Imaging Source

This camera is a game changer for me.

My old camera's resolution is 640 x 480 with a maximum of 5 fps (frames per second) without the pictures getting compressed. The new camera can do 1280 x 960 at up to 15 fps. The chip is also much larger, too. This is VERY important. Used at prime focus, like I do now, the resolution will be about the same, but it will be MUCH easier to keep the ISS "on the chip". This, along with the faster frame rate should mean that I will have MANY more frames with the ISS in them. The area of the chip jumps from 9.72 to 47.12 square millimeters.

This photo shows the ISS as it would appear on each chip. You can see how much larger the Imaging Source's chip is. The photos above show the absolute maximum size of the ISS as seen in my telescope at prime focus - the smaller frame is taken directly from a frame I took of it when it was virtually directly overhead. I reduced the size of both photos by 50% so that they would fit on this web page. The ISS was over 200 miles away when I took this photo - the photo is actually the result of stacking about 100 frames and other processing done by Freddy Willems. The relative size on the chip shows that Imaging Source camera is much better than the Philips.

First Impressions

It is very well built, very solid. It has also worked with every imaging program that I have tried with it. When using the program supplied with it, I found a feature not mentioned in the literature for the camera. It is called ROI - Region Of Interest. It allows one to adjust the frame size for smaller objects like planets. This greatly reduces the data sent for each frame, allowing much higher frame rates. It is completely adjustable, both in the size and the location of the frame. It was a pleasant surprise. The range of exposure is 1/10,000 second to 60 minutes.

First Tests

I have trouble getting a good focus with my telescope - I think it is not collimated properly

This is M42 - the Orion Nebula - a 30 second exposure. I don't know anything about how to process photos of deep sky photos. This is the image as I took it - downsized to 80% of it's normal size.

This is weird. I removed my Crayford focuser and put back the original visual back on my telescope. Now it looks like something is misaligned - one side of Mars is sharply focused, the other side is not. I turned the camera 180 degrees between shots.