IC 5146: Cocoon Nebula

02 June 2022

After shooting a long time with a stock DSLR it is finally time to upgrade to a dedicated astro camera. As I want to stay compatible with the ASIAIR I have to stick to ZWO cameras. I also don't want to go down the rabbit hole of shooting with a mono camera so it has to be a one-shot-color camera. The candidates matching my needs and financial boundaries are the ASI183MC Pro, ASI294MC Pro, and the ASI533MC Pro. The 183 I ruled out very early so I wanted to choose between the 294 and the 533, and while the 533 has a vastly superior sensor (basically no amp glow), the square image format is nothing I can imaging enjoying, as I print most of my images in a three by two ratio.

I had the chance to test the ZWO ASI294MC Pro before deciding to buy it and the image above is the result of this test. Sadly we had rather mixed weather and It was only time for an image with a total exposure of just under an hour. However, processing the image was a joy and nothing compared to an image taken with a stock DSLR.

Now I am looking forward to my own copy of this camera and all the images I will take with it.