Preffered CCD for Galaxies

[Tinker1947]

Looking at the Atik and Starlight range of CCD's which would be the better for imagine Galaxies and extremely far off DSO's....the scope a 250PDS Newt with a ST80 and Lodestar Guider....thanks....

[swag72]

Atik and Starlight both use the same chips as far as I know. In reality there's not many astro CCD chips out there. You may be more interested in the actual chip size for your particular system, you can put it in here http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm then have a look at reviews and see which make you prefer. People will have their personal favourites and it seems that once people buy an Atik or a Starlight they tend to stick with that manufacturer.

[ollypenrice]

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Atik don't make as many mistakes as Starlight Xpress. I use both. Sorry, gotta say it though.

Olly

[pete_l]

Presuming your reference to "extremely far off" DSOs implies you wish to image the smaller ones, I'd suggest going for a camera with an ExView sensor. These have a higher Quantum Efficiency (i.e. turn more photons into signal, rather than reflecting them off the CCD back to where they came from) than lesser sensors. That translates into more photons in a given exposure time.

[Gina]

When I can accumulate enough funds I'm thinking of an Atik 314L+, the lowest price camera with set point cooling which I've found highly desirable from my DSLR cooling experiments and real use. And it has the Sony ExView sensor. 27C below ambient and with desiccant (which I've found essential) isn't bad though I've done better OTOH I could always put it in a little box and bring down the internal temperature (and humidity). But with it's highly efficient and low noise sensor it probably isn't necessary

[ollypenrice]

Gina, on the Sony chips, which are ultra quiet, I don't know how important the set point cooling is. I never missed it on my original 16HR. On the snowstorm Kodak chips it is very important if you want to create a darks library - as anyone would want to do for ease of operation.

Olly

[rfdesigner]

To compare chips with chips.. take a look at this

http://www.astrosurf.com/~buil/isis/noise/result.htm

These are actual measurements of actual cameras. Not manufacturers claims.

I own an ATIK383L+, the claimed noise of 7e is overstating things. I'm sure they have produced 383s with this noise but it looks like most of the Kodak 8300 chips are noisier (9~10e), don't blame Atik for this.. I think the best is the ATIK460, basically it has no weakness in any spec. And it looks from the above data that they really are getting ~5e noise from them.

If you can't afford the 460 then I believe the 428 is much the same, but fewer pixels and fewer £. If you really want lots of pixels and are living with some light pollution then the 383 is still a very good choice.

Derek