A bit of advice needed

[speach]

Need advice from members that have both of these items. What do you recommend as my next purchase a guiding system or a dedicated astro camera, and the camera B&W or colour? (not video). At he moment I'm using a canon 1100d un-mod.ed and a 8"reflector, intend to go to 12". The mount is neq6 pro. Another question do I need a better mount?

[multiweb]

You can start getting a mono guider and a 8x50 finder. Use that with PHD and get used to auto-guiding. Then in the future maybe get a cooled CCD to image but the Canon is more than you need to get started doing some deep sky imaging. Your mount is ok.

[ZeroID]

The 8" is ok on the EQ6, the 12", I would think not.

[Camelopardalis]

I'm no expert, but I'd say the 1100D is pretty well matched to an 8" newt, should get you good resolution.

If you decide you want extra sensitivity down the red end, you can always get it modded. And for cooling, you can make a cooler box for use in summer relatively inexpensively. Take a look at the thread in the DIY/ATM section. I've found the noise to be quite reasonable as you get into single digit temperatures...pros with their big cooled CCDs would undoubtedly disagree :lol:

[doppler]

Check Jsmoraes pics out he uses a 12" GSO newt on an eq6pro.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=131074

[rustigsmed]

hi simon,

hmmm, perhaps a CF 10" would be a safer option on the neq6 pro? however the 8" newt NEQ6 combo is still very capable. I think you would be better off spending your money on upgrading to a cooled camera (whether it be OSC or mono) and an OAG... not sure what else you have accessory wise but even a motorised moonlite focuser etc are probably better $ spent - unless of course you are thinking more in terms of planetary imaging then the extra resolution would be handy but i'm not sure how the NEQ6 would handle a 12" I have seen them go ok with 10" carbon fibre newts.

russ

cheers

[Manav]

Any reason why you want to upgrade to a reflector especially for astrophotography?

[speach]

Bigger is better? Isn't it?

[rrussell1962]

I've used a 12 inch Newtonian OTA on the NEQ6 for visual only. I think you would be pushing it. For visual it is just about OK with no breeze. By the time you add tube rings, dovetail (wide dovetail instead of Vixen style vastly improves stability) and equipment you will, I think, be around the 25kg mark, for visual the combination was usable but I was never wholly satisfied with it. I'm not really an imager but I suggest that if a mount is being pushed for visual then it is unlikely to be a stable imaging platform.

[Eden]

How long are the exposures that you're shooting currently?

[speach]

Max 120 sec

[griz11]

Here is an article I found on matching telescopes to cameras.

http://www.astro-imaging.com/Tutorial/MatchingCCD.html

Get it too oversampled or undersampled and it will never look right. I've been told 2 arc sec per pixel is a good number for DSLR's. I've been doing some research in this area to try and optimize my set-up. This link is a bit heavy on the math but has a ton of good info on noise and other info on how the cameras work differences between the brands that help or hurt astro work.

https://theory.uchicago.edu/~ejm/pix/20d/tests/noise/noise-p2.html

I've been trying to wade through it. Lots of info there.

Griz