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Tim
sage
Reged: 08/04/04
Posts: 382
Loc: North of Toronto
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I have 9.25" celestron nexstar gps and digital camera 3.2 mp and a 35 mm slr and would like to know what ccd camera would be good for a begginer,I dont think colour matters at this point and a black white camera wood be ok. I would like to start with a cheaper camera $1000.00 or less to see if I like it and then in the future upgrade to a quality ccd system. Anyone have any reccomendations as to where to start?
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Vixen Sphinx sxd
Coronado PST. Vixen Porta Mount
Canon dslr, Neximage, Orion Auto guider
Mergrez 110mm refractor
Nexstar 9.25 gps
8" Meade f6 sct
6" Meade sct Newtonian ota
Televue Panoptic eyepieces, binoviewer 8' dome
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daev
Technically Enlightened
Reged: 03/10/04
Posts: 6587
Loc: On the edge of the desert
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I'm biased, but the Canon digital Rebel fits very nicely into the price range...... The Nikon D70 is close as well. Plenty of examples from each to be found here and via google.....
dave
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"Yes, I know it's flat here. When the seeing is good you can stand on a beer can and see Toronto...."
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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An Atik ATK-2HS might be worth checking out if your looking for a new B&W CCD. It goes for around $500.
Some used Starlight Xpress CCD used systems sometimes fall in your price range. Check on Astromart.com.
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jrcrilly
Refractor wienie no more
Reged: 04/30/03
Posts: 30716
Loc: NE Ohio
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The problem with dedicated CCD imagers in that price range is the combination of a tiny imaging chip and the C9.25's long focal length. The resulting image field will be very small. A DSLR has MUCH larger chip, providing reasonable image scale at those longer focal lengths at an affordable price.
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John C
Battle Cry of Reno
http://www.wadsworthobservatory.com
My Cloudy Nights gallery
AT12RC
AT65EDQ
QSI683WSG-8
Roper Scientific Quantix 6303E "project" camera
mystery EQ mount on the way
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TeamGS
Post Laureate
.gif)
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 3073
Loc: Elk Grove, CA
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Hey Tim,
Since it doesn't appear as if the 9.25 is Fastar compatible like the 8" and 11", you will definately want a focal reducer/field flattener. A 6.3 or 3.3 would work nicely. I also agree John, regarding the StarlightXpress line, mainly because that's the only one I have owned! 
I got my MX7-C for around $1200, which included the STAR2000 autoguiding module. Not too bad for an self guiding sincle shot color camera. You can get the MX716 for even less, if you only need B/W, though you can add filters later. A used SBIG ST7 is around $1000, and is self guiding, and b/w, but can take a filter wheel later for another $800.
BTW, $1000 doesn't necessarily equate with lesser quality. A slightly older model, that is used, will run much less than a top of the line new one. The MX7-C was StarlightXpress's top of the line camera a few years back.
Regards,
Gary
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Celestron 80ED
Losmandy G11
NexStar 80
Starlight Xpress SXV-H9
SXV guidehead, ToUcam 840
http://www.teamgs.org/astrophotography.htm
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Check out www.astromart.com, you can get a pretty good deal on ST7 for around 1K can't beat that
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Blueshark928
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/19/04
Posts: 2853
Loc: Crownsville, MD
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I'm with Alec, if you only gonna use the C9.25, a self guiding camera is a the way to go.
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John
SV-102APO
SV-80/9d
Losmandy G11
HX-916
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Tim
sage
Reged: 08/04/04
Posts: 382
Loc: North of Toronto
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From a newbie point of view what is the major differences between a dslr and astro specific ccd camera when it comes to astrophotography. if you can get a bigger chip with a dslr for less money then why wood anyone buy the standalone ccd camera if the only difference is a auto guider. I am guessing you have more control settings or options on stand alone ccd system.
Maybe I should be asking at what point does it make sense to go the dslr route or to the stand alone ccd camera?
