SVBONY SV305 Telescope Camera, 2MP Astronomy Camera IMX290 Sensor 128M DDR Buffer, 1.25“ Planetary for Photography with Extension Tube & C-mount Lens Adapter, Suitable for Beginner in Astrophotography

Short version: amazing camera at an amazing price. Buy it, I'm glad I did.Long version: I'm back into astronomy after losing my eyesight to macular degeneration. Sold all my equipment to a school for pennies on a dollar and never thought I'd go stargazing again. But modern medicine helped me recover my eyesight and astronomy is possible again.Worried that my eyesight might fade again (it hasn't), I decided the new field of Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA) was the way to go. New camera technology has made it possible to capture images and live video through a telescope for display on a computer screen making it easier to see celestial objects and much easier to share with kids, elderly parents and neighbors, and even total strangers. Think of it as a streaming TV show about the heavens, but with a point and shoot camera built-in.I needed a telescope, of course, and found an excellent Amazon Warehouse Deal here, but years of experience meant that I knew finding a camera would be my real challenge. Astrophotography, especially of deep-sky objects, requires sophisticated camera technology that can cost thousands of dollars and that was out of the question. Then I read in an astronomy forum about a new camera, the SvBONY SV-305, at an incredibly low price.The third in a series of astronomy cameras from SvBONY, the SV305 is entirely different from the simple SV105 and SV205. In fact, it's unfortunate that the company called it the SV305 implying it was just a better SV205. It's not, its a completely different and much more capable camera. In fact, the company bills the camera as a planetary camera implying that it's only suitable for capturing images of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars -- maybe Venus. But my first efforts with the SV305 produced a lovely image of the Orion Nebula (M42).You'll need a laptop to use the camera. The SV305 is controlled by software; a popular (and free) program called SharpCap does the job very well. (SvBONY will soon release a new driver for the camera that will let it work with most other astronomy programs on both Mac, PC, and Linux.)The SV305 camera is based on the amazingly sensitive Sony IMX290MC color sensor. Unlike older CCD cameras that required very long exposures (and thus expensive telescope tripods and clock drive mounts that track the stars), the SV305's CMOS sensor allowed me to capture images of the moon in fractions of a second (millisecond exposures, in fact) using the rickety tabletop tripod included with the telescope I bought. (The $200 Orion 4.5" reflector is widely regarded as a great scope, but the accessories are basically junk.) I liked the results so much I bought a quality tripod and mount, and use it to take a series of 800 one-second images that were combined (stacked) by SharpCap to produce the great image of M42 mentioned earlier.So what's wrong with the SV305? Nothing really, unless you want to make one of those silly comparisons with, say, a $2000 camera. But that's like comparing a Ford to a Ferrari--the cars and the cameras are designed for very different purposes, for very different buyers.I scoured the web and didn't find anything that has the same capabilities for anything near the price. In fact, there are several cameras that use the same Sony sensor and they sell for about $150 more.Bottom line: For the price, you won't find a better entry-level astronomy camera value.

Works great for imaging bright deep sky objects, moon, and planets. A few things to note:- This camera is only as good as your telescope & tracking mount.- Get a focusing mask.- It has no fan, so don't expect it to be noiseless for long-exposure images.- Requires two USB connections. If you don't have two USB ports right next to each other, spend some money on a USB hub with at least two connections.Great starter camera and you can use it for some intermediate stuff too. Would strongly recommend over a DSLR or most intro planetary cameras for taking pictures of the moon and planets. Preforms way better than a DSLR that costs 10 times as much. All above images were taken with an 80mm refractor.As for software, I would recommend using SharpCap for capturing images. Absolutely amazing software package that allows for both planetary and deep sky images. When stacking images of planets, I recommend Autostakkert2! and using Registax for wavelet and post processing.

Bought it for planetary camera shots. It has a very narrow field of view and is not highly sensitive to light.They say it behaves like a 5mm eyepiece, that seems true.So to use it you need a motorised mount as the subject exits the field of view fast. This is true of any photo setup for larger optics.The software is a third party download. I bought the full version, but the free one works.I had to use two reducers on my meade LX90 8"' reflector to get moon shots and a moon filter. Getting the color not to be green or pink takes a lot of fiddling with tho color controls.I left the gain half way and used exposure time to get my shots.I did not do any stacking just single shots.Came out not too bad for a cheap camera. You will have to wait for planets to be at their closest for good shots. I doubt you could get any deep sky stuff unless its wicked bright.If you try the longer exposure times, you start to see dotted pixels of different colors due to the sensor heating up.The most difficult parts are to get the target in the center of view so the camera can see it and to get the focus right. If its too far out of focus you will see nothing. Also make sure your finder scope is dead on center with the eyepiece to find the targetI got better shots with my Canon EOS 70E and an adapter, but its a way more expensive option. Also it is color filtered for terrestrial use and not sensitive to some space color frequencies, so an astro camera is better for this.All in all not bad. Good starter and cheap. You will need to get a good reducer in my opinion.Software takes a lot of playing and patience with it. But I found it fun.