Birthday Budget.....

[Screwdriverone]

Hi All,

With an impending bonus coming my way, I have been given by the minister of finances.....a maximum limit of $650 to spend on a (and I quote) "astronomical camera thingy" that I have been ruminating on.....

Now, with the experience of Poita's QHY8 in the bank (yes I have used it more than once, but not had much luck with processing) I have decided to shelve the $1500 budget idea for now and stick with my 1000D DSLR and build a light box and cool box as I am quite (relatively) adept at driving it with Backyard EOS (awesome program)

So....with this and the aforementioned budget of $650 in mind, here is what I am thinking.

1) DBK 21AU618.AS for $499 from Bintel.

This will kind of replace my tired old Philips Toucam as a guide cam as well as let me (hopefully) take some MUCH better quality planetary shots with my scope and my 5x powermate.....hmmmm.....yummy. PLUS, I can play around with its long exposure mode and see what its like....(not holding my breath, but anyway)

2) Astronomik CLS clip in filter for the EOS. I have mighty bad LP from my back yard and as I am spoiled with Wifi, power, coffee and comfy chairs, it is my preferred imaging location with cold winter nights on the way.... I think I might give this a bash and work around the blue colour cast issue with CWB and see how it goes, rather than wait for a Hutech IDAS LPS from OS. $169 from Bintel also.

Those are my thoughts for now, unless anyone has any other suggestions or places I can get these locally or second hand to save some cash.....

Discuss......;)

Cheers

Chris

[White Rabbit]

I can vouch for the cls clip, I have two. The eos clip for my 1000D and the 2" for my 5dmkii. I'd go for the 2" as this will do any camera but the eos clip will only fit your cannon camera. The good thing about the clip though is that you can clip it into the camera and then attach certain lenses on to the camera. the kit lenses that come the camera wont work but L series do.
I wouldnt worry about the blue cast and you can adjust that with with the histogram. Or if you do a back ground extraction/colour correction that should also sort out the blue cast.
Heres a link with an image taken with my 5dmkii and the cls, this is unprocessed (80Mb) so you can see the blue cast and will give you a feel for the filter. have a play with it and see what you think.

Thanks
Sandy

[White Rabbit]

The link would help I guess. files.me.com/sandy073/89a55p (https://files.me.com/sandy073/89a55p)
Here is a link to the thread where there are few differnt renditions of the same file to show you that the blue cast is not an issue.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=87520&highlight=white+rabbit

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Sandy,

Thats some handy info, I know the Hutech is preferred, simply because this issue is not present when using one, but I am trying to keep within budget so the EOS clip seems the way to go.

Your info and post shows me how it can be done and does help a lot, thanks for taking the time out to share this with me. I will give this tiff a go and see how it feels...

Thanks

Chris

[Shiraz]

hi Chris. DBK sounds good. not sure what gear you have, but if you dont have a motor focuser, get one - I have a Moonlite one and it makes life so much easier. There are add on adapters for the standard skywatcher focuser but you will have to ask others how well they work. Regards ray

[Poita]

Or make me an offer on the QHY8, I could be persuaded to upgrade to the QHY8L for my hyperstar addiction...

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Ray,

I have an electric focuser which is fitted to the scope right now...:) Skywatcher one.



Hmmm, tempting Peter, I am having difficulty picking up guide stars in sparse areas and the toucam is getting tired....LP is going to be an ongoing problem so my best bet for now I think is to stick with the DSLR and grab the DBK and CLS filter.

I was hoping for some QHY Leo triplet time last night but there were freaking clouds for so long I gave up on the idea. Hopefully tonight I can plan to grab some data if it stays clear. Work has been ridiculous so I have had no time to do anything recently.

A week to wait for my cash, so its gunna be hard to wait....must keep busy.

Cheers

Chris

[Poita]

I personally think cooling the DSLR and ripping out the filter is wasted money.
Anyway, I'm tied up with uni until the end of May, so don't race out and spend any money yet, you can hang onto the camera *at least* for another month, 4 subjects means no time available for imaging! It is best if the camera stays with you so I avoid temptation.
So hold onto your $$, who knows what might turn up in the next month?

I can send you up an OIII filter and a DBK21 to play with as well if you want.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the offer, I should have the DBK618 in my hot little hands by the end of next week and this is the camera that I was looking at before the budget blew out to $1500 for a CCD recently....

As you know, I have reset my expectations somewhat, and dedicated CCD will have to wait a bit (never, if SWMBO has her way). I picked up a CPU cooler and fan as well as an GPU fan for $5 each at the local PC shop so as soon as I can get some aluminium or copper for the box, and a $15 peltier, the coolbox is a go. Pretty cheap for cooling the 1000D as well as optionally the son's 550D or later on (if I decide to splurge) maybe even the 60Da! (same price as a QHY8L-ish).

I have no real plans to rip out the UVIR filter in any of the cams yet, so its longer subs with less noise and LP for me for now, with the limited budget I have available at the moment. I am keen to see how much easier it should be to process without my horrendous light pollution I have here and I can also use that filter for some widefield tracked shots I have been hankering to take.

Thanks for letting me hang on to the QHY8, I will endeavour to put it to good use tonight if the wind dies down a bit and the sky stays clear, (fingers crossed) as I am keen to try it on Leo's M65&M66 for some CCD goodness. I will take good care of it, who knows.....it may even sway me over to the dark side again if I get the hang of it.

I really do need a better video/guider than the toucam, its getting harder to find a good star in PHD even with the nicer 50mm guidescope. I was getting cranky with it the other night as the loss of guidestars kept screwing up the guiding and ruining my shots, even with the gain set to auto and the subs of 3 -5 secs to bring up the SNR. PLUS, this thing will KILL on some planetary with the 5x powermate which is where I started this slippery AP journey.

Sounds like I have made up my mind again......:P in the meantime, some QHY8 action is on the cards....

Cheers

Chris