Solar Imaging Question

[TheAstroGuy]

Hi guys,

I am a complete newbie in solar imaging and a good friend of mine has asked me to ask you guys the question, what is the absolute best Solar imaging and planetary camera on the market at present.
He has a William optics FLT 110mm and a 10K Etalon Filter which is just amazing i've never seen anything like it, he wants to image the sun predominantly.

Please let me know, Flea3, Luminera etc etc?, thanks guys.

Kind Regards

Shane

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Shane
I know very little about imagers - I do use a DMK31 (Mono AVI) and think it is good.
What is the budget?
I am sure others will chip in with some advice.

[sheeny]

That's tough question... I don't have the experience with cameras other than my own. I use a DMK 41AU02.AS (USB2 camera, but also available in firewire as is the DMK 31 Matt uses). For an 8 bit camera, the DMK's are excellent IMO.

I'm not sure if the other cameras you mentioned are >8 bit, but that might give an advantage with dynamic range if they are (capturing prominences as well as surface detail in one shot?).

Al.

[mswhin63]

I think for solar imaging the optics are going to the critical factor. As there will be plenty of light to work with even behind a filter the cameras are not going to be a major problem.
Good frame rate is essential and fast pixel clocking is more essenital. Webcams may have good frame rates now even the HD ones but their pixel clocking is quite poor hence when things move you get stretching feeling in the video.

I have not used the DMK but it's sepcs are good although some security cameras have good pixel clocking as well. I am testing a couple of them now to see how well they perform.