What camera do you use?

Use this section to discuss "standard" Baader/Coronado/ Lunt SolarView/ Daystar, etc… filters, cameras and scopes. No mods, just questions/ answers and reviews.
Post Reply
User avatar
04Stefan07
Ohhhhhh My!
Ohhhhhh My!
Posts: 163
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:10 am
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 18 times

What camera do you use?

Post by 04Stefan07 »

Just wanted to ask what camera everyone is using for their solar work?

I am still using the Flea (see in signature) and it's such a great little performer with its decent resolution and high framerate!


SOLAR SCOPES: Lunt LS50THa Pressure Tuned with B600 filter & Moonlite Focuser, Daystar Quark Chromosphere
MOUNTS: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro & Skywatcher Star Adventurer
CAMERA: Player One Neptune-M & Flea3 1.3 MP Mono USB3
User avatar
Merlin66
Librarian
Librarian
Posts: 3970
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 1:23 pm
Location: Junortoun, Australia
Has thanked: 173 times
Been thanked: 615 times
Contact:

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by Merlin66 »

Stefan,
I use an ASI 174mmfor fl above 1000mm and now testing an ASI 1600mm for shorter fl.


"Astronomical Spectroscopy - The Final Frontier" - to boldly go where few amateurs have gone before
https://groups.io/g/astronomicalspectroscopy  
http://astronomicalspectroscopy.com
"Astronomical Spectroscopy for Amateurs" and
"Imaging Sunlight - using a digital spectroheliograph" - Springer
User avatar
04Stefan07
Ohhhhhh My!
Ohhhhhh My!
Posts: 163
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:10 am
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 18 times

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by 04Stefan07 »

Merlin66 wrote: Thu Aug 09, 2018 7:55 am Stefan,
I use an ASI 174mmfor fl above 1000mm and now testing an ASI 1600mm for shorter fl.
Let me know how the 1600MM goes, would like to see how it performs!


SOLAR SCOPES: Lunt LS50THa Pressure Tuned with B600 filter & Moonlite Focuser, Daystar Quark Chromosphere
MOUNTS: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro & Skywatcher Star Adventurer
CAMERA: Player One Neptune-M & Flea3 1.3 MP Mono USB3
User avatar
marktownley
Librarian
Librarian
Posts: 42131
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 5:27 pm
Location: Brierley Hills, UK
Has thanked: 20240 times
Been thanked: 10113 times
Contact:

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by marktownley »

I use a PGR IMX249 chipped camera (5,86um pixels) for longer focal lengths and a PGR Chameleon 3 (3.45um pixels) for shorter focal lengths.


Image
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
FlankerOneTwo
Ohhhhhh My!
Ohhhhhh My!
Posts: 71
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:11 pm

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by FlankerOneTwo »

QHYIII 174 for long focal lengths, ASI1600MM for Lunt 80. Lots of Newton rings with the 1600, but cured with a Daystar Interference Eliminator.


User avatar
rsfoto
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Posts: 6124
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:30 pm
Location: San Luis Potosi, México
Has thanked: 9243 times
Been thanked: 5503 times

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by rsfoto »

FlankerOneTwo wrote: Thu Aug 09, 2018 1:10 pm QHYIII 174 for long focal lengths, ASI1600MM for Lunt 80. Lots of Newton rings with the 1600, but cured with a Daystar Interference Eliminator.
Hi,

Interesting. I am also using at the moment an ASI 1600MM Pro with my new Quantum filter, have not had yet the WOW moment,. I also have huge amount of Newton rings.

Please explain that Daystar Interference filter. Perhaps I need to buy one.

I already tilted the 130mm ERF in front of my Takahashi TOA but that did not help. Will try tilting the camera.

One more question. Which image acquire software are you using ? Is it possible to adjust Gamma, Contrast and Brightness on an ASI 1600MM ? I have SharpCap and ASICAP but on boith software I have not seen these adjustments.

