From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: March 12, 2006 10:38:31 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] If I Can Have Just One FW Camera...

Hi David;

On 12-Mar-06, at 1:05 AM, David Illig wrote:

Which one should it be? I've played with a low-end camera (iBot) with

modest success.

Can you fill me and everyone else in on what you mainly plan doing with it? For example, solar, lunar, planetary, DSO, astrometrics or guiding?

I can't afford a half dozen high-end FW cameras, so I'm looking

for recommendations for one in the under-$1k range. I would

prefer color, and would not complain if the quality were not quite as

good as monochrome. I would accept monochrome if assured that

color cameras are greatly inferior.

The direction you want to mainly use it for should be the deciding factor, but here are some general things to consider.

- For camera that have the same pixel cell size and same type of CCD (i.e.HAD, SUPER HAD, EXHAD) Monochrome is always more sensitive than Color is by about 30%.

- For camera that have the same pixel cell size and same type of CCD (i.e.HAD, SUPER HAD, EXHAD) Monochrome cameras have higher pixel resolution than color cameras do. The individual R G B pixels from a Color camera have to be dithered to produce the RGB color, so resolution is not as good as monochrome.

- Color cameras are not good for gathering Astrometric information (ie star magnitudes etc.). I can explain why if you want.

- Color cameras are much easier to use than doing Monochrome with RGB filters. Basically color cameras are "Grab and Shoot", where as Monochrome are "Plan and Shoot". Also for fast moving targets (Jupiter and it's moons, Mars, Saturn white spots, asteroids etc.) you have to limit yourself to how many frame to capture or you wind up with object features being rotated / shifted out of alignment between filtered shots.

- Color cameras have less post processing to do than Monochrome with filters. Instead of stacking / aligning one color movie you process three or four (i.e Luma Red Green Blue) movies, then put the individual images together.

- Larger CCD pixels gather more light than smaller ones do and have a wider filed of view. See the "FleaVersusDragonFly2.jpg " in the Other folder of the Files Section for a comparison and read message 623 for details.

- Smaller CCD pixels give a higher magnification and more detail. See the "FleaVersusDragonFly2.jpg " in the Other folder of the Files Section for a comparison and read message 623 for details.

Hope that helps.

Milton J. Aupperle

President

ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting

Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist

#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.

Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5

1-(403)-229-9456

milton@outcastsoft.com