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Old 29-10-2023, 01:12 PM
Star Hunter
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Ellesmere, Qld
Posts: 210
Re planetary cams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leo.G View Post
I may be giving you the wrong information but I had previously done a lot of research on the cameras. As mentioned in another topic here there are calculators to help match a camera to a telescope and focal length is a big part of that matching up.
Both scopes have a reasonably long focal length and from memory the cameras with the larger pixel size are better suited to longer focal length telescopes. F ratio (focal length divided by objective size) and primary objective all come into it from memory.
This was some time ago and I don't remember a lot, other than a huge dislike for the company.

Personally I was looking at the ZWO ASI294MM (mono) or MC (colour) for my longer focal length telescopes.
I'll see if I can find one of the calculators in a few minutes.


As for control the cameras are USB so a laptop is probably your best option with the right software, especially if you're doing software guiding. I believe ZWO have some WiFi devices to interface but I haven't looked into that side of it for some time

I believe the Raspberry pi and similar devices can do the same with attached storage but they are sans monitor.


I used the Bintel calculator as I was purchasing the camera from them, a camera I didn't end up getting due to no stock in Australia and their failure to contact me when it was eventually available, though having provided a firm quote on over $3,000 worth of mono kit with an assurance I'd be contacted the minute they were available (Not a lot of money I guess in the scheme of things but on disability pension it was a huge sum for me).
I ended up buying an used Nikon D810 full frame DSLR extremely cheap instead which I can use for other daily photography too but it's way too heavy for astro stuff in reality



https://www.bintel.com.au/tools/astronomy-calculator/


https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability


It's a rabbit hole that appears to get very deep when you start going into full well capacities, cooling and everything else related.


Good luck!


Leo
Hi Leo,

Thank you you for the very informative reply. It seems you and I may be of the same era - film, SLR cams, manual focused lenses and darkroom.

EP Proj. was the norm using a 10 0r 15mm EP and calc. the distance from its focal planer to the film, to get an EFR and its EFL for an exp. using Ilford Pan F or even un-hypered Tech Pan 2415.

Moving forward, I have sdomne Lodestr guide cams similar to ZWO;'s so I'll try them and do RP Proj. Big leg-up here is being able to in real time, of WYSIWYG.

Thanks for the links too.

James
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