Build your own Astronomical Camera!

The French AUDE team created the concept to design a camera that was affordable to amateur astronomers, but still gave high quality images. The result was the Genesis camera. The main reason that it is affordable for the amateur astronomer is that the Genesis camera is built by the individual. The camera is a modified version of the Audine Camera, it is small, lightweight and relatively easy to construct. It also has a built in heat sink and cooling fan so there are no fears about it overheating during use. As long as you have a minimum understanding of electronics, understand resistor colour codes and Digital Multimeters and basically know how to solder, there should be no problems in building this camera. Along with the instructions, that can be found here, The camera is expected to take 4-5 evenings to build.

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By providing a camera that must be built by the individual owner, the camera not only becomes cheaper but the amateur astronomer can learn more about the camera and how it works. The Genesis camera is the camera for astronomers who want to learn. The camera is also made easier to modify by this. If the astronomer knows how to build the camera, they can also exchange parts of it to modify its operation to suit their use. The camera uses a Kodak CCD sensor for its imaging. These can be bought as part of some of the camera kits or purchased separately. This sensor allows the camera to be adapted to suit the astronomer.

 Even though the camera is designed to be built by the individual buyer, it can be bought ready made. A complete camera, with large Daco shutter, is priced at around $845 US. A complete camera kit costs around $773 US, but some important parts still need to be purchased separately. As other model camera can easily reach into the $8000 US price range, the genesis has definitely supplied a high quality camera for a more affordable price.

 Once connected to a decent telescope and a computer, the relevant software packages can be downloaded sometimes for free, high quality pictures can be easily achieved with the use of this camera.  

Copyright 2008

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