For Sale: Astrovid PAL Colour Planetcam

[arafura]

Hi, I am selling a couple of excellent astrovideo CCD cameras.
This one is the Astrovid Colour Plantcam.
See the review in Sky and Telescope Aug 2001 p55-59.

- 480 line high resolution
- manual gain control
- Gamma (contrast) control
- smooth/sharpen enhancements
- colour balance control
- 1/4" format 480 line high resolution
- 1.0 Lux Sony Interline-Transfer CCD
- Auto - shutter /Manual Low and High shutter speeds
- c to 1.25" adapter, 25 feet of video cable, 12 volt power supply included
- PAL version (220v 50hz CCIR European standard)
- also included is the excellent book: Video Astronomy by Steve Massey, Thomas Dobbins & Eric Douglas. Published 2000.

Sale price $385 + shipping from Darwin

Contact: alanb123@aapt.net.au

[iceman]

Hi Arafura.

How does this differ from a ToUcam? It looks to have rougly the same specs, with the exception of the included video cable and 12v power supply.. ?

[arafura]

Hi Mike,
I have never used the Phillip's ToUcam but it is quite popular.
The ToUCam is designed as a consumer based webcam, therefore it may require some modification to adapt it for astrovideography. It also uses a USB cable which simplifies cabling somewhat. The CCD is a Sony HAD (Hole Accumulation Diode) ICX098BQ chip which is a 4.5mm diagonal (Type 1/4) interline CCD. The pixel size is 5.6um times 5.6um.
The Planetcam is a 1/4" format CCD with 768 by 494 array with a pixel size of 5um x 5um.

I have not seen a side-by-side comparison to know which one is superior at imaging.

[iceman]

Can it do long exposures?

What shutter speed or frame rates can be set?

[arafura]

It does not do long exposures. It is designed specifically for planetary, lunar and solar imaging. It has preset shutter speeds of 1/60, 1/1000 and an automatic setting which is a variable speed between these two extremes. It also has manual gain, contrast and colour adjustments.