First light with Imaging Source 21BF04 Firewire

Hi all,

I got a 21BF04 Firewire camera from Imaging Source coupled to my C9.25 since this week. This camera is brand new released. Contrary to the one Wess Higgins uses, this one is also suitable for smaller scopes since it allows stepless long exposure! It's very neat to be able to have 30fps per second on the moon without compression whatsoever. There are still some things which need to be adapted in the factory to make it more useful for astronomy in terms of software (e.g. specifying number of frames or time to record, movie sequence numbering), but ok, for an industrial camera, it's already nice! Connection is with C-mount.

For this image, seeing was no more than 4/10 at max. Due to the lossless avi, I could sharpen with Wavelet 1 in Registax to the max. Impossible to get that done with my modified monochrome Vesta at 30fps.

Dodi

Attached Image:

Nice, but what's the best way to get color out of this camera?

Roland

Hi Dodi,

Excellent! image, when you sample at 30FPS uncompressed (three to six times the usual rate) it can make a difference, it has been my experience that the best improvements from high frame rates come when the seeing is average to very good, when the seeing is below about 4/10 it seems to make no noticeable difference IMO .
The DMK cameras are industrial machine vision cameras with better electronics and thus less noise than the Toucam ,this new model has an improved chip set and should be even better.

Clear And Steady Skies,

Wes Higgins

Dodi,

My goodness!! That's awesome!

Paul Maxson

Hi Dominique,
Very nice considering your seeing conditions. What software are you using with this camera?

That is a great picture of Reiner Gamma, a very interesting spot on the moon.

Do you plan to put this camera on a refractor?

Pam

Dodi,

Wonderful detail in your image of Reiner Gammma! Especially for 4/10 seeing! I think the high framerate of the firewire and Lumenera cameras are the beginning of the end for the venerable Toucam.

cheers

Mike W

Hi Dodi,

Amazing image for the seeing. For now, all I have is the ToUcam, but after seeing pictures like yours and others I'm been wanting to upgrade more and more.

Ed Roach

Beautiful image Dodi. Great job! I wish I were smart enough to consider other cameras/setups but I'm going to have to stick with my Atik cameras. Congratulations on a superb image!

Jim Phillips