The Sun - 28-03-2012

I don't know...
The main benefit of the DMK cameras is the number of frames.
They also use Sony CCD chips which are low noise anyway.
I normally take 2,000 frames per video file.
However, for this exampe, I limited it to 1,000 frames per video and took 21 videos to form the mosaic.
That's over 6GB of video.

The DMK21 is great as it can take 60fps - really helps to cut through the atmospheric turbulence.
However, it's only 640 x 480, so at long focal lengths, it takes a lot of work to create a mosaic.

I have a DMK41 on the way: 1280 x 960
Max frame rate is 15fps
Should make creating mosaics much easier.

Michael,

My rationale and suspicion is based on the fact a CCD camera is truly 16-bit and therefore we have greater dynamic range and also much more sensitive which means much quicker exposure times. As an aside, the large(r) chips with CCD cameras will also mean it will be easier to construct a mosaic.

If you do have access to a CCD camera, I sincerely think it will be worth a test. Simply identify the proper exposure (ex. 0.03 seconds) and then let the camera do its thing over the next ten minutes. Yes, there is also the delay due to the download of the larger CCD image files but I believe this is a moot point.

This is the route I plan to pursue (hopefully this year).

Anthony.

I just have an SBIG ST8XME, which is 1530 x 1020.
However, I'm not sure if I will get blooming with such a bright target.
It may take an age to get a significant number of frames though.
Must give it a try sometime.

Michael,

My ST-10XME which is NABG has an exposure which gets down to 0.11 sec and no more. In contrast, my ST-2000XM which is ABG can get down to 0.001 sec.

I know the ST-8XME comes in two flavours ... ABG and NABG. If you have the ABG version and perhaps an available exposure of 0.001 seconds, you should be able to do some work!

Like I mentioned earlier, once I have results in this regard, I will make sure to post them for your benefit since my intention is to go via the CCD route.

Anthony.