ASI585MC for deep sky?

[BlackNebula (Mark)]

Hey everyone,

Posing a question here, I am looking for a dedicated Astro cam for deep sky. Considering the ever present budgeting constraints I have seen some decent reviews and dabbling with the 585 for DSO’s.

It has zero amp glo, low read noise, high QE, not a half bad sensor size for a planetary camera etc. Would these features not reduce noise a bit at least from the warmer sensor if I look at exposures between 60s - 180s? Also well suited to my SW Evostar ED80, sampling is good with and without a reducer. And framing seems pretty decent on a fair amount of deep sky objects.

Now, no cooling of course and yes a smaller sensor but certainly will fit a good number of smaller to medium DSO’s and galaxies.

Should I rather look at a used cooled camera, first prize is 533MC Pro, then 294MC or the 183MC Pro? Or would this be a good starting point? Any advice welcome

[Startrek (Martin)]

My advice is be patient , save your pennies and buy a cooled camera if your serious about getting into long exposure deep sky imaging. Thermal noise or dark current from cameras has a detrimental effect on SNR and can only be mitigated with cooling
Yes you can use the 585MC ( Planetary camera ) if your nights are below 16C all year round ( and even then pushing 3 or 5 min subs will have significant noise) or you just want to do lucky imaging ( short exposures of 10 to 30 sec ) or EAA. I call this scenario “restricted” long exposure Astrophotography.Cameras are designed and used for specific purposes, the 585MC is a planetary camera not a bonafide deep sky camera for long exposure AP

I used a DSLR in my Newts for 3 years and struggled with so much noise , mainly thermal noise with those longer subs ( 2 min and above ) Updated to the 2600MC and it opened up a whole new world in Astrophotography, chalk and cheese

Go cooled you will not regret it

Hopefully other folk offer similar advice

Good luck !!

Cheers

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Before La Niña turned yet another sour, I had bought a Player One Uranus-C and got to experiment with it for a few nights. It has the same IMX585 sensor. I primarily bought it for planetary but the specs led me to try it for EAA too.

It’s really quite sensitive. My test scope was ~f/4 so my exposures were 30s or less. I didn’t bother using calibration frames, but you could, with a little extra effort. I had a good bit of fun with it.

I chose the Player One as it looked like they paid a bit more attention to thermals, and the camera appeared to track about 5C above ambient. I haven’t had a chance to try it during summer temps yet.

The sensor is basically a 4K security camera sensor, with the widescreen as-ect ratio. The 533 models are a couple of hundred US$ more but the sensor is almost double the size. A couple hundred more gets you a cooled camera, which means you can make calibration frames and be more rigorous. It depends how serious you want to get!

You make your choice, you hand over your hard earned

[BlackNebula (Mark)]

Thanks for the advice, I guess deep down I know what you are saying makes perfect sense. Cooled will always be better for LE Astro, being in Perth summer nights are 20+ so no joy there and it rains in winter, nice��. I think the advice is sound, rather wait and get a cooled camera later. I totally get the fact that you can setup a library of calibration frames at specific temps etc. Will make the whole process that much easier! And sensor size to boot.