The Imaging Source released few days ago a new line of GigE cameras that includes two popular in astrophotography CCDs: ICX445 and ICX618 - in DMK 23G445 and DMK 23G618. There is also ICX274 based model, but that sensor is older and has lower sensitivity than the other models.
GigE cameras are connected to an Ethernet card. If the card supports 1 gigabit/s transfers (and not for example 100Mbit/s in cheaper models) then you can achieve much higher framerates than with USB2.
Please note that those cameras have been presented on TIS main page, and not on the astronomical one. Some tests are required to judge their performance in planetary, lunar and solar photography. High framerates may lead to artifacts.
In the last few days we have some new planetary cameras announced. Moonglow Lucky Cams that don't require a PC, new QHY5-II line of guiders and Solar System imagers, and also news about fast Ximea and Basler cameras with e2v and CMOSIS sensors.
In the upcoming months two interesting CMOS sensors should show up on the market in Basler Ace and Ximea cameras. Those sensors are CMOSIS CMV4000 and e2v EV76C560. The CMOSIS sensor is big (1" diagonal) but the key feature of both sensor is high dynamic range imaging. HDR/WDR imaging would be a new feature for H-alpha solar imaging.
High dynamic range would allow imaging prominences alongside the Sun disk without the need of overexposing it. Ximea API supports lin-log response of the e2v sensor and HDR support for CMOSIS should be added in the future. There is no info if Basler Ace (equipped with CMOSIS sensor) will support the HDR mode - but it's possible. All of those cams haven't been released yet and thus haven't been tested in solar imaging - although e2v EV76C560 was tested without the HDR mode in IDS cameras and it did work quite nicely - here and here.
e2v sensors use lin-log response, where strong signals are read with logarithmic response. This cause strong signals to create weaker response than in typical linear mode. e2v states it can provide even 120 dB of dynamic range. CMOSIS can do up to 90 dB in double-read linear mode. Aside of HDR modes those sensors have quite good sensitivity and noise performance. They are also fast. Most of CMOSIS based cams uses Camera Link to allow max framerates. The GigE and USB3 cams allow only limited framerate... but do you need more than 90 FPS of an 2048 x 2048 frame?
Guide cameras may be divided into two categories. First contains cheap Micron CMOS based cameras. Second one contain Sony CCD based 16-bit cameras. Sensitivity of such cameras may be comparable but sensor noise, diagonal or electronics may have great impact on the ability to provide good guide star images. In this article I'm going to compare QHY5 and Atik Titan - I'm going to check the image they provide in PHD.
Some of you using Point Grey Chameleon cameras may have noticed that binning and max frame rates available in FireCapture application aren't working as you would expect. After some investigation and contacting with Point Grey I solved the mystery ;)
Chameleon has average binning - that won't sum signal from 4 joined pixels, but it will just lower the noise. So using "bin2" + increased focal length to get 30 FPS for planetary imaging isn't a good option (as the signal isn't summed). However you can get 30 FPS (or maybe more?) without binning.
By default even with small ROI in FireCapture Chameleon will capture frames up to 25 FPS. To allow 30 FPS the camera must work in mode 2 (or 1, not the default mode 0). You can change modes in FlyCap (app that comes with Point Grey drivers), and this feature should be available in one of upcoming FireCapture beta builds.
Microsoft webcams got quite popular among amateur astronomers as their performance is very good and the price is still low. Lifecam Cinema or Studio HD webcams are very good at lunar, solar and planetary imaging, but to use them they have to be modified. Their lens must be removed and replaced with a 1,25" nosepiece adapter. Such adapters can be made from various astro-parts (extenders, Barlow, eyepiece parts). There is also billetparts adapter for MS Lifecam Cinema.
In this article I'll show you how to convert a MS Lifecam Studio using the billetparts adapter/nosepiece.
SkyWatcher released a new firmware for SynScan mounts - V3.28 BETA 20. This new version contains new feature - Polar Re-Alignment available previously in Celestron mounts. After doing standard 2 or 3 star mount alignment you can choose nearly any bright star on which you will be able to fix polar alignment of your mount. This is handy when you can't see Polaris.
In 2012 we will have a lot of nights with Venus visible just after sunset or before sunrise. Already a lot of Venus images have been taken. Some of them are quite spectacular as they show cloud patterns visible in the UV band. It's not easy to do any image in ultraviolet wavelengths due to many reasons - seeing affect, low camera sensitivity, UV absorption by optics. In this article I'll try to give some UV-imaging optimization tips - perfect for Venus.
TSFlip is a new device made by Teleskop Service. It's a combination of an Off Axis Guider (you can guide the DS imaging setup using a star from the edge of the field of view) with a Flip Mirror - you bounce the image up to the guide head and see it with an eyepiece (to find and center the object you are looking for).
Few days ago I acquired from optosoft a UI-1245LE-M-GL camera made by IDS Imaging (UI-1240LE-M on their site). This camera can be a general purpose - planetary, Lunar and Solar imaging camera.
Set of Python tutorials and articles that cover interesting topics. You will find here also a set of PyQt4 tutorials about making GUI desktop apps with Python.
Set of articles and tutorials about Django the Python powered web framework. Using Django with new technologies, interesting APIs and other related topics
Here you will find a lot of useful articles about astronomy, astrophotography of Solar System like planets and the Moon or photography of deep space objects.
