PANASONIC PV-S350. My first experience with video astronomy was with a Panasonic PV-S350 videocamera. Images were obtained by shooting with the Afocal Projection method and recording on VHS tape. The heavy camera was supported on a tripod and aimed through the telescopes eyepiece. The camera lens could then be "zoomed" to get the desired image sizes. The view was recorded to VHS or SVHS and frames were later grabbed to a PC via a Snappy and manipulated with Photoshop and other applications. The camera is rated at only 1 lux and therefore could only be used for bright targets at relatively small image scales.

SuperCircuits PC-23C video camera. This is the first camera I purchased solely for astroimaging. It has an automatic gain control (agc) and so to best image the brighter planets, it must be coupled to filters. I also found that my best results were obtained at high image scales. This probably helped counter the relatively lower resolution obtained from recording to VHS.

INTEL PC CS430 (INTEL PRO VIDEO PC CAMERA). The camera has an Audio/Video input plug in the back for importing video from a VCR or auxiliary camera into the computer via the USB port.I can take color AVI videos with the Intel camera or I can import video from my PC23C B&W video camera and record video directly to my laptops hard drive. Preliminary work indicates that this results in reduced noise compared to images compiled from frames grabbed from VHS tape using a Snappy frame grabber. It is also much quicker and easier to record onto the computer hard drive (using Vega to capture 320 x 240 frames @ 4 frames/second). I have had some problems with color balance with dimmer objects such as Saturn at high focal lengths. I also find it difficult to center and object and get fine focus while the camera is acquiring frames at a low rate. It is remarkable to see Jupiter on the moniter displaying vivid color. Colors on Jupiter appear much more subdued at the eyepiece of my 8”. The human eye is just not as sensitive to color as the webcam at these relatively low light levels.

  Philips ToUcam Pro Webcam. This is probably the best webcam available for astronomical images. These can obtain 640 x 480 video at up to 15 frames per second with my laptop. They are also very sensitive and can readily image stars down to about magnitude 12.5 with my 8" newtonian. Unfortunately, they are difficult to obtain in the United States. I obtained a used camera on eBay.