Best CCD setup to start with?

[SamAndrew]

Wow! that's a brilliant site, I love the 3D stuff!

Nice to see he keeps the wires neat and tidy

[Sp@ce_d]

Not so odd if anything below ( ? ) a QSI is no. Or is a Moravian above QSI ?

The imager I'm refereing to is - http://astroanarchy.zenfolio.com/

Dave.

Just about to go out and set up between the snow showers so may be some time

Ahh.. yes of course.... I've been inspired by many of those images.. I love the richness and beauty of the false colour work especially.

[ollypenrice]

This is presumably a QHY mono used in NB. What I said was that I don't believe a QHY OSC will give you world class results and I still don't think it will. These are great images, though, most certainly.

Since he's got a Meade LX on a wedge to track accurately he's also clearly a genius, which I'm not, so I take the view that 'my mileage may differ!' Take this as proof that all you need is an LX200 on a wedge to pull in data at 2.5 metres of FL and you're cruising for a bruising...

Olly

[davew]

This is presumably a QHY mono used in NB. What I said was that I don't believe a QHY OSC will give you world class results and I still don't think it will. These are great images, though, most certainly.

Since he's got a Meade LX on a wedge to track accurately he's also clearly a genius, which I'm not, so I take the view that 'my mileage may differ!' Take this as proof that all you need is an LX200 on a wedge to pull in data at 2.5 metres of FL and you're cruising for a bruising...

Olly

Sorry about the confusion. I was sure I'd pressed "Quote" on post 54. Apparently not.

I'm not referring to his camera balancing on an SCT. He must be in league with the devil to use that, although most of his work is with camera lenses. It's very rare he images through the SCT.

What caught my attention as the snows were falling was post No. 54. An 8300 mono chip does not have to have a very expensive camera. JPM demonstrates this by using a QHY9 camera. Moravian are also fine cameras. In fact a minor survey on cloudy nights found the Moravian electronics were second to non if I remember correctly. Alternative camera makers seem to be side tracked and people pushed towards Atik on many of the threads I read. It doesn't have to be Atik or the mega expensive.

If they weren't side tracked so often many imagers would be very happy with QHY and Moravian and would find they could indeed afford a large mono camera and a decent RGB filter set.

Also, imagers shouldn't be made to feel like OSC is second class. There are good reasons some chose OSC even if they aren't world class. Look very carefully and you'll notice JPM has posted 41 images taken with a QHY8.

Dave.

PS. I notice your post was at 4.57 am. New moon fever ?

[Zakalwe]

Sorry about the confusion. I was sure I'd pressed "Quote" on post 54. Apparently not.

I'm not referring to his camera balancing on an SCT. He must be in league with the devil to use that, although most of his work is with camera lenses. It's very rare he images through the SCT.

What caught my attention as the snows were falling was post No. 54. An 8300 mono chip does not have to have a very expensive camera. JPM demonstrates this by using a QHY9 camera. Moravian are also fine cameras. In fact a minor survey on cloudy nights found the Moravian electronics were second to non if I remember correctly. Alternative camera makers seem to be side tracked and people pushed towards Atik on many of the threads I read. It doesn't have to be Atik or the mega expensive.

If they weren't side tracked so often many imagers would be very happy with QHY and Moravian and would find they could indeed afford a large mono camera and a decent RGB filter set.

Also, imagers shouldn't be made to feel like OSC is second class. There are good reasons some chose OSC even if they aren't world class. Look very carefully and you'll notice JPM has posted 41 images taken with a QHY8.

Dave.

PS. I notice your post was at 4.57 am. New moon fever ?

Very much this. I have seen many posts knocking QHY based on nothing more than heresay, or based on stuff that happened years ago (tilted sensors and icing). At the same time the poster admits to never using one. It gets a bit tiresome after a while and smacks of bias.

Its also worth noting that when Atik started out their cameras were "nothing more than modified webcams held together with hot-glue" (direct quote from one of the first dealers).

Here's n image taken with a OSC QHY10:

Or wander over to the QHY Flickr group and see what their kit is capable of.

Terry Hancock (http://www.downunderobservatory.com/ ) also uses QHY:

[ollypenrice]

Sorry about the confusion. I was sure I'd pressed "Quote" on post 54. Apparently not.

I'm not referring to his camera balancing on an SCT. He must be in league with the devil to use that, although most of his work is with camera lenses. It's very rare he images through the SCT.

What caught my attention as the snows were falling was post No. 54. An 8300 mono chip does not have to have a very expensive camera. JPM demonstrates this by using a QHY9 camera. Moravian are also fine cameras. In fact a minor survey on cloudy nights found the Moravian electronics were second to non if I remember correctly. Alternative camera makers seem to be side tracked and people pushed towards Atik on many of the threads I read. It doesn't have to be Atik or the mega expensive.

If they weren't side tracked so often many imagers would be very happy with QHY and Moravian and would find they could indeed afford a large mono camera and a decent RGB filter set.

Also, imagers shouldn't be made to feel like OSC is second class. There are good reasons some chose OSC even if they aren't world class. Look very carefully and you'll notice JPM has posted 41 images taken with a QHY8.

Dave.

PS. I notice your post was at 4.57 am. New moon fever ?

