Quote:
Originally Posted by Decimus
Thanks for your input and advice, Greg. I take your point about losing fine detail in nebulae with a colour CCD camera, but I suspect the QSI 683, magnificent as it is, will be a weighty set-up when laden with filters and could produce some tube flexure on my WO GT102? Hmm....Our weather down here is appalling and clear skies increasingly rare; hence my thinking about taking images quickly! 
Have you any experience with Atik CCD cameras? Or Starlight Xpress Trius models? No one seems to talk about them and I am wondering how good they are.
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Richard |
Hi Richard,
Some excellent advices were already given.
I used Atik 428ex and it was a nice camera, but I needed a more powerful cooling (and wanted a larger FOV), so I upgraded to QSI 690 WSG-8. It is quite heavy, with guide camera and filters the mass is about 1.6kg, but my standard focuser on TS 102 handled it well, so I suspect your WO should cope well too with this much mass hanging off it. Had my QSI for five years and although tempted by a larger real estate, I cannot see a worthy candidate for an upgrade at this stage. Low RE (measured 3.9e at -25C, 4e at -15C), high QE, no need for darks nor bias at all - when I experimented with my attempt at the Helix with 100+hrs of total exposure, darks + bias made measurable (in PixInsight) but not visible improvement, when stacking over 150 subs. These days I use 20min narrowband subs so I reach desirable for me SNR with about 30-40subs. With LRGB filters, a few minutes is plenty. I think this particular model of the camera really shines in narrowband when combined with a low to moderate focal lengths.
I would also check new offerings from Moravian cameras.
Regards
Suavi