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Your C8 with a .63 or .33 reducer/flattener could be mated with an Atik 383L camera for $2500 (that's a camera with the KAF8300 8.3MP chip) or an Orion Parsec 8300 camera for the same cost. A QHY8-L (6MP) will set you back $1500. The QHY10 (10MP) is about $2500.
Even an Atik 314L + (1.4MP) will give you great shots for only $1650, if you want to image at the native FL (which its pixels suit better than the others).
An autoguider....you can get a package from Orion (sold at Bintel) for about $420 with the scope and guider. If you're going to guide at the native FL of your scope (2000mm) you'd be better advised to get an OAG (Off Axis Guider) and guide through your main scope. The reason being trying to guide with a scope and guider on top of the main scope, you can get too much flex and lose guidance too easily when trying to keep an object in your main scope's mirror for imaging. You can lose tracking too easily and at long FL the objects slip out of view quickly. Also, you're more likely to get the object you want to image and your guide star in or near the same FoV at shorter FL's, due to the much wider FoV. Best, really, to keep things nice and easy....run at a reduced FL and guide through a scope/autoguider combo. Much more forgiving. Less worries with flex stuffing things up and easier to get a guide star.
Last edited by renormalised; 29-06-2011 at 01:54 PM.
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