ZWO Colour camera

[xelasnave]

I am thinking before going narrow band which I cant see happening for a long time....to get a colour zwo maybe cooled on the unsupported assumption that it would be as good or better than a modded dslr and to get to work with the lap top and auto guide as a next step...maybe when going to narrow band use it as a guide camera...I am assuming I wont go off axis guided...
Any comments?
Alex

[Camelopardalis]

Alex, a cooled camera such as those from ZWO certainly give you more consistent performance throughout the year, and eases calibration.

For OSC, I believe that currently the ASI294MC is the pick of the crop from a sensitivity point of view. It has a comparable sensor size to the 1600 models, and so is more of a square-ish image than Canon/Nikon.

I’d imagine you might get good results if you can nail round stars with 2 minute exposures unguided, but I’m not certain.

Would certainly be overkill for a guide cam :lol:

[xelasnave]

Thank you Dunk.
Alex

[Imme]

I went from a dslr to an old qhy8.....like chalk and cheese Alex, extraordinary difference.....I wouldn’t go back.
There is a small learning curve but it’s well worth it

[xelasnave]

Thanks Jon.
So you can do straight colour and better results?
Whats your choice for a good just colour zwo...I have a little one so the next camera needs to be colour coordinated☺
A cooled one but not narrow band yet.
Alex

[LewisM]

Some of us don't have the luxury of 15 hrs on one target, so I find OSC is great for the 2 to 3 hrs I do on a target, purely for MY satisfaction.

I have had mono CCD's over the years, but I always come back to OSC - the couple hours I get a month are important to me, so if I can get RGB in ONE shot, then fantastic.

[ChrisV]

I've had a modded dslr (Canon 550d) and now the asi071 cooled camera. The dslr can give great shots - but the cooled is so much easier and less noisy. Is it worth the the extra $$? I don't know for sure - but I took the plunge as I also do live imaging so wanted a low noise OSC camera.

If I had my time again ? Maybe get all I could out of a dslr them go mono with filters. Maybe ... it's a tough question.

If looking at cooled colour cameras the asi294 looks nice. Sensor is a bit smaller than a dslr - but it has nice specs

[xelasnave]

Now that I have two mounts and soon I will have them set up in semi permant situations I can see having two cameras running dslr and a colour camera.
Imaging time is precious so two objects a night...I only get an hour here ...
What about the ASI 183 MC Pro ???
It has 20 meg I think and about $1200 ...is it better than the 294 Pro Cooled Colour ??
Even if I go narrow band U could see still using a colour camera.
Maybe you could merge data from two scopes...that would help...mmmm maybe another couple of mounts and scopes and cameras and a giant computer to stack...

Alex

[Imme]

I'm no professional Alex......however I think my next purchase will be the 1600 OSC.....I believe they get good enough detail for me. They are only a little more expensive than the 183 but do have greater well depth I believe (15K V 20K)......although lower Megapxels count on the 1600


......looking at the options just confuses me to be honest!

[Camelopardalis]

It so,what depends on your focal length Alex.

Both the 183 and 294 utilise fundamentally the same technology developed by Sony to yield such sensitivity. The main difference is the pixel size. You’d certainly want longer exposures with the smaller pixels. The 183 is also a much smaller sensor, about 1/4 of an APS-C DSLR, and consequently smaller field of view (at a given focal length)

For longer focal lengths, longer than about 800mm, I’d say go for the 294. Below that it’ll depend on what you’re after. The 183 may give you more detail, but it will depend on the object and how good your seeing conditions are.

I use a 1600 mono as I live in the city, so narrowband is important to me. For colour pictures from a dark site, I’d probably go for the 294.

[Camelopardalis]

The difference in well capacity is largely insignificant since both the 1600 and 183 have 12-bit readout == 4096 values. This is less than the well depth in both cases.

The 294 has a higher well capacity, but more importantly a 14-bit readout to go with it. The well capacity is still larger than the readout resolution, but it still gives the 294 potentially larger dynamic range on a single frame basis.