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Best Colour Planetary Camera

Equipment Planetary Camera Mars
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andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Soliciting informed views of what is "the best of the crop" of the current offerings, in view of the upcoming Mars "northern" opposition/apparition.
I'd like to restrict the choice to cameras for planets, so no special requirement (or acreage) for Sun/Moon imaging. Considering also it would be used with a barlow lens of some sort with a 10" f/6.3 (newt) scope, to yield image scale in the 0.1"/px- > 0.13"/px. Good mono response in the methane band also a consideration. Needs to work with FireCapture or similar software.

Thanks
Markus A. R. Langlotz avatar
Markus A. R. Langlotz avatar
Hi,

I use as my color planetary cam an ASI224mc. It has a very high quantum efficiency and also works very well in the red and near IR bands, so an ideal camera for planetary work. With its 3.75µ pixels you always find a barlow/powermate matching your scope.

CS

Markus
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Rafał Szwejkowski avatar
Rafał Szwejkowski avatar
Currently it would be the Zwo Asi 485MC.  I don't own it personally (yet) but from what I see it's quite impressive.
Phil Cambre avatar
Phil Cambre avatar
Hello,

definitely the ASI462MC with its very low read noise and improved sensitivity (especially in IR).
Before the ASI462MC, it was the ASI224MC which was the best color planetary camera.

With a 10" F6.3 newton and image scale between 0,10 to 0,13" : 
Televue 3X + ASI462MC = 0,126"
APM 2,7X ED comacorr barlow @3x with 120mm of distance + ASI462MC = 0,126"

Don't fortget to use an ADC.

Clear skies
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Andres Salaverria avatar
Andres Salaverria avatar
I use the ASI462MC. I believe ZWO came up with a couple of newer planetary cameras, but I don't have hands-on experience with any of them. I started with the 178MM, but it was a pain (for me) to do planetary in Mono + filters. I am happy with the 462MC, and you can see a few of the images I've taken with it on my Astrobin page.
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Thanks everyone. So apparently the ASI462 gets the nod.I can see it does come up with impressive performance above 800 nm so the perfect CH4 imaging camera. I already have the ASI224 so that is covered. Presumably one can affix the Methane filter on one camera and use the other for RGB having an L-filter attached. Am curious on the performance of the APM barlow. I still planning on using on a f/6.3 newt so no practical coma with those cameras but I'm intrigued on whether it shows any chromatic spherical aberration with a f/4-ish newt, as the TV powermates do.
kuechlew avatar
kuechlew avatar
andrea tasselli:
Thanks everyone. So apparently the ASI462 gets the nod.I can see it does come up with impressive performance above 800 nm so the perfect CH4 imaging camera. I already have the ASI224 so that is covered. Presumably one can affix the Methane filter on one camera and use the other for RGB having an L-filter attached. Am curious on the performance of the APM barlow. I still planning on using on a f/6.3 newt so no practical coma with those cameras but I'm intrigued on whether it shows any chromatic spherical aberration with a f/4-ish newt, as the TV powermates do.

Quite shocking to hear that these very expensive TV powermates show CAs ...

Clear skies
Wolfgang
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Quite shocking to hear that these very expensive TV powermates show CAs ...

Clear skies
Wolfgang

Shocking it is or was when I discovered it. Although I should probably limit my aspersion to the 5x PowerMate as I haven't tried the others. Anyhow, it wasn't CA but sphero-chromatism. Well correct in R, acceptable in G and abysmal in B. As B is the "antipodean" of R it is quite important in imparting the right red hues in Jupiter as well as feature resolution.
Phil Cambre avatar
Phil Cambre avatar
This test from Tommy on the APM 2,7X Ed barlow is quite reassuring regarding chromatism : 
http://interferometrie.blogspot.com/2012/09/apm-gerd-during-barlow-komakorrigierend.html
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
That is a very detailed test, thanks for sharing. Too bad the lens isn't available at the minute.
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