew]

I've had similar images to those with a 60mm refractor and a £20 Maplins b/w board camera. I don't think the capabilities of the expensive camera are being overpressed on that particular image. .

[paler31]

It looks pretty good but It is being billed as a planetary imager I would like to see how it performs on less bright objects. It may be good as a cheap guide camera also.

[oshb5]

Well iv just found out it is Canadian dollars but today £1 CD = the same as $1 US So its Just $199 whichever dollars LOL Iv also asked Mitch (my friend if he would take some photos or video and i can then place them on here or at least a link to them.. He said any requests?

Apparently the place he got his from is at the moment swamped with emails about the cams which will be why i have had no reply back as yet about the postage...

Andy

[oshb5]

Iv just found out that its Canadian Telescopes that have actually designed and had these cameras built to their specification Also after my friend has used it for a few days he is going to get some photos of the moon a couple of planets and a couple of clusters He will then send them to me unless i download them from his nightly live transmission of the night sky weather permiting that is.

[lukebl]

It looks rather good. The pixel size is nearly half that of the Phillips webcam, which surely means much sharper images for planetary imaging. Are they available anywhere else?

[jayjt29]

Will be watching this one..

Jay

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

My concern is that it is a CMOS sensor. This has about 50-60% fill factor, and therefore loses out to a CCD (95-100% fill factor). This means that less of the surface area is actually sensitive to light. Sharpness is not really an issue in planetary imaging, since at F/20-F/25 I am sampling at the Nyquist frequency in most web cams, or optimal sampling frequency of the optics. If I go higher, I do not gain much detail, but instead am smearing the image out over a larger number of pixels, increasing photon noise per pixel. This would mean lower frame rates, which is the last thing I want.

Conversely, I could drop to imaging at F/10-F/15, but then I am just using a huge sensor with a little dot on it. Given the reduction in fill factor compared to the SPC900, you would still need to drop the frame rate by 40-50%: not nice! Besides, you produce HUGE files, mainly filled with a black background, which slows processing down. You would then probably use castrator or a similar program to get rid of the excess baggage.

Where it would be useful is on the sun and moon, where imaging at lower F-ratio with a big sensor means capturing more of the surface in one go. Both have photon fluxes high enough not to need too much sensitivity.

[oshb5]

Hi All

Update Iv just ordered one today It could either come via UPS at $140 or Canada post at $80 You can guess which i opted for The overhaul total came in at a cost of £179.54 which i thought was not bad at all considering. Even if duty has to be paid when it gets here.

Bad part is although i will get to have a play its not for me its for a friend who is not happy with ordering online But at laest i can borrow it now and then so can see how it performs

Andy