Beginners CCD

[alexV]

Hello everyone and thank you in advance

Just wondering if there is any decent CCD camera for around $600- 700

What would you recommend?

At the moment i use my Nikon d3000 with Saxon 100ED

Any input would be much appreciated

Thank you again

Hope you having a good day

Alex
www.anfpaintingservice.com.au (http://www.anfpaintingservice.com.au)

[Lee]

The Atiks seem to be pretty good, have a wide range too.... have a look at Andrews. (http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-10.htm)

[Scorpius51]

Have a look at Bintel's range at

http://www.bintel.com.au/Astrophotography/CCD-cameras/66/catmenu.aspx

I have the DBK 21AU04.AS - it's quite good.

Cheers
John

[alexV]

Thank you for your replies
There are 2 cameras at my price range one from Bintel and one from Andrews but how are they better than what i currently have?

Bintel Orion Deep space
http://www.bintel.com.au/Astrophotography/CCD-cameras/Orion-StarShoot-Deep-Space-Video-Camera-II/1486/productview.aspx

Andrews
http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-10.htm

Thank you

[Poita]

I'd get the QHY8 from the classifieds, it is great for beginners as the noise is so low you can get away without using darks.
Nebulosity has a built in driver as well, which is very handy!

[Iain.k]

I myself use atik which are reasonably cheap for what they provide, Andrews communication is the place I would recommend to get an Atik from within Aus.

[2stroke]

The DBK 21AU04.AS is more or less a 900nc webcam with long exposure, its great for planetary but thats about as far as i would go with it. If you want a real ccd take peter's opinion and get a used qhy8. Personally i wouldn't bother at that end of market and would save some more. Just getting a set of filter's for our dsi pro mono to play till i have the funds lol. In your case if you own a notebook i would grab a cannon eos to make life easier polar/drift aligning and also your imaging.

To get the best results though lots more work mono is the only way to go, if you go color you lose nearly 3/4 of the resolution due to how the sensor receives color. It really does get costly at this point from my research not experience, its kinda all in or not, like you could go for something basic but will soon be ditching it for something better.

Anyhow hope some more experienced people respond who can help you more, but don't impulse get the best of you :) The camera at bintel you listed is a video camera for so you can exploure the sky remotely on a tv screen or broadcast over the internet ect, its not a imager so to speak.

[Tandum]

What do you want to capture? Deep space or planetary.

I'd be looking for a 2nd hand qhy8 for deep space.

[alexV]

yeah it looks like the price range that i have i better sticking with DSLR.

I can justify spending $1000 and up for a camera that only for one purpose only, at least not right now.

It the bulkiness of DSLR that is killing me plus it does not have live view.

I might just upgrade my current DSLR to something more advance, but which one to go for?

Also not really keen on second hands even that i know everyone with in our hobby takes a great care of their gear.

[Lee]

True on mono - with some attention, you can get reasonable results with the cheaper imagers, my little Meade DSI did ok several years ago, you will not rival a Paramount/SBIG setup, but you will learn a lot, for not a huge investment, and you can apply what you learn when you do decide for the SBIG one day..... :)

[alexV]

ohh sorry Robin forgot to answer you question. I take Deep Space Objects

Thank you

[alexV]

so what sort of mono would you say is a good start

Thank you

[alexV]

One more thing what exactly are we looking for when looking at the specs of a camera.

Thank you

[2stroke]

I would grab a 1100D while there only $328 and a cheap notebook to help you more out as a beginner. But If you want a ccd go with a mono and get some filters to learn the art and basic's for future investment in a nice ccd that's of high res and spec. It all comes down to $'s and thats the worst part as a TEC cooled unit is going to knock major noise off long exposures and really don't start cheap.
You could get a Atik 16IC for $599 though its a color and because of the way a ccd receives light your images won't get the quality of the mono because it takes 4pixels to give a color see image attached. It's looks like a great cheap cooled ccd though for the entry level though. Problem is you can see how price is a big trade off for what you get, once you get to around 2K you can really get something that will give results at a nice resolution. That's why i'am starting with my TEC modded dsi pro, its cheap to learn with while i save for a imager that gives me results and resolution which i can enjoy. Really though my 1100D blows it away resolution wise, though the sensitivity and noise from the ccd is far better then the 1100D. My plan is to save for a QHY-9 mono, though as you can see at $2300 they arn't cheap lol. It really comes down to budget and at $600 i would look for a used mono to get you started put with be it a dsi pro 1/2 or a qhy8 color if you want a OSC. There's nothing wrong with OSC's though your never going to get the results of a mono and filters and half the time dslr can be a better option price wise bang for buck.

Things to look for are high QE, low noise, sensor size 569x734 ect, pixel size bigger is usauly better noise wise, if its cooled for lower noise and ADC bit rate though most should be 16bit.

Was just looking at this if your hell bent on a ccd with the money you have http://www.bintel.com.au/Astrophotography/CCD-cameras/Orion-StarShoot-G3--br--Camera--Monochrome-/1336/productview.aspx .This and a set of meade filter's can get from ebay new $60 would get you started if it all must be new. On the up side you have a nice guide cam for later on to :)

[alexV]

So in conclusion.

Can we say that most of the time we are better of with dedicated CCD preferably cooled CCD over DSLR in the same price bracket.

And mono will capture more data over colored CCD.

Jay what is high QE?

[2stroke]

CCD will cost you alot more, dslr is the best bang for buck. When you get into the 2K+ range though a dedicated astro ccd will yeild better results, though its very debatable as i've read a few reviews with ~3K ccd vs dslr and some people like the images the dslr's cmos produce over the dedicated astro ccd.


Yes you will see way better results because of how a color matrix works vs mono. You can still get very nice images with OSC's though a mono at the same price bracket will more then often eat it alive. So there nothing wrong going color and many many people use them and they are a great way to start and produce extremely nice images. The only problem with OSC systems is a dslr will more then often be way better vaule.

Heres what QE is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_efficiency because i'am not expert lol ill let you read it and see. Please remember that i'am no expert and just giving the best advise i can from the little knowledge i have, hopefully a veteran can rectify anything misleading or wrong.

In this pic you could say that relative response is where QE is though not in scale as this is in comparison of a 618ala :) Basically if you had a sensor with 30% qe and another at 60%, the one with 60% would only need half the time to get the same exposure. I maybe wrong there on the time though it will get it faster, where are the dam experts lolz

[alexV]

thank you everyone

[alexV]

I have decided to save up for QHY8 or similar and for now ill use my DSLR :(

[alexV]

Ok. I might need to ask for dome more advise

Which DSLR is good for astrophotography
Thank you