Advice please: ASI 224MC COOL or ASI 290MC COOL

lyndengate

I have been using Meade DSI II Colour for planetary images (on Meade 12" LX90), and DSI III mono for DSO (on WO 80ED) for some time and recently saw amazing photos of Jupiter and Mars taken with ASI224MC that left for dead anything I've been able to achieve. So I'm now very keen to acquire an ASI camera.

Whilst the primary purpose for this camera will be one shot colour planetary imaging, I'd also like to be able to use this for DSO imaging - hence the need for COOL.

From going through the files in this forum and elsewhere it looks like either ASI 224MC COOL or ASI 290MC COOL would be the appropriate camera, however I am having difficulty choosing between these and would like some advice please. Thanks

mktmgrjrm

From the chart put together by Agena Astro (http://agenaastro.com/media/documents/zwo-buyers-guide-agena.pdf), it looks like the ASI290 is faster and has a larger sensor/smaller pixel size (which gives it higher resolution). Both seem to be equivalently rated for the targets you've defined. I decided on the ASI290, but got the mono version - the ASI224 doesn't have a mono model.

lyndengate

Thanks for that info - very helpful. I read on this forum in March 2016 that Sam posted along the lines of - for mono go with 290, for colour go for 224 - so your choice of ASI290MM aligns with this.

In this instance I'm really after the Colour camera, and I'd really like to check if that advice from Sam still holds ie maybe there has been improvements in one or both cameras' capability etc since March 2016, and possibly if anyone has had knowledge/experience with either. Thanks