Little Blue Wonder, AKA the Imaging Source DMK-21

Well my friends, I finally bit the bullet and purchased what many imagers consider to be a "real camera" for solar, lunar, and planetary work. I got the USB2 version of the popular DMK-21 camera from Imaging Source. I initially wanted (and still do) the DMK-41 with the larger chip. An unforeseen and really maddening event sidetracked me and forced me to trim my camera budget a little bit. Still kinda pissed about it, but it is as they say, crying over spilled milk.

Funny story actually, I purchased the camera from OPT, same place I bought my Lunt 60 solar scope. Their customer service is just plain amazing. I asked for a shipping quote to see if I could get the camera delivered by tuesday, in time for the transit. They quoted me 90 dollars, and I thanked them but told them that it was a bit over my budget. I got a call back from Craig about a half hour later and was advised that they could overnight it at just at 60 dollars. I said "Deal!". Great folks over there.

Back to the imager. I have been wanting a monochrome imager for several months now. It is almost essential in imaging the sun in hydrogen alpha light. You see, in a regular color camera, there is an RGB microlens installed over every pixel in what is known as a Bayer configuration. Red and blue make up 25 percent coverage each, with green making up the other 50 percent. Since the bandwidth of h-alpha light is so narrow (.7 angstrom on my scope) and it resides in the red spectrum, only 25 percent of the resolution on the imager is being utilized. With a monochrome imager, I am now able to truly image in full resolution. Due to the size of the chip, the image is constrained to 640x480. I was worried that this would be far too narrow for large surface area targets such as the moon and sun. As it turns out, it isn't so bad. If I am careful and observant, I think I can get a full disk shot of the sun in a 4 panel mosaic. If not, definitely a 6 panel shot. I guess I will be learning how to stitch mosaics together. With the Tucsen imager, I was able to get the full disk on chip, but just barely. To be honest, I don't mind stitching mosaic panels together because the quality is so much better anyway.

I also plan on doing lots of lunar and planetary work with this sweet camera. I will need to save my money for an LRGB filter set and a filter wheel so that I can get true color razor sharp shots. Until this I will be doing lots of practice in monochrome. The capture software that comes bundled with DMK-21 is amazing. Everything to control the parameters of the shot as well as capture can be added to a set of toolbars for quick and easy reference and use. It is pretty rock solid and a huge improvement over the AMCAP software I have been using. Frame rate is lightening fast, and I usually average 45fps on my system. I did a quick session today under the sun to gauge this cam's performance and I am very very pleased. Judge for yourself. Lunt 60 single-stack/b600/ tilt-tuned solar scope and DMK-21. Close shots use an astrotech 2x barlow. Captured today between 2100-2130UT.