Thanks for any Tip

regards Rainer


regards Rainer

Observatorio Real de 14
San Luis Potosi Mexico

North 22° West 101°
FlankerOneTwo
Ohhhhhh My!
Ohhhhhh My!
Posts: 71
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:11 pm

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by FlankerOneTwo »

Hello Rainer,

The Intereference Eliminator is a camera tilter. Newton rings results from interference between reflected light from two surface close together, so it is usually the Quark or barlow and the camera cover glass; therefore you need to tile the camera relative to the Quark, not the ERF. The ZWO tilter did not have enough tilt to eliminate the rings, however the Interference Elimnator does. It is also very easy to adjust with the camera mounted
https://telescopes.net/store/daystar-fi ... nator.html

I use FireCapture and it does allow you to adjust gamma, gain, brightness, exposure, binning, and all the other usual settings. I am not sure why you don't see them in SharpCap, I haven't used it but I would think those are fairly standard. You are not using a generic webcam camera driver are you? Double check that you have the ZWO drivers installed and selected in SharpCap.


User avatar
PDB
Almost There...
Almost There...
Posts: 702
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 4:23 pm
Location: Belgium
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 149 times

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by PDB »

Stefan,

cameras I use are the ASI120MM-S and the ASI178MM
ASI120MM-S: fairly good cam but small sensor size, and gives a lot or NR's. Needs a lot of tilt to get rid of these. Advantage: it is the only ZWO camera I know where high-speed mode does not influence quality. (Has only a 12 bit ADC used in both high-speed and low speed modes) At full resolution that gives 70fps.
ASI178MM: larger chip 4Mpixel. Not happy with the cam in H-Alfa. The cam give a crosshatched patern in monochromatic light. (Maybe a fault in mine?)
Works very well in white light or planetary. In full resolution abd 14bit ADC gets around 30fps if you have a good USB3 and fast SSD for recording.

@Rainer
One more question. Which image acquire software are you using ? Is it possible to adjust Gamma, Contrast and Brightness on an ASI 1600MM ? I have SharpCap and ASICAP but on boith software I have not seen these adjustments.
Think it depends. At some stage ZWO disabled gamma adjustment in their library. Can't blame them because this was a software adjustment and only slows down things and does not do anything you can't do later in post processing. The only thing that is sure is that you LOOSE information in the captured data. So depending on which version of ZWO library / capture software version used it might be there or not.

I think that FireCapture in its latest version introduced a software gamma correction (to compensate for the ZWO change?) But see my previous remark, don't think that should be used. (Unless you would like to make a video for direct showing or streaming, but even then some post processing is possible in software)

If you want to change gamma for having a better displayed image (eg for focusing) then most software will have a separate gamma or color adjustment that only affects the display and not the captured data. (At least FireCapture & Genika have those, SharpCap I would need to verify)

Regards,

Paul


User avatar
Merlin66
Librarian
Librarian
Posts: 3970
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 1:23 pm
Location: Junortoun, Australia
Has thanked: 173 times
Been thanked: 615 times
Contact:

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by Merlin66 »

Hmmm, that's interesting.
I use the ASI 174 and find most times I get NR and need to use the Tilter. The new ASI 1600 so far has not shown any NR.....
I use FireCapture.


"Astronomical Spectroscopy - The Final Frontier" - to boldly go where few amateurs have gone before
https://groups.io/g/astronomicalspectroscopy  
http://astronomicalspectroscopy.com
"Astronomical Spectroscopy for Amateurs" and
"Imaging Sunlight - using a digital spectroheliograph" - Springer
User avatar
c8er
Ohhhhhh My!
Ohhhhhh My!
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 10:16 pm
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by c8er »

Has anyone tried the ASI178mm (2.4um pixels) for a short focal length Ha scope? I've been trying my ASI174mmm on a solarmax II 60 and its not working well. I think the pixels are I think just too big for decent resolution at that f/6.7 ratio,. and I;m looking for small pixel option, preferably under 3um. The ASI174mm works well with the longer f ratio of my my Quark setups.


