CCD and a rethink.

[Earl]

Well as I am sure many of you will agree this years quantity of clear nights has been more than sucky.

So I am really rethinking about going narrowband and mono.

If i get a Astronomic 2" LPF (same as the eos clip filter),I can go down the route of a OSC.

Any thoughts, opinions, experience to share on this dilemma?

[BlueAstra]

I believe its been shown that to get the same quality of image, the total exposure time of OSC should be the same as LRGB mono. I suppose mono has higher resolution, but OSC gives you more redundancy if the weather changes.

[lukebl]

Of course, the time of year and lack of darkness doesn't help. I've just acquired a CCD myself and have been having the same thoughts. However, I've been telling myself that once the nights get darker, and I can get more imaging hours in, then it will all be worth it.....

[shaunster]

Whats the thinking behind this change of mind? OSC is quicker? No it isnt!

I think you would regret buying OSC in the future..

BTW I wouldnt even consider OSC unless you have dark skies

[steppenwolf]

I have both an OSC CCD and, more recently, a mono CCD and still enjoy both. I still think OSC is quicker overall including post processing but that may be because I have been using OSC since the start and have got my processing workflow running very smoothly.

I like the relative immediacy of an OSC and the fact that provided I get some subs, I will end up with some kind of colour image. However, much as I love my OSC gear, I do extract more fine detail from my mono and filters setup (especially using narrowband, of course) but at the cost of a lot more faffing around if I am aiming for a final colour image.

[Earl]

I am starting to think I should learn with a QHY8L or similar then see how it pans out from there.

There is no real right or wrong with this this situation, just lots of ifs and buts.

[ollypenrice]

I wouldn't use OSC for narrowband. I know you can but mono is better.

I don't want to start a firefight but it does strike me that when you buy a QHY you are buying a project which may well need a bit of intervention before it does what it says on the tin.

If I had only one camera it would quite certainly be a mono. Faster and more flexible. The easy bit (preprocessing) is faster with OSC. The hard bit (post processing) sometimes throws a curved ball, at least in my experience and I have a dark, almost gradient free site.

Olly