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Vixen Sphinx sxd
Coronado PST. Vixen Porta Mount
Canon dslr, Neximage, Orion Auto guider
Mergrez 110mm refractor
Nexstar 9.25 gps
8" Meade f6 sct
6" Meade sct Newtonian ota
Televue Panoptic eyepieces, binoviewer 8' dome
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Blueshark928
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/19/04
Posts: 2853
Loc: Crownsville, MD
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It makes sense if you can sucessfully guide the DSLR/SCT. You best option is an Off Axis Guider if you go that route.
On the upside, if you can get your mount to track dead on you can go unguided for 30-60 sec and stack shots. Lots of guys here doing this.
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John
SV-102APO
SV-80/9d
Losmandy G11
HX-916
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TeamGS
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 3073
Loc: Elk Grove, CA
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Hey Tim,
I am no expert, but as I understand it, the major difference is sensitivity. A dedicated CCD camera is overall more sensitive than a DSLR, and, in addition, the DSLR has a very agressive IR blocking filter, which lowers the red response. The DSLR, however, has a much larger FOV for the money than a CCD.
Here's an article:
http://www.allaboutastro.com/articles.html#Digital%20SLRs%20versus%20Astronomical%20CCDs
Look for the link describing the difference between DSLR and CCD.
I personally went with the CCD, because, for $1200, I could get autoguiding and color imaging, whereas, with the rebel, I would have been at $2000 at least to get guiding.
Regards,
Gary
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Celestron 80ED
Losmandy G11
NexStar 80
Starlight Xpress SXV-H9
SXV guidehead, ToUcam 840
http://www.teamgs.org/astrophotography.htm
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
the major differences between a dslr and astro specific ccd camera when it comes to astrophotography
Here are few advantages to a astro specific CCD (IMHO):
1. The chips are more sensitive, especially the mono chips. This means you will pick up more in shorter exposure times than with a DSLR.
2. The CCD chips are usually cooled, DSLRs are not. If stacking shorter exposures, this may not be an issue. If doing single exposures beyond a few minutes for increased signal to noise, this is the realm of dedicated CCDs.
3. Smaller chips are not always a bad thing, they do give you higher magnification. If I remember Suk's formula correctly, its the focal length of the scope (mm) divided by the diagonal of the chip (mm).
4. You can bin dedicated CCDs for greater sensitivity. This combines pixels to act as one large pixel. It decreases your image size, but the increased sensitivity is great for faint DSOs. If doing RGB color imaging on distant galaxies, binning your images is a must for good results.
5. Some have the ability to guide themselves like the SBigs and some Starlight Xpress CCDs. This would eliminate the need for a guidescope setup. As mentioned earlier, this might be the best route if imaging at long focal lengths.
As far as the advantages to a DSLR, they have larger chips which will give you a larger field of view. They can also be used as a regular digital camera when not doing astro work, while dedicated CCDs are not recommended for this. They are color chips obviously, where if you bought a B&W astro CCD you would need to invest in RGB filters & filter wheel to do color imaging. You also have large image scales with DSLRs. With a Canon 300D you get 3072x2048, where a ST7 is 765x510. Any dedicated astro CCD in the $1000 range can't compare to the array size of a DSLR.
Blueshark, am I forgetting anything?
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Blueshark928
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/19/04
Posts: 2853
Loc: Crownsville, MD
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Nope!
If you go the DSLR route, just get a quality OAG. Stay away from the meade and celestron units. They're not that good. I have the meade unit, i tried it once and havnt tried it again
The Lumicon Easy Guider or Taurus Tracker are much better OAGs.
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John
SV-102APO
SV-80/9d
Losmandy G11
HX-916
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Tim
sage
Reged: 08/04/04
Posts: 382
Loc: North of Toronto
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Thank you for the astro link it's been alot of help explaining the differences and has comparison photo's of ccd versus DSLR. I now have a much better understanding between the two.
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Vixen Sphinx sxd
Coronado PST. Vixen Porta Mount
Canon dslr, Neximage, Orion Auto guider
Mergrez 110mm refractor
Nexstar 9.25 gps
8" Meade f6 sct
6" Meade sct Newtonian ota
Televue Panoptic eyepieces, binoviewer 8' dome
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