Moon Shot

[mick pinner]

Whoever said this was addictive was spot-on, thanks for the feed back guys and gals any preferences on what gear to get for ccd imaging would be appreciated.
Mick.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Ever thought of a Canon 300D Mick. Good for both worlds. Then if you decide the the costs are becoming astronomical ( god I kill me sometimes ) and it's not for you then at least you've still got a very good normal camera. Althought I did hear that Rumples Riot may be willing to part with his DSI ( )

Or you could join the ever expanding crowd of proud ToUcam owners and start with lunar and planetary imaging.

[gbeal]

Blow it, I'll wade in with my 2 cents worth as well.
Lunar/Planetary imaging: The ToUcam.
DSO/everything else: A DSLR (I have a Nikon, but the Canon line is good as well especially the 300D).
Simple really.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Hi gbeal,

If you prefer Nikon, check out the D70, nice camera, pretty low noise too, seen a few images on the net taken with them, they look fantastic. Both the Canon and Nikon have great features for astrophotography. I think the canon is much lighter though, handy for throwing it on the end of a Newtonian.

[iceman (Mike)]

Excellent mick, you're hooked already

Agree with the others, for lunar/planetary, the ToUcam is the best choice. For deepspace, a DSLR is usually the preferred option, unless you can afford a dedicated commercial astro CCD camera. A cheaper option than the DSLR is to get a long-exposure modified ToUcam, or even a DSI for $500.

Good luck!

btw here's a quick reprocess..

You should try a faster shutter speed on your moon shots, to avoid over-exposing the light areas like you see on the RHS. It's very addictive!

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Mike is the toucam superior to a DSLR for lunar and planetary or just that its cheaper ?

[iceman (Mike)]

It's superior, no question. It can take far more frames in a shorter period of time, meaning you can capture the moments of good seeing.

The only good thing about the DSLR is it's wide field of view at prime focus, when compared with the Toucam. So taking full or whole moon shots is much easier.. but you can make a mosaic with the ToUcam and the result will be much better with a higher resolution (if done well )