tomta20012 0 Posted August 8, 2012 I'm a total newbie to photography and film, but I want to take up sky watching as a bit of a hobby. I have a great idea to purchase a relatively cheap low light sensitive cctv camera to hook up to my PC on top of a Pan Tilt drive and watch the stars from the comfort of my warm bedroom... I saw this cheap CCTV Camera on ebay... it looks ok, no complaints about it in the Sellers feed back section... I know people say not to trust china, but this can't be all that bad can it?? 540TVL Effio SONY CCD Security CCTV Day Night 27X Optical Zoom Auto Focus Camera http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/540TVL-Effio-SONY-CCD-Security-CCTV-Day-Night-27X-Optical-Zoom-Auto-Focus -Camera-/330761489333?pt=AU_Security_Equipment&hash=item4d02ebcbb5 Some stuff you can see sky watching for the curious Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yakky 0 Posted August 8, 2012 I'd think there would be much better options than a crappy CCTV camera. At night even with a very good analog camera, the noise reduction is going to smear whatever little detail there is to begin with. I mean, if you like looking at white dots on the screen, it might workout for you, but I'd HIGHLY recommend going with something like a CNB 24VF series camera as they have the best non illuminated night shot you are going to get in the sub $500 range. Personally, I would rather go another direction, if going homebrew, check into CHDK: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK It will let you remote control a canon P&S camera with an infinitely superior image sensor and will let you get some pretty long shutter times, meaning very crisp shots. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites