New GStar EX Colour Camera

[renormalised]

Just been released over at MyAstroShop. $495, it appears.

[lacad01]

Darn good price by the looks of it :)

[renormalised]

Yeah, I'll have to email Steve and confirm that price.

[renormalised]

Just got an email back from Steve. That's the price point he's looking at...$495. Said he should have stock in around 4 weeks.

[davewaldo]

Would this work as a colour viewing aid? Basically what I mean is, could you use this with a big dob to see colour images of galaxies real time on an LCD?

[lacad01]

Certainly would. Check out the thread below of screen shots from similar cameras such as the Malincan Colour, Watec, etc some colour some mono
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2050552/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/21/vc/1

[renormalised]

Yes, especially of the brighter objects...M42, M27, M8, M31, LMC/SMC, stars etc. Great for the planets and Moon as well:D

[davewaldo]

Sounds like fun :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Yep, Start saving now and you can have one for Christmas.

[coldspace]

I agree you will be able to see some objects in colour with this new camera, but it depends on how long the intergration times are and how much gain can be achieved without any TEC cooling to bring out the best image from the colour chip for " Real time" viewing in colour of most of the brighter dep sky objects without the need of stacking.
It should perform good on brighter objects in "Real time" and at its price is very affordable to most people. Would like to see some "Real time" examples from this camera without any stacking or processing.

Viewing objects in real time in colour not only is more pleasing to the eye but it wil also show you more detail in the object so its good to see other manufactures starting to bring out colour versions for real time viewing and not just imaging with filters etc.

At 495 its a bargain, it will appeal to alot of people.

You won't just need a big Dob, any scope can do just that fast optics and at least Alt/AZ tracking, so for a Dob a servo cat or a round table system work very well or fork mounted SCT.

These types of cameras are excellent for viewing with friends and kids love it. It is one way to get kids interested in astronomy as its "plug and play" with instant gratification.

These cameras are great on deep sky objects and OK on moon and planets but I dare say a DMK 31 would be a better choice on solar system objects.

The Mallincam with TEC is the best colour system out there by far for "Real time" viewing without stacking and post processing. Buts its custom made, pricey and 6 month wait, but service from Rock Mallin is 10 out of 10. He does upgrades if you get one as he improves his electronics in the cameras. Attached are a couple of examples for you of M42 at 2 seconds intergration and 7 seconds intergration and one of the moon. This is what we see on a 19 inch LCD in real time in light polluted Brissy.

Matt.

[duncan]

Hi All,
At last a new toy to buy and so damn affordable.!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At least it will be a Xmas present that the ( ONE TO OBEY! ) wont argue about.
Tee Hee!!
WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Duncan:lol:

[renormalised]

Yeah, the Mallincams are exceptional cameras, but at US$1200 they're a little expensive.

[coldspace]

Yep, expensive but still cheap for the performnce they punch out. Although its cheaper than a cooled starshoot or QHY8 but conventional imaging was not the pathway I wanted to head down. Add in shipping/insurance, gst,import duty and conversion to the AUD its more like 2K so you could get 4 of these Gstar colour cameras but I still won't be trading mine in for anything else soon and the cooling makes a very big difference as it allows you to crank up the gain. I have used mine for about 2 years now and it still blows me away with what it can do.
All these cameras are great for people to see objects, especialy from light polluted environments.

Its so cool when a good friend of mine rings me up with his latest 18th mag S/nova discovery a 100 mly away and I can plug the video system in and view it on a LCD screen. I would have no chance of seeing these things even in a 30 inch from dark skies.

For people wanting to experiment with imaging without all the time issues I totally recommend video astronomy :thumbsup: especially when sharing with kids and friends.

Matt.

[renormalised]

That's true....any of these cameras are good value for money.

[jjjnettie]

I love my Gstar.

[coldspace]

I know you do:D.

[marki]

Might have to look into this as they could be great for viewing nights at school :).

Mark

[renormalised]

They'd be great for school viewing nights. Have one connected to a large LCD and you could have 20-30 kids around the screen and explaining to them what they're seeing.

[coldspace]

A further note on the expense of these cameras.
Rock hand assembles them one at a time only he does it and not 100 workers in a factory. They share the same outer housing as some other makes but he guts them, installs a nice Sony ICX418AKL-A class 1 colour CCD sensor which he picks out of small batches and tests for quality before installing them, he then puts in a Holtec high gain amp and installs a custom made TEC system which can cool to 40 below.
He then adds long toggle switches to increase the intergration times upto 56 seconds, being small produced at only a few cameras a week thats why they are expensive but when you see one in action its worth every penny. I might sound like a dealer of these promoting them but after seeing first hand what they can do and his back up service I am surprised not many people have taken these up in this country, might be because they are not well known and the price scares some into getting one.

Back up service is top notch a friend of mine broke his after 3 years, and Rock via email could not work out what went wrong to his camera so he is sending my friend out a new one for free even though its a year out of warranty. Great service.

Matt.

[coldspace]

Mark for school viewing nights the video systems can't be beat.
I have used mine a couple of times at my daughters school and that was a big mistake:lol: as now I keep getting requests to do it again and again.

