looking for a new planetary camera

[Dietmar]

...a decent planetary and lunar imaging camera.
hi folks,
I am mostly engaged in DSI, but loeve the planets and moon.
visually my 9" tmb scope reveals so many nice structures to my eyes, so I wish to image them too.
I have used a DMK 21f04 with the original IS 3.0 version software.
some humble results are here:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/moon.html
the problem with 12f04 and the software was, I feel it is not sensitive enough? and/or I cannot get longer subframes than 0.xx seconds...
so - for planets I need r,g,b so I think mono will be fine, as a bayer matrix swallows too muchlight.
for lunar imaging I'd need a sensitive camera, as 2.5 powermate cannot be used properly...exposure time is too short...
guys, what is your recommendation?
are cams out there with software, that can do longer than 0.xx seconds...?
thanks in advance!

[iceman (Mike)]

Hey Dietz.. funny you should ask - I'm currently writing an article about RGB planetary imaging with a mono camera.

Your two best choices are the DMK21AU04 or the SKYnyx 2-0M.

Both are great cameras - the SKYnyx has the edge in terms of sensitivity and dynamic range, but it's almost 3 times as expensive.

If you can afford it, go for it. Don't forget the cost of the filterwheel and astronomik RGB filters.

With my DMK21AU04, I can image at over 14m focal length on the moon and planets with no problems for exposure if the object is bright enough. It can do up to 60fps on the moon no problems.

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Hi Dietz - a lot depends on your budget, there are good cameras to be had at both the low and high ends, but from my experience with several cameras I find that you always get more value out of the higher end cameras as they will have useful features that tend to be missing on the low end cameras.

The best feature for me is to set an arbitrary speed in fps and have the exposure automatically adjust to use all the time available, ie if you ask for 20fps then each frame is exposed for 1/20 second. This sort of feature is normally not found on the cheaper cameras like the DMK21AF04 which only gives you a set list of speeds to choose from.

Cameras like the Dragonfly2 from PGR and (so I'm told) the SkyNyx cameras have this feature available.

If money is no object I'd suggest waiting for a month or so and checking out the new PGR camera that is being launched March/April. It looks to me to be the best candidate for a new camera this year (high sensitivity, high speed - firewire 800 - and equipped with a 14 bit a/d converter... yum yum, will likely cost an arm and a leg :-)

cheers, Bird

[Dietmar]

...thanks boys!

If I am not completely wrong, the 21F04(the one I have at the moment) and AF04 / AU04 have the same chip,...right?
latter ones can take longer exposures which I will need for lunar imaging with 5*powermate and my 9" tmb.

the questions:
- is there a software upgrade to the 21f04 so I can also expose longer than 0.32 seconds...?
- what about trigger function and I/O on BF04...?
any sigifiacnt advantage in those cams???
- fire wire or USB...?

if not:

which filter wheel or filter slider setup would you recommend???

thanks again in advance!

[Dietmar]

all right folks,

I have taken the fire wire camera.
now please tell me, which codec do you use?
Y800 (uncompressed) ... ?

thanks again!

[iceman (Mike)]

HI Dietz.

Which one? The 21AF04 or 31 or 41? And yes, the Y800 is the best codec.

[Dietmar]

21af04,...sorry Mike, I did not mention this... (-:
thanks for the codec info.

[iceman (Mike)]

Great choice, Dietz. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Gendo (Justin)]

I've been quite happy with the DMK21AF04.AS camera. Quite simply, there's a vast difference in image quality between the DMK21 w/filters and a NexImage.

Seems to me that the SkyNyx is the next full step up from this camera, judging by the picture quality I've seen from it. The Dragonfly seems to be more in between those two cameras, picture quality wise.

Since I don't really care to have a larger OTA than a C11 at this point, I think my upgrades from here on out would be, a larger sturdier GEM mount, a possible move to Astronomik filters instead of Edmunds Optics filters, and then possibly a more sensitive monochrome camera like the SkyNyx.