Reviews

On top of all this, the camera produces lower noise that its predecssor and the DMK did not. This is brought about by the hardware employed in the Skynyx. And; more importantly the above specs really mean better images when the conditions are good.

Use

This camera is best used with a third party capture program. The Lumenera capture software that comes with the camera is not suitable whatsoever for planetary imaging. The best program I have found is the Lucam Recorder. It controls the camera really when, with features like auto rotation of filter wheel, preset controls of gain, exposure, histogram observation and gamma for each independant colour being recorded. You don't have to touch the gain or exposure once a imaging run commences.

The camera itself is great to use; fast with low noise is what a planetary imager really wants. Using the 8 bit mode is really robbing the image you want to produce. although it can sometimes be useful in really average seeing. That said, I have subsequently found that the 12 bit mode is the way to go. Even is less than great seeing the extra data collected more than makes up for the loss of really good frames. You might want to keep in mind that running the camera on a Vista machine requires an external hard drive and download rates don't get much higher than 31 frames per second.

It does have a few small problems though. The power port next to the USB port can be a trap for those not familiar with this type of camera. A good friend accidently fried his first camera when he plugged his filter wheel power into the power port. So that really does not need to either have a cap over it or removed altogether.

The other thing with this camera is that it has a lot of trouble with newtons rings when imaging the Sun in Ha. The light is so bright that it causes some refraction between the filter over the chip and the chip itself. The rings only form when the distance between two surfaces is close enough to form the rings. So I think the camera should not have the filter installed, expecially given that the cover plate is serving the purpose of keeping dust out. Mind you it really is not that big a problem.

Final comments

Despite the small problems with the camera I am really happy with it's performance. It has netted me some great images this year (2008) and has elevated my planetary, lunar and solar imaging beyond expectation. I thoroughly recommend this product to all that are looking to get the edge on their images.

Lumenera Skynyx 2-0
I bought the Skynyx 2-0 during 2007 as a replacement to my firewire DMK21AF04. The idea being that this camera would better suit my planetary imaging. I based this in part on planetary imagers such as Damian Peach, Pete Lawrence and Dave Tyler. They had obtained such good results with this camera that I felt sure they were on to a good thing. I did however look at other models such as those offered by Point Grey Research but found that the price differential was far to great for the potential gains that could be made. As it was this camera cost over 1000 USD and then I was forced to pay GST on it when it arrived in Australia.
Build and Specs The skynyx is a purpose built imaging camera for planetary imaging. Its build is reflective of this fact in that the body is made from a solid casing of aluminium and the unit is sealed from dust with the anti reflective glass cover plate over the chip. Important features of the Skynyx are as follows: the camera runs in 8 or 12 bit rates in monochrome. Possible rates of 60fps for 640x480 capture. Although higher frame rates can be achieved with using the ROI features. Further more the unit has a well depth of 40,000 e-/ul> which means that the higher well depth allows for increased sensitivity.
On top of all this, the camera produces lower noise that its predecssor and the DMK did not. This is brought about by the hardware employed in the Skynyx. And; more importantly the above specs really mean better images when the conditions are good. Use This camera is best used with a third party capture program. The Lumenera capture software that comes with the camera is not suitable whatsoever for planetary imaging. The best program I have found is the Lucam Recorder. It controls the camera really when, with features like auto rotation of filter wheel, preset controls of gain, exposure, histogram observation and gamma for each independant colour being recorded. You don't have to touch the gain or exposure once a imaging run commences. The camera itself is great to use; fast with low noise is what a planetary imager really wants. Using the 8 bit mode is really robbing the image you want to produce. although it can sometimes be useful in really average seeing. That said, I have subsequently found that the 12 bit mode is the way to go. Even is less than great seeing the extra data collected more than makes up for the loss of really good frames. You might want to keep in mind that running the camera on a Vista machine requires an external hard drive and download rates don't get much higher than 31 frames per second. It does have a few small problems though. The power port next to the USB port can be a trap for those not familiar with this type of camera. A good friend accidently fried his first camera when he plugged his filter wheel power into the power port. So that really does not need to either have a cap over it or removed altogether. The other thing with this camera is that it has a lot of trouble with newtons rings when imaging the Sun in Ha. The light is so bright that it causes some refraction between the filter over the chip and the chip itself. The rings only form when the distance between two surfaces is close enough to form the rings. So I think the camera should not have the filter installed, expecially given that the cover plate is serving the purpose of keeping dust out. Mind you it really is not that big a problem. Final comments Despite the small problems with the camera I am really happy with it's performance. It has netted me some great images this year (2008) and has elevated my planetary, lunar and solar imaging beyond expectation. I thoroughly recommend this product to all that are looking to get the edge on their images.

		EARTH & COSMOS

Lumenera Skynyx 2-0