I have very recently become aware of a premier lunar imager that has been working in our back yard for quite a few years using The Imaging Source cameras. Bob Pilz, who is based in Asheville, NC, USA, has a tremendous portfolio in his galleries and great things to say about his DMK 21AF04. He recently wrote me:

I have been using a DMK 21BF04 for over the last two years to take lunar images. Its low noise, high sensitivity, and excellent capture software have made it a real pleasure to use. It has produced excellent results and is definitely a “best buy” in astronomical imaging systems.

You can see some of the images taken with my 8″ f/6 Newtonian here:
http://www.pbase.com/bob_p/moon_8_telescope

Thanks for a great product.

Your welcome and we welcome any and all feedback (especially the good stuff) from our users regarding astronomy cameras from The Imaging Source. Kudos to Bob and the work done!

The self proclaimed 16 Year Old Astrofreak - Chris Todd - has posted an image of Mars into the NJ Night Sky forum.

Chris comments the image with:

So far I favor this camera over the DFK and I’m happy I bought it. It shows much more detail than I ever picked up with the DFK and if it weren’t for the bad seeing, I’d have a pretty nice image on my hands. Hopefully I get some clear skies later this week and can try again but so far I’d recommend this camera to anyone on a budget looking to upgrade from their webcam or somebody just getting into imaging since the software (IC Capture[.AS]) is very easy to use.

You can also read the original thread in the forum.