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Old 19-07-2014, 10:43 PM
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CCD options?

Hi All,

At the moment I'm using a Atik 383L along with 1.25" filters, which I know isn't ideal, but for a while there I thought I'd be fine with the pretty bad vignetting and just crop.. Well that has now passed, especially since I've now built myself a wide-field rig - no point if you have to crop the outer 3rd of the image!
So what I'm asking is, can anyone offer advice on a CCD that would suitable to use with BOTH my GSO Rc 6inch and my SD66? My Rc is F9 and my SD66 is F 5.9.
I'd prefer to keep the filters and change the CCD. Figure it's cheaper to sell the Atik and upgrade, than buying a full 36mm set of LRGB plus H,O,S filters. I could be wrong though.
Anyway I know it's not ideal with the wildly different apertures and focal lengths, but I figured I'd see what people think anyway.
Cheers,
Chris
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Old 20-07-2014, 12:03 AM
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The Sony ICX694 chipped cameras like Starlight Express or the Kodak 4022 chipped cameras may be good alternatives. They are both smaller than the KAF8300 I am pretty sure (the 694 is and the KAF4022 I think so).

Greg.
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Old 20-07-2014, 07:25 PM
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Cheers, Greg. The Xpress cameras do look very good, especially with a few people claiming that they hardly need any darks at all. However I would've thought the 4022 wouldn't suit the SD66 with it's 7.4um pixels?

Chris
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Old 20-07-2014, 08:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris85 View Post
Cheers, Greg. The Xpress cameras do look very good, especially with a few people claiming that they hardly need any darks at all. However I would've thought the 4022 wouldn't suit the SD66 with it's 7.4um pixels?

Chris
SD66 with any camera is going to undersampled. Its like using a 16803 chip on an FSQ - 9 micron pixels but it works.

It would depend if you intend to never upgrade your scope to something larger as 66mm aperture is going to limit it largely to widefield views which are typically undersampled.

Other factors come into it as well- like QE, noise, well depth.
I've seen many nice images from the 4022 chip - its a high performer. But so is the Sony ICX694. Perhaps the ICX814 would be better which has even smaller pixels but not much of a drop in QE at 70% and high QE in Ha so its good for narrowband.

The Sony's have the lowest read noise, the highest QE and are low cost but are small. Also shallow well depth. Its usually some sort of a compromise somewhere in that equation.

If Sony brought out a 35mm sized CCD watch out. Nobody would use the Kodaks again. That line of CCDs has been stagnant now for a few years and it seems less and less likely to be a source of future high end new chips but you never know.The future is likely the Sony's but they need to make some larger CCDs.

Greg.
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Old 20-07-2014, 09:48 PM
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Chris, I have been looking to swap my Atik 4000 OSC for an Atik 383L... if interested, drop me a line and we can maybe go from there - I am happy to swap straight up (the Atik 4000 is a $5K camera). I haven't forgotten the WO dovetail either

My focuser drawtube is 4" - I don't think that'll vignette with the 383
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Old 21-07-2014, 08:12 AM
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Chris, the field of view will be limited by the filters whatever you do, so you will not gain anything by getting a smaller chip. The 8300 pixel size is well matched to your longer fl scope and will give nicely undersampled images with the short fl. Why not just keep your 8300 and continue to crop off the outer parts of your images? - seems to me to be easily the most cost effective approach.

Last edited by Shiraz; 23-07-2014 at 06:56 AM.
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