Hey guys, and
So here is the deal. I decided that I want to move to a dedicated CCD for my imaging needs based on a couple of things... primarily that my current modded 500D that I have been using has plenty of nasty big dust motes that infect every pic that I take (please disregard if you see the same for sale... its fine
) and is in need of retirement.
As such, I have been and will continue to use a Takahashi TSA 120 with a FL of 900mm, at F7.5. I enjoy taking sharp, wide field images, but would like to be able to crop these on occasion for smaller objects such as galaxies etc.
I decided that I would put my old practices of impulse buying aside and do some homework to ensure that I got the best CCD to suit my scope and preferred style of imaging.
That said, I have been looking at dedicated CCD's such as SBIG's ST-8 and ATIK's 11000. Both have a 9uM pixel size, which would give me
a pixel angular size of 2.06 arc seconds. The 11000 would give me a much larger FOV (at a price) which could be later cropped. Whereas the ST-8 is far cheaper and comes with a guiding chip (not as important as I already have a guiding setup - it just needs improving/stabilisation)
If we were to assume that good seeing in the outskirts of Perth (sea level and usually hot) was roughly 2.5 arc seconds, then my understanding is that 9uM operating at 2.06 arc seconds would be okay, if sampled 1x1
My concern is, would a 9uM pixel size for this relatively short FL scope be risking unescessary undersampling if conditions allowed (does anyone know the usual seeing for outer un-light polluted WA?).
Am I better off choosing a smaller pixel to ensure that I am covered for that perfect day, and just bin for the majority of poor seeing days?
And just to make things even more complicated, pixel size aside, I would like a camera body that allows decent thermoregulation where darks can be taken in daytime if required, to preserve dark sky for light frames.
Hopefully thanks in advance, but I realise that this is a subject fraught with differing opinions.
Sam