Location: Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
Solar Ha setup: Daystar Ha Quark, APM 140/980 refractor, Coronado SMII 60 DS BF15, McDougall Solar AutoGuider. Skywatcher ST80, Orion ED 80, WO ZS66 SD, and Nova 102mm f/6.5 achromat refractors.
Other scopes: C8,C11, ES Comet Hunter Mak-Newt, on 10Micron GM1000HPS, Celestron AVX, 8SE, CG-5 and Skywatcher Solarquest mounts.
Cameras: Celestron Neximage Burst Mono, ZWO ASI294MC Pro, AS120MC, ASI174MM, ASI290MC, Canon 60D, Celestron Nightscape CCD
User avatar
Merlin66
Librarian
Librarian
Posts: 3970
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 1:23 pm
Location: Junortoun, Australia
Has thanked: 173 times
Been thanked: 615 times
Contact:

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by Merlin66 »

I tried the ASI 183MM with the smaller pixels and had “issues” which Was acknowledged by ZWO an not being suitable for narrowband Ha solar...they offered a refund and I replace it with the ASI 1600MM which seems to be working well for me.
The ASI 178 has the same pixel size as the ASI 183MM but I haven’t heard of the same problems.


"Astronomical Spectroscopy - The Final Frontier" - to boldly go where few amateurs have gone before
https://groups.io/g/astronomicalspectroscopy  
http://astronomicalspectroscopy.com
"Astronomical Spectroscopy for Amateurs" and
"Imaging Sunlight - using a digital spectroheliograph" - Springer
User avatar
rsfoto
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Way More Fun to Share It!!
Posts: 6124
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:30 pm
Location: San Luis Potosi, México
Has thanked: 9243 times
Been thanked: 5503 times

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by rsfoto »

FlankerOneTwo wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 6:48 pm Hello Rainer,

The Intereference Eliminator is a camera tilter. Newton rings results from interference between reflected light from two surface close together, so it is usually the Quark or barlow and the camera cover glass; therefore you need to tile the camera relative to the Quark, not the ERF. The ZWO tilter did not have enough tilt to eliminate the rings, however the Interference Elimnator does. It is also very easy to adjust with the camera mounted
https://telescopes.net/store/daystar-fi ... nator.html

I use FireCapture and it does allow you to adjust gamma, gain, brightness, exposure, binning, and all the other usual settings. I am not sure why you don't see them in SharpCap, I haven't used it but I would think those are fairly standard. You are not using a generic webcam camera driver are you? Double check that you have the ZWO drivers installed and selected in SharpCap.
Hi,

Thanks. Well I have also a Quark chromosphere and before inserting the ERF I had newton rings. After adding the ERF inside the telescope they disappeared. That is why I thought it would help.

Will have to see how I solve that Newton ring problem.

I am using the latest 3.0.0.4 ASI drivers and as well downloaed yesterday the lates FireCapture version 2.6.0.8

AsiCap and SharpCap I also ahve there the latest versions. In noe of the programs I do find the contrast adjustment.

Anyhow I managed to get my Infinity cameras onto the rear of the Quantum and will try with the very old but very reliable software Lucam Recorder which has Gain, Gamma, COntrast and Brightness adjustments. Unfortunately Heiko Wilkens the author of the software abandoned the development and so I can only use TIS and Lumenera cameras.

regards


regards Rainer

Observatorio Real de 14
San Luis Potosi Mexico

North 22° West 101°
User avatar
PDB
Almost There...
Almost There...
Posts: 702
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 4:23 pm
Location: Belgium
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 149 times

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by PDB »

Rainer,

for contrast: firecapture has PreProcessing filter to make contrast changes.
Gamma now seems to work again (maybe ZWO introduced it back?
Brightness can be found in "More" menu.

Paul


Bagpiper2004
Oh, I get it now!
Oh, I get it now!
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:43 pm
Been thanked: 7 times

Re: What camera do you use?

Post by Bagpiper2004 »

A Point Grey Research Grasshopper 3 with a mono Sony IMX 174 sensor. The IMX 174 has a 1/1.2” sensor format with 5.86u pixels.


Post Reply