Nice reply Alex but not everything you say is completely accurate.
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Originally Posted by AlexN
firstly... Untill you know its what you want to do, perhaps going for a cheaper webcam like the Phillips SPC900NC ToUcam is a better idea than going all out on a DMK..
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Yes, this is definitely not a bad idea, though the cost difference between a ToUcam and DMK isn't as big as it used to be. And make no mistake that the DMK is a much better camera than the ToUcam in the long run - so for some people it may be worth saving their $100 and getting the DMK/DBK first time around.
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The mono DMK will yield better results due to the full resolution of the camera being dedicated to luminance, while filters handle the color, where as a color DMK splits its resolution up in order to capture colors... There is a good article on this HERE. However the mono camera will require 3 times the post-processing to get the final image, and for a beginner, I would imagine it would be a little overwhelming.
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Definitely agree with this. If you haven't done any planetary imaging before, mono/RGB imaging can be quite a daunting task. Starting as colour is definitely a preferred approach, but again there's no mistaking that mono-RGB is much better than a colour camera in the long run - so it depends if you want to spend the money on a colour camera first up and then mono/RGB later.
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Firewire is better than USB due to its higher transfer rate. This means that the data (image) is not compressed by the camera before being sent to the capturing pc. resulting in a better image
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This is only true where the DMK/DBK is the firewire and a ToUcam is the USB. You can get the DMK/DBK in either firewire or USB. In this case, they are both the same. I prefer the USB DMK because it's powered from the laptop and I don't need any external power for it or a PCMCIA firewire card (my laptop doesn't have a firewire port).
So this is really personal preference.
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K3CCDTOOLS is a great program for capturing planets/moon..
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For the ToUcam, yep it's great. The DMK/DBK comes with IC-Capture which is a great program, or you can buy LUCAM Recorder which apparently works with DMK/DBK's now.
For your other question, you don't need guiding with lunar/planetary imaging. In most cases you'll just use the hand-controller to keep the planet in the field of view.
Keep asking questions!