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Old 17-12-2015, 10:56 PM
raymo
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One shot colour camera

Does anyone know which is the cheapest OSC that is not junk?
raymo
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Old 17-12-2015, 11:38 PM
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billdan (Bill)
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Hi Raymo,

I think you missed the boat for cheap cameras with the Aussie dollar now rubbish. I guess it depends on what chip size you want but an APS-c sized camera will set you back 1500 - $2000 unless you can get one second hand.

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Bill
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Old 17-12-2015, 11:59 PM
raymo
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Thanks Bill.
raymo
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Old 18-12-2015, 07:35 AM
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graham.hobart (Graham stevens)
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oSC

I picked up a second hand QHY 8 old style for $500 recently.
There is a small chipped SX OSC camera on the astronomy electronics website for I believe about 1500.-SXV H9C . I had one of these and was impressed with the build and cooling.
With the right scope would be a good combo. (look under reduced price items)
Graz
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Old 18-12-2015, 09:25 AM
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Camelopardalis (Dunk)
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Alternatively, you can mod your 1100D raymo...astro mod is pretty straightforward. I've been experimenting with a cold finger with mine and it's inexpensive and effective.
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Old 18-12-2015, 09:44 AM
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g__day (Matthew)
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Modded Canon's come up every few months. I will probably unload a 400D in a few months as there is no need for 3 modded DSLRs + guiders + planetary cameras. Generally these cameras sell for a few hundred dollars depending the age / model and I have found them over the past few years to be reliable and quite well performing if you use them well!
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Old 18-12-2015, 09:53 AM
glend (Glen)
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The probem with the low cost CCDs are chip size and fairly low resolution in OSC versions. Your 1100D with 12.2 megapixels at 5.19 size is going to give you good performance in the APS-C sensor size. To get the equivalent in a CCD your going to be spending close to $3k for something new. For example, look at the ATIK 383L colour version which is only 8 megapixels at a min of $2k USD on sale add exchange rates and GST. Check Andrews prices for local prices near $3k. Sure the CCD fans will argue about Quantum Efficency, cooling etc but is tgat going to be worth the price to you. If you mod your 1100D for full spectrum and cooling , you improve it significanty, at low cost. I went through this very research last year and coud not justify the cost of CCD at this time. I am buiding a mono full spectrum cooled dslr right now for narrowband imaging. You can get a lot more out of your 1100D but I realise the lure of the CCD is strong.
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Old 18-12-2015, 10:26 AM
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Yeah I'd want a big jump in QE to justify the price. I reckon the results you can get out of a 1100D are tough to beat at the price, probably the best of the Canons shy of a 6D, which is a whole different price bracket!
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Old 18-12-2015, 11:20 AM
raymo
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Thank you everyone; my D.I.Y. cooler failed miserably, cooled beautifully,
but the air not being dry enough fogged up everything. I can get dry ice,
I wonder whether that might work any better.
raymo
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Old 18-12-2015, 11:33 AM
glend (Glen)
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I believe the full spectrum mod is more important in opening up the camera potential - you can make do without cooling just build a dark library. The spectrum mod gives you access to something like five times as much Ha than available through the stock filters.

If you do want cooing,
Re dry ice, that creates problems itself, you don't need to be that radical. What is imperative is dry cooling and if you can get to say +2C that is good enough for good signal noise control. Dry ice will flash freeze moisture onto surfaces. Dry gas like nitrogen or argon (which I use), will not transport moisture but carbon dioxide will. A good cooler box full of dry gas might be enough to get you sensor into a range where noise is reduced. Don't look at EXIF file temperature data as that is actually DIGIC processor temperatures which is not near the sensor.

Last edited by glend; 18-12-2015 at 11:43 AM.
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Old 18-12-2015, 12:35 PM
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ZeroID (Brent)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis View Post
Alternatively, you can mod your 1100D raymo...astro mod is pretty straightforward. I've been experimenting with a cold finger with mine and it's inexpensive and effective.
I'm coming to the same conclusion myself. The modern DSLR has low noise and big sensors. The 1200D I picked up recently new for $500 is 18 megapixels and BYE makes it easy to manage and setup. I will eventually cold finger it but I think just keeping it down to the 5* point rather than trying to freeze it will work extremely well. A stable temp is probably more important than a particularly low temp, it's easy to compensate for the known factors with darks.

1200D is a nice lightweight unit as well. No plans to IR mod it yet but I'll get there one day. In the meantime the 450D is my experimental camera and does a dang good job as well.
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Old 18-12-2015, 12:38 PM
raymo
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Thanks Glen, all more for me to chew on.
raymo
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Old 18-12-2015, 12:46 PM
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I sold my SBIG ST-8300C recently - nice, but noisy as all heck, requiring full darks, bias, and flats.

Went for a Sony chipped Atik 314E colour - small chip with small pixels (less than the 8300), but delightfully noise free and adequate enough for my needs now I am using a 76mm refractor. Cooling is non-regulated, but with a Sony, that's not so important compared to the noisy Kodak chips. It still drops 25° below ambient, which for most nights means it sits at 0° or less depending on the season.

I picked it up for $400 in the trader - and that was a steal!
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Old 18-12-2015, 02:18 PM
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rustigsmed (Russell)
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Summer is a killer for dslrs, the best thing to do is to nab star clusters, planetary nebs etc that are bright and don't need a long sub time.

Is there a particular budget you have raymo or just sussing the options / costs out at this stage?

Rusty
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Old 18-12-2015, 03:33 PM
raymo
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Thanks Lewis.
Russ, just looking at what I would have to sell to fund an OSC camera.
I'll have to keep my eye out, and maybe get lucky like Lewis did.
It just occurred to me that if I remember rightly, an OSC would demand longer sub times than my 1100D, and as I don't have an autoguider,
that would mean even more expense. I might have to mod the 1100D
myself, and stick with that.
raymo
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Old 18-12-2015, 04:05 PM
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traveller (Bo)
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I have been experimenting with OSC (QHY8) and modded 1100D, my personal comments are:
1. DSLR easy to operate, cheaper to buy and mod and BYE is fool proof to operate. On the down side, 14 bit v 16 of a OSC, sensitive to ambient air temp.
2. OSC can be cooled (regulated in all new models now, unregulated in my old QHY8), 16 bit sensor. Capture programs like Maxim DL and Image Plus take a bit of learning, but not too difficult. They can also stack which is a plus.
The biggest difference in my view is the pixel size, the 1100D is 5.17 and the QHY8 is 7.8, makes a huge difference to sensitivity and also allow me to using longer FL scopes (eventually ).
My 2 cents.
Bo
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Old 18-12-2015, 10:43 PM
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billdan (Bill)
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Raymo, if you don't have an autoguider, maybe keep your eyes peeled for an old SBIG-2000 or 4000 OSC.
They are small pixel counts by today's standards, 1600 x 1200 for the 2000 and 2048 x 2048 for the 4000, 7.4µm.
But you do get excellent self-guiding with it.

I've seen the 2000's go for about $1200 not sure what the 4000 would cost but that would be the preferred camera.

Just a thought
Bill
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Old 19-12-2015, 12:43 AM
raymo
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Thanks Bill and BO, more food for thought.
raymo
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