ZWO ASI120MC-S 1.2 Megapixel USB3.0 Color Astronomy Camera for Astrophotography

This camera has done a fantastic job for me so far! This is the second Orion Nebula that I was able to capture with it

This camera is underrated. First, it comes with a wide field lens which allows you to capture huge sections of the sky at one time. In this photo you can clearly see the milky way and even the Andromeda galaxy which is the small oval saturn looking object near the bottom center of this image. This was a 60 sec.exposure at 50% gain. There was a little noise as expected but I was able to remove it with just a single dark frame. The view is looking straight up around midnight in August. What's really amazing is that this photo is so detailed without tracking! This camera is better known as a planetary camera and although it is an excellent planetary camera I purchased it for it's long exposure deep sky capability. The planetary capability and the wide angle lens make this product worth the price alone. The software for this camera is downloaded and installed from the manufacture's website which is actually more convenient and the software works great. The images of the Orion Nebula and the Whirlpool Galaxy were taken with this camera at the prime focus of a Meade 10" Equatorial Starfinder with a Lumicon Deep Sky filter and a .5 focal reducer. Sixty 15 sec. exposures were stacked as well as 25 dark, flat and bias frames as well as some post production adjustments to reveal as much detail as possible.

This camera is an amazing bargain! It works perfectly and at a low price. I connect it to my Celestron 6SE and use SharpCap. Its simple design and great photos and video capabilities make it a joy to use. I highly recommend this camera for planetary astrophotography.

Using a 4.5” reflector with a 900mm focal length. The picture above is my first image with this camera. I previously used the svbony sv105, which I found had too high of a read noise to work in anything other than lunar photography. The Asi120mc-s just blows away that camera, but for almost 3x the cost. However, I believe that the image quality is greater than 3x better than the sv105.

I used this camera in constructing an AllSky camera (Google it if you want to learn more) and it works awesome. This was well worth the money and I want to buy another for other projects. Super cool.

You would think the specifications might mention it may not work on a Mac. From the Zwo website itself : "Our ASI120MM/MC camera is not compatible very well with Mac OSX." However, they suggest one can try something called "ASIStudio". This does appear to allow some uses of the camera.

The camera does take pictures. The software I use is for Mac and not windows. I still have trouble getting good pictures with the camera. During the day it sees image with color and looks great, but the planet's do not show color or no detail. Probably needs more work on my part and understanding the app on the Mac to get a correct image of planets

This little camera does everything one wants -- color images of the planets plus telescope guiding on the planet.Hook the ST4 cable from the camera to the mount; start up FIRECAPTURE Shareware; acquire the target; set the FIRECAPTURE to "guide"; set the acquisition menu and then press "Start" and go to bed.Above is a series of Mars shots with my 5" D&G Refractor. Proof that Mars rotates!