2019-07-01_Australian_Sky_&_Telescope

68 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE July 2019

AS&T TEST REPORT by Dennis di Cicco

ALL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR

Meade’s DSI-IV camera

Could this be the best astronomical camera yet offered by Meade?

The answer depends on your imaging interests.

DIGITAL IMAGING HAS BEEN part

of amateur astronomy for more than

three decades. It’s a sobering thought

for those of us who’ve been there since

the beginning. Over the years, Meade

has introduced a number of astronomy

cameras, but the newest — the DSI-IV —

might be the best one yet. It all depends

on your imaging interests.

The DSI-IV is a highly versatile

camera capable of recording high-

resolution video of the Moon and

planets as well as quality long exposures

of faint deep sky objects. It’s built around

a cooled, 16-megapixel Panasonic CMOS

detector with 3.8-micron-square pixels

in a 4,640-by-3,506-pixel array. The

sensor’s imaging area measures 17.6 by

13.3 mm, making it slightly smaller than

the APS chips in today’s crop-sensor

DSLR cameras.

For this review we borrowed a

monochrome version of the DSI-IV

What we like

Highly versatile

astronomical camera

Excellent thermoelectric

cooling system

Rugged design and

construction

What we don’t like

Included software

has excellent video-

capture features, but

long-exposure imaging

controls could be

improved

from Meade. A one-shot colour version

is also available for a little less money.

The camera is roughly 90 mm in

diameter, 100 mm long and is very

well made. It weighs 700 grams and

is supplied with a 2-inch nosepiece. It

will reach focus on any telescope that

has a focal point extending at least

18 millimetres outside of the focuser

drawtube. With the proper adapters

it will easily work with focal reducers,

tele-extenders and most field flatteners,

leaving enough room for a filter wheel

or low-profile off-axis guider.

The DSI-IV’s regulated

thermoelectric cooling easily dropped

the CMOS sensor to the specified

maximum 40°C below ambient

temperature, with sufficient overhead

to maintain accurate temperature

regulation — an important feature

for deep sky imaging. There are eight

small heating elements bonded to

the perimeter of the CMOS chamber

window that were effective at keeping

the window free from fog. While I never

needed to use it, there’s also a threaded

port on the side of the camera for

attaching a supplied desiccant module

that offers added fogging protection.

A single USB 3.0 cable between

the camera and your computer is all

that’s needed to connect and power the

camera. The 12-volt adapter that comes

with the DSI-IV, with its additional

cable connection to the camera, is

needed only for the cooling system, and

is thus really only mandatory for long-

exposure imaging. It’s worth noting

that the supplied USB 3.0 cable is only

1.5 m long. I was able to keep my laptop

close enough to my telescopes to work

Meade DSI-IV

monochrome camera

US price: $1,099

(one-shot colour version US$999)

meadeaustralia.com.au

tMeade’s new DSI-IV camera comes as a

complete package with a 2-inch nosepiece,

USB 3.0 computer cable, 12-volt adapter

and cables (needed only for the camera’s

cooling system), operating software on a

CD-ROM, and rugged, waterproof case. The

little, sealed plastic bag at right contains a

desiccant module that attaches to the camera

to help prevent fogging of the CMOS chamber

window. The author didn’t need to use it.