Profjohn, I have been working with John Kirchhoff, Manager of Riders Hobby Shop in Livonia, Michigan. [...] I must say that I am extremely pleased with my purchase of the Firewire version, DMK 21AF04.AS The results that I have obtained are far greater than I had anticipated.

I have captured and retained over 300gb of image data that continues to amaze me with its dynamic range and resolution. I am confident that images obtained with my C11 @ f/25 through a Baader IR Pass filter are reaching Dawes Limit (0.41 arc seconds).

Keep up the good work!

Thanks

Jim Frisbie

For those of you wondering how well The Imaging Source cameras work on Mac computers, here is quite a nice review of the first peak at Mars from Dave, with his new DBK 21AF04.AS in the UK.

It was only the second time I’d used the camera, the first time I’ve imaged Mars and the first time I’ve ever seen Mars through a telescope.

The camera, with Astro IIDC software on my Mac was a joy to use.

Regards
Dave

You can see more shots and comment on Dave’s first images in his blog.

The Imaging Source FireWire astronomy cameras can be connected with 10 meter (30+ feet) cables without signal loss or the aid of any type of repeater. Additionally, due to numerous requests from stargazers with remote observatories, The Imaging Source is now offering inexpensive electrical repeaters for the DMK 21AF04.AS (and its siblings).

Although the USB are as of yet untested, it is now possible to connect up to 5 repeaters with our 10 meter FireWire cables enabling stargazers to reach out 60 meters (197 feet) to their computing station.

With the new electrical repeaters from The Imaging Source, it is now easier to stay indoors, free from mosquitoes in the summer and warm and toasty in the winter, while remotely operating all of your imaging equipment. Stay tuned for the USB solution…

Bart Declercq wrote in recently to let us know about his gallery of Lunar images. He captured the images with a DMK 21AF04.AS, DBK 21AF04.AS and DMK 31AF03.AS.

Bart wrote:

I’ve been very, very happy with the results I’m getting with my [DMK 31AF03.AS].

Click on the following image to go to his web site:

Marnix Praet has send us the following review of one of our USB astronomy cameras. As Marnix’s primary language is not English, I have taken the liberty of correcting some of his text. The corrections took place at a linguistic level and not a content level. The review has also been slightly shortened into a blog-sized post.

Marnix writes:

First Impression Of New DMK USB 2.0 Camera

I am very pleased with the concept of a USB DMK camera. I have tested it on the almost full moon at rates between 15 and 60 fps and I have not lost one single frame - fantastic!

The software works fine by me. No complains about that.

The camera offers some good features: a nice histogram settings panel, while you are taking AVI’s. The noise reduction - a super feature for bad seeing conditions - great!

One small point: If you use noise reduction, you may see a raster on your image after processing with RegiStax.

The software is great. It works fine, without freezing and I have no bugs found for now.

The chip is a little on the small size, but its sensitivity is enormous.

I have taken some shots of the moon with my Meade apo and have tried out different filters, such as IR PRO, IR blocking, H-alpha.

This USB camera is a breakthrough for astrophotographers, who wish to capture the Moon and planets. It was a great experience and a pleasure to work with such a good camera (USB 2.0) and great software.

And a fantastic first night out.

Marnix Praet