#21  
Old 07-03-2016, 10:23 PM
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lazjen (Chris)
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Thanks for the images. I see what you mean.

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Originally Posted by RickS View Post
I'd go for a Tak but a small WO refractor and reducer or flattener would do the trick. Something 700mm FL or less would complement the big scope nicely.
Those Tak prices And the price of the reducers!

And I just looked at the price of the WO refractor.

In both cases, I could probably scrap up enough to get the base scope - it's the extra bits that would kill.

Maybe I better keep an eye on the classifieds to see what turns up.
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  #22  
Old 09-05-2016, 07:29 AM
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Bit of an excavation for this thread, however for completeness I thought I'd update:

I've been able to borrow Rick's ST11K to try in my system. Unsuccessful, but informative. My focuser (moonlite) is too weak to hold it and my OAG causes vignetting. Doing a larger frame camera upgrade basically means buying everything from the camera to the back of the scope.

Unless I get some more information to change my mind, I think I'll hold off on any upgrades this year and reconsider my options next year - hopefully with an increased budget overall to expand those options.
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  #23  
Old 11-05-2016, 01:41 PM
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A KAF8300 camera seems to be the go for the smaller lightweight scopes that does not put much pressure on the focuser etc. A QSI WSG8 is about the bees knees for them. Another may be the Moravian.

A KAF16200 is APS sized so about 3/4 of a 11002 but that may take the pressure off the focuser in terms of weight etc. Moravian sell one with a filter wheel and an OAG for about Euro $3400.

As far as read noise goes the KAF16200 is very low read noise compared to other Kodak sensors around 8 electrons for the Moravian and down to 6 for the FLI Microline version.

Other smaller sensors are all listed as variations on the QSI cameras - Sony ICX694 or 814, Kodak KAI4022 which is 15mm x 15mm and 7.4 micron pixels is a good performing sensor and smallish (square though).

If I had a small refractor like an FSQ106ED (expensive though) I would probably go with the KAF16200. Its the next u-beauty sensor that will take over from the KAF8300 in terms of popularity. 6 micron pixels matches a lot of people's telescopes and seeing. It will be a big hit.

Full frame sensors like KAI11002, KAI 29050, KAF16000, KAF16070 are all going to do require bigger focusers, field flatteners and stronger adapters otherwise you will get vignetting, coma in the corners and flexure.

Greg.
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Old 11-05-2016, 01:52 PM
glend (Glen)
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I ASI1600 might suit your setup. Brand new, lots of good reports, low cost compared to the 8300, but far less noise and it is super sensitive. It uses a Panasonic chip and is likely to be the first of the next generation sCMOS cameras.
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  #25  
Old 11-05-2016, 02:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glend View Post
I ASI1600 might suit your setup. Brand new, lots of good reports, low cost compared to the 8300, but far less noise and it is super sensitive. It uses a Panasonic chip and is likely to be the first of the next generation sCMOS cameras.

Sounds interesting Glen. Do you have a link to one of these?

Greg.
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  #26  
Old 11-05-2016, 03:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post
A KAF16200 is APS sized so about 3/4 of a 11002 but that may take the pressure off the focuser in terms of weight etc. Moravian sell one with a filter wheel and an OAG for about Euro $3400.

As far as read noise goes the KAF16200 is very low read noise compared to other Kodak sensors around 8 electrons for the Moravian and down to 6 for the FLI Microline version.
Heh, that's what started this thread - it was what I was initially considering a change to from the ST-8XE.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post
Full frame sensors like KAI11002, KAI 29050, KAF16000, KAF16070 are all going to do require bigger focusers, field flatteners and stronger adapters otherwise you will get vignetting, coma in the corners and flexure.
Before I switched to CCD, I was using a full-frame DSLR (Canon 6D) and had sorted out the field flattener - still had some vignetting though, but it wasn't much.

However, the Canon 6D was very lightweight, much less than the monster cooled CCDs! So, yes, I'm not really surprised by needing a better focuser - it was more I had forgotten that I'd need it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by glend View Post
I ASI1600 might suit your setup. Brand new, lots of good reports, low cost compared to the 8300, but far less noise and it is super sensitive. It uses a Panasonic chip and is likely to be the first of the next generation sCMOS cameras.
I've been reading some of the threads over on CloudyNights. It looks very interesting and quite promising. I'll be watching what comes of it all over the next few months.

The whole CMOS potential is another reason I'm not concerned about waiting for a while. It could be a significant disruptive change that might be worth jumping onboard. I'm hoping more choices become available too.
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  #27  
Old 11-05-2016, 03:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post
Sounds interesting Glen. Do you have a link to one of these?
It's the ZWO camera.

Check this link out: http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/53...ccds-obsolete/

It's a bit of a mega-thread now, but there's some pointers to info, etc.

Another link: http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/53.../#entry7205950
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  #28  
Old 11-05-2016, 03:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post
Sounds interesting Glen. Do you have a link to one of these?

Greg.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=144427

this is the camera: https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com...si1600mm-cool/
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  #29  
Old 11-05-2016, 03:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glend View Post
I ASI1600 might suit your setup. Brand new, lots of good reports, low cost compared to the 8300, but far less noise and it is super sensitive. It uses a Panasonic chip and is likely to be the first of the next generation sCMOS cameras.
Thanks Richard.

I read those threads and looked at the ZWO Website. A mono version of the Olympus OMD sensor. Sounds good overall. The few sample images were not though very good except for the M51 image which was quite good.

A bit early to comment but this may be more an alternative to cooled DSLR imaging.

When an APSc sized Sony Exmor R sensor or 35mm full frame mono CMOS sensor gets into one of these it could be very good. Imagine a mono version of the Sony A7s sensor?

Greg.
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  #30  
Old 11-05-2016, 05:24 PM
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What may come from the CMOS world in the next few years is mind boggling. Whether Sony ever releases their large CMOS chips in mono versions to offset the death of their CCD business remains to be seen...they've so far not bothered beyond the 694-sized chips.

The ASI1600 is here and now. And bigger. With correct calibration, almost anyone who buys a 8300 over one of these is mad
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  #31  
Old 11-05-2016, 05:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Camelopardalis View Post
What may come from the CMOS world in the next few years is mind boggling. Whether Sony ever releases their large CMOS chips in mono versions to offset the death of their CCD business remains to be seen...they've so far not bothered beyond the 694-sized chips.

The ASI1600 is here and now. And bigger. With correct calibration, almost anyone who buys a 8300 over one of these is mad
It certainly has potential. I look forward to seeing some regular images taken with one. 1 second exposures and 40gigabytes of data to process sounds pretty arduous so 6 hours of 10minute subexposures or similar would be of more interest to me.

The QHY42 if its not just vapourware (their 16200 camera seems to be awfully slow being released) and if the price was lowish could be a hot item.

Greg.
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  #32  
Old 11-05-2016, 08:49 PM
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Yeah I'd only be interested in taking "longer" shots, 5-10 minutes. But if that checks out OK then it's a game changer at around $2000.

Big fat pixels on a large chip are a whole other game
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  #33  
Old 11-05-2016, 08:59 PM
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I hope that both modes work well. I could see using the grab a lot of frames in a short period of time being useful when the season's weather isn't that great, e.g. like the extended summer we had this year in Brisbane.

Then in winter, when you can string a few nights together, do some "longer" shots.

Really looking forward to seeing some real results from this camera.
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