SVBONY SV105 Telescope Camera, 1.25" USB2.0 IMX307 CMOS Color Astrophotography Camera, Electronic Telescope Eyepiece for Telescope, Suitable for Astrophotography Beginners

I bought this camera because I had been using my DSLR for planetary and deep sky shots. The deep sky are nice, but the planetary exposures never got the detail I needed. And the DSLR I have doesn't allow you to adjust much of the video settings, so planets were often overexposed. One of the issues is the size of the sensor compared to the image falling on it. My camera is 12M pixels, which sounds like a lot compare to this 2M unit, but the sensor is so much bigger, it means the sensor pixels are larger. When you do prime focus photography (camera hooked up to your scope directly), even with a 2X barlow, the image is so small, coupled with the larger sensor pixels, it is difficult to get good resolution of planet details. Even using a projection setup (projecting from a telescope lens onto the cameras sensor - I used a 15mm lens) I still could not get good resolution.After looking at a bunch of information on astrophotography, I decided I wanted to try a dedicated camera. Which to choose? There is a ton of information out there and a lot depended on how much you were willing to pay. I decided to get the most reputable cheap unit I could find. Enter SVBONY 105. I got it on sale so it was even less than the normal $50. I thought I would see if I even enjoyed this before sinking significant money into it. The unit is aluminum and has a solid feel to it. The 1.25" barrel fit tightly into the telescope (almost a little too tight, it was sometimes awkward to switch between lens and camera but just a little sanding of the outer barrel and it will fit nicely).My original scope was an older Celestron 4". The first night I tried to use this was unbelievably frustrating as my scope didn't track well enough to be able to play with the settings in SharpCap to get a good picture. The advantage of a small sensor is its great resolution. The downside is that it is a very small spot to hit, and if you don't have a good tracking scope, you are constantly chasing the object. After a couple of attempts, I put this away and went back to the DSLR.Time passed and I got a newer Celestron 6SE. When aligned well, this scope stays LOCKED on your target. What a joy compared to the other scope. So, again, I started playing around with the DSLR and again, was disappointed with the results. I held off using this camera because I have to set up in my alley and it is just harder to drag out a computer and table and run power. Last night, however, I decided to do it. With the scope aligned I locked on to Jupiter and Saturn. After centering the planets in the eyepiece, I swapped in the camera and BAM, there were these beauties in all their glory. Detail was easy to make out, and with the scope locked on to them, I had the chance to take really good shots of the two. Jupiter was a little low so the seeing wasn't that good, but Saturn was high and beautiful. The attached picture is Saturn made with a 2X barlow and from a run of 1000 frames at 640x480 with SER output. I prepped the video in PIPP, stacked in AutoStakkert (using best 50%), sharpened them in RegiStax, and made some adjustments in GIMP (all software is free, thanks guys for allowing average Joes to get into astrophotography on the cheap). I was super happy with the results. I have never taken as good a picture of Saturn before. I plan to use this camera for a bit because I think it is going to help me decide what my next camera will be. I think I like the SVBONY 305, but we will see. Until then, I am going to enjoy how much better this $50 camera is capturing the heavens than my $600 DSLR.If you are new to astrophotography, want to get an introduction to a dedicated astro camera, are not bothered by setting up some extra equipment, and have a good tracking scope or someone to help, then this is such a small price to pay. Just know, if you enjoy it as much as me, you will probably quickly outgrow it and look for more capability (higher resolution, less noise, actively cooled sensor, etc). Hope this helps those of you on the fence.

I own a Celestron Starsense 130 and I been playing for some time, very nice telescope and easy to use but it gets anowing that everyone in the family have different Eyewear and we need to adjust the scope to every person eyes.I purchased the SVBONY camera and in 15 minutes I was streaming the scope view on my laptop to everyone enjoyment on the house.Thing to know:You need a dedicated program for connecting the camera to the laptop, i used the one from SVBONY ( very basic) but there are many outthere.The picture on the laptop is very good quality but you need to adjust the frames and exposure depend what you want to see.I find that using a lunar or light-pollution lents screwed on the camera help to have a clear and sharper picture.The programs on the computer saves the videos on .SAR files ( very new to me) and you need a .SAR files reader program on the computer to see the videos back.I'm very happy with this camera for this low price.

Poor instructions needed to find proper instructions online, pictures seem decent for a baseline camera.

Tried everything to get it to work on my desktop, I7 Windows 10 Pro, but it would freeze at any attempt to record or take a snapshot. Finally got it to work on my laptop, same OS, same software. It just isn't happy with some hardware. For the price it is worth the hassle. Could be the third party app. but others have had same issues.

I am not attempting astrophotography with this device. I wanted an inexpensive way to connect my Celestron NexStar 8SE to my phone screen so that my grandkids can look through the scope. They find the eyepiece too hard.I have the NexStar 10MP camera for astrophotography , but there are no Android phone drivers/apps for UVC cameras so it only will connect to a Windows laptop - which is fine but not what I wanted for casual viewing with the kiddos. I found it very difficult to get any clear advice on alternatives (...and got told I didn't want to do this anyway. Which was weird!). I took a small chance on this $60 camera and is does exactly what I wanted.I connected it directly to the phone with an OTG connector using a simple 'Endoscope App' from the PlayStore and it worked first time with no problems. Focus is via the telescope and it renders very well given that it is only 2MP. I use OTG connections on my phone for other devices so I had the permissions set - ymmv.I don't know how quickly it would drain the phone without external power. SVBONY imply that there is a significant power draw with this device (who knows) as they provide a tandem cable to connect to an external USB power source at the same time. I couldn't get that to work. Instead I connected my phone to an external power pack (so it would charge) at the same time, using this tandem OTG connector https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096DBNNPH (~$11.00). This works fine for me, and I already had both items.All in all this works very well within its limitations. It is easy to use with minimal setup and is excellent value for money

Decent starter telescope camera. Beware tho, astrophotography can be addictive! Camera does what it's advertised to do.