Secuirty camera for Aurora viewing

Sorry to bring this up again but in the next few weeks im going to get one of those secuirty cameras to pick up the Aurora. I cant mine but someone said they had it and i just want to know abit more about it.

Conor,

I am using a Watec 902H camera with it's half inch sensor. Size 7 x 9 mm. Although it is rather expensive it has the ability to work in the near infrared at 1 micron. I had looked at other cameras, eg Panasonic, Sharp. The Watek has the Sony 'Had' sensor which is more sensitive than the others. I have seen tests comparisons of a number of sensors on the market, the Sony came out the best, especially with the Watec camera combination.

I frequently pick up aurorae with this type of camera. For example, you can even see better contrast than the visual eye, due to the restriction of the eyes cut off point at 770nm. You can achieve at least 4th magnitude in a dark location without image intensification, which costs alot more money.

Typically the curtain effect in the aurorae can be seen in some detail and especially the dynamic movement within the curtins. The lens is a variable focus type from 8-48mm. So you can obtain about 36 degrees FOV. I wouldn't go for the fisheye because the resolution drops considerably if you require detail in the curtins.

You can use the video with a good TV set. I use an old Sony. I have tested out a number of TV manufacturers sets, the best was Sony with its higher res pixels at 0.26mm/pixel. If you have got a hi res monitor even better ie. 800 lines/mm. Alot of these CCTV cameras are still analogue. I also use AD/DV converter by Canopus where the imge is then seen in real time on the computer. I also use date stamper from STV. However, you may already have a date stamper within your recorder. I also use the Watec for occultations of asteroids.

So its a matter of selecting the right CCTV camera that will interface with all the other equipment ie. monitors, CPU, recorders, etc to keep costs down.

Another alternative is to buy a second Astrovid 2000 video camera. I find this camera even more remarkable because you have the added features of playing around with the gain and gamma. It may be possible through Astromart to pick it up for the price of a new Watec. I have used the Astrovid with a f1.2 lens and got good results. The noise is considerably reduced as compared to the Watec. That lens combo will even give you a wider FOV and reasonable resolution. Of course, the Astrovid can be used on a telescope with those nice features as described above.

Hope that clarifies

Eamonn A

Thanks for the long reply mate! Sums it up well. For your set up(or if you can go any more basis) what price are we talking about here

Conor,

The Watec 902H camera about 3 years ago was about 250 euros. Although those prices were big for just a camera, it was the best one at the time. Those prices may have come down now. I am afraid I am not up to date on this matter. If you are hooking up to a CPU the Canopus AD/DV converter was around 250 euros. You may not want to go that route, but just to plug it in to your TV monitor, won't cost you anything. The f/1.2 lens was about 60 euros.

There are much cheaper CCTV cameras going for 50 euros. The problem here is that the lux rating in detectability is very low ie. about 3 lux as compared to the Watec at 0.000015 lux. So you are paying for sensitivity of the sensor.

I suspect that Aurorae won't show up on cheap cameras, however, I have never tried that experiment.

Hope that helps

Eamonn A

Yea thanks alot!!