Not just boring old moon or Jupiter, but you can show the kids some deep sky delights on a LCD and they are in awe as they would have no chance of seeing these in the eyepiece in a light polluted sky at school.

Also, you don't have to worry about all of the kids grabbing eyepieces and the teachers can have them all seated in front of the monitor while you talk to them, no one wants to go home which was a problem.
These systems are perfect for this.

Matt.

[davewaldo]

What sort of scope are you using yours on Matt?

[coldspace]

A 12 inch LX200R using a 2.5 powermate for planets, and various reducers to get F7, F5, and F3.3.
I am going to invest in an Orion Eon 80 to piggyback ontop for wide field.

All these video cameras perform well on most scopes as alot use small refractors and are getting excellent wide field results and fast Newts work really well but you need at least Alt/Az tracking, but I like chasing small planetaries and galaxies.
Now my scope is mounted in my observatory as it was too big to take out for field use all the time I might look at getting a C8 or a Meade 8 for field use.

Most of these cameras will easily add 4 or 5 magnitudes to your scope.
I was looking at going down the conventional imaging path but am having too much fun at the moment. Maybe down the track when I have more time to do it properly.

If you go to the C/nights video forum you can see what people are getting in live view and the various scopes used. The main learning curve is the many adjustments such as gain, intergration rates, colour balance,pixel control etc, to get the right effect on the different objects.

Matt.

[jjjnettie]

80mm, that's not wide field.:P
Using a Mogg Adaptor, I hook up a 4mm cctv lens for an ultra wide view of the Universe.
Great for Meteor Showers.

[renormalised]

You could even look at getting an ED80 for portability. Teamed with the new colour camera, it'd be an ace setup:D:D

[coldspace]

Yep, those fish eye lenses sound good, especially for meteor showers.

Where did you buy your lens from?

Matt.

[jjjnettie]

It's not a fish eye unfortunately.
It's an F2 4mm Standard C Mount. $18 at Jaycar.
Also picked up a very nice varifocal 2.8 - 12mm Manual Iris CS mount lens.
$45 Jaycar. Very wide FOV.
I bought them a couple of years ago so the price may have changed a little.

[coldspace]

Thanks for that JJJ, I have a Jaycar 5 mins away will drop in and have alook, ahh more things to play with.

Regards Matt.

[jjjnettie]

You do get a little vignetting but you get what you pay for.

[coldspace]

Sound good for me, I don't want to spend 900 bucks on a fish eye.

Matt.

[marki]

Matt they certainly look the go for this type of event. Are the Gstars able to deliver similar images with the same exposure times as you have shown below??? I would not expect the same quality considering the price differential but it definately looks like it could solve a problem for me. When we do viewing nights I have three scopes set up and anywhere between 70 - 100 students to entertain for the night (yes we do sleep overs :sadeyes:). We rotate the students in groups of about 15 keeping the rest busy watching space documentries and building models of the space shuttle, international space station etc as well as other activities. More kids at the scope so to speak = less mischief for the overworked staff to contend with :P. Least i can wake them up at 4am to view something or other in revenge when they play up :D.

Mark

[coldspace]

The B/W g-star will show alot but it only gets to 2.5 second intergration but its very sensitive so it will show the kids quite a bit.

The colour g-star I have not seen in action but it sounds like it has double the intergratation time as the B/W model so it probally will be similar to the Mallincam at 2.5 second exposures , maybe even 7 seconds but does not have active cooling so the images will be a bit noisy and the chip will be less sensitive as a result and it will not have as much gain in the electronics which also is needed for these video systems to push out the best image in the shortest time.

I would wait and see if someone gets a colour G-star here and posts some real time images to see whats its like.

What you need is instant image clarity to see "live" for the kids without any stacking and processing.

The B/W G-star will give you this as its more sensitive than the G-star colour, otherwise for colour and cooled images in "real time"you will have to go the Mallincam route.

The colour G-star will probally be good on the very bright well known objects like the Trifid, lagoon, globs which will probally be good for what you need it for, it will be interesting to see what it can do and the kids will love it especially if you can display the images on a large screen like a 32 inch LCD.
You can even display the video feed to a projector screen but make sure people stand way back otherwise the image is no good. Smaller LCD screens or better yet CRT screens as they show more contrast.

Regards Matt.

[marki]

Thanks Matt

I will have to have a closer look at it. You are dead right about the instant gratification factor, waiting ten minutes is not something kids like to do :P.

Mark

[coldspace]

Mark,

Also sign up to the g-star and mallincam yahoo user groups, its free and you don't need to own one to join. I was a member for 6 months before taking the plunge and buying one.
You can then access the photo albums to see whats bee achieved with various scopes.

If you look in the mallincam photo folder have alook a the images from Gavin, he is a friend of mine on the Gold coast and these images are raw live view shots in the middle of the light polluted Gold coast, and they are spectacular. He has mastered all the camera settings on the different objects and its so much fun sitting in his observatory doing say 20 to 50 object tour in one night.

I would post a link but it does not allow you to open the photo albums unless you sign up.

These user groups are a great way to ask questions and to see what others are doing.

Matt.

[marki]

Thanks Matt I will check it out :thumbsup:.

Mark