I keep odd hours! I'm an astronomy professional if not a professional astronomer (by a long way...)

I'm not anti OSC, personally. I wrote a favourable review of the equivalent OSC/mono models of one camera for Astronomy Now and I bought the test camera and used it happily for a few years. I'd just want anyone to choose OSC for the right reasons and 'because it's faster' is not the right reason for the simple reason that it's slower. 'Because it's easier' is not a good reason either because it is in some ways and it isn't in others. I used it because I can't run three rigs at once without a bit of simplification.

I haven't used a QHY and I'm happy to leave it to Tim to comment. I do know several people who've bought them but I don't know anybody who has bought two.

(I know they will be out there, I just don't know any of them!)

I've mixed feeings about the 8300. It needs good electronics. RobH, who needs no introduction from me, commented very recently on his view of this chip in the camera he was using. I've seen it in SBIG and not been impressed. I've used it in QSI and been impressed. I've neither seen nor used a Moravian and , though I find the name a little disconcerting, I think we all need to know more about them. They do say they'll build a camera with the new giant chip. Hi there in Moravia, I have an astrograph with an 88mm circle and my address is....

Olly

[kirkster501]

OK guys, So would the Atik 314l be a reasonable choice on my ED80 scope with .8 FR/FF? And what would it be like on the RC8 F8 scope? I like yhe RC for close in shots on GC and galaxies. Sure a compromise to work well on both scopes, hence the "reasonable"!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zakalwe]

OK guys, So would the Atik 314l be a reasonable choice on my ED80 scope with .8 FR/FF? And what would it be like on the RC8 F8 scope? I like yhe RC for close in shots on GC and galaxies. Sure a compromise to work well on both scopes, hence the "reasonable"!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have a look here and see what the field-of-view will look like. Thats a good "starter for 10!

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

The 314L+ is a well respected camera and loads of peeps are getting tremendous images from them on the ED80s.

[johnrt]

OK guys, So would the Atik 314l be a reasonable choice on my ED80 scope with .8 FR/FF? And what would it be like on the RC8 F8 scope? I like yhe RC for close in shots on GC and galaxies. Sure a compromise to work well on both scopes, hence the "reasonable"!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well that is virtually the same pair of scopes I have, an ED80 triplet and a 6" RC which I use with my 314l+. I love my camera to bits, it's a joy to use and I think you can't by a better camera in it's class and price range. Simples.

[Gonzo]

A QHY10 cost £1800 .... "Best CCD setup to start with?"

Not everyone can fork out £2k to "start with" .... how much money do people earn in this forum? spill the beans, you guys got a money tree in your garden?

[Zakalwe]

A QHY10 cost £1800 .... "Best CCD setup to start with?"

Not everyone can fork out £2k to "start with" .... how much money do people earn in this forum? spill the beans, you guys got a money tree in your garden?

Don't Google the price of Apogee cameras then.... :eek:

Anyhoo, I didn't saw that it was the best to start with, to be fair. Just an example of what a OSC can produce.

The Mammut that someone linked to costs under £500. A QHY8L is £899. Then you're into 314L+ at a grand and then onto the 428 and so on. I've just dropped £2k on a 428Ex, filter wheel and filters as I want a narrower FoV.

Astrophotography isn't a cheap hobby, that's for sure....

[SamAndrew]

A QHY10 cost £1800 .... "Best CCD setup to start with?"

Not everyone can fork out £2k to "start with" .... how much money do people earn in this forum? spill the beans, you guys got a money tree in your garden?

there isn't that much choice below £2k for a mono CCD imaging setup

[Gonzo]

You don't have to buy a filter wheels to start off, you can always start with mono pictures

[triggertrevor]

So what's people's thoughts on the atik titan as I'm intrested in this model.

Thought I'd start off just taking Black and White to get the hang then and the filters.

Is there method in my madness

Cheers kev

[kingboya]

You don't have to buy a filter wheels to start off, you can always start with mono pictures

Do you need a LPF still? I guess you would considering it would still be a problem?

[johnrt]

CCD imaging isn't cheap, it's just a fact. You will need an ir cut filter minimum in front of your chip. There are good manual wheels out there for sub £100, if you are looking at mono imaging then you need to view the filters as part of the camera cost. You could start off with just Ha and ir filter and gradually add to them over time.

[lukebl]

Do you need a LPF still? I guess you would considering it would still be a problem?

Yes you would, unless you're doing narrowband imaging.

[kirkster501]

So would the LPF - in my case a Hutech IDAS 2 version that I bought recently and like very much - sit in front of the filters in the imaging train?

Scope>>LPF>>>FR/FF>>>filter wheel>>>>CCD

Is that about it?

[RikM]

So would the LPF - in my case a Hutech IDAS 2 version that I bought recently and like very much - sit in front of the filters in the imaging train?

Scope>>LPF>>>FR/FF>>>filter wheel>>>>CCD

Is that about it?

Yes, at least that's how I do it

[Sp@ce_d]

Yes, at least that's how I do it

I did that on the ED80 but on the ZS66 I have the IDAS on the front of the EFW2 as it makes up the right distance with the rest of the adapters/spacers I have for sensor to FF spacing.

[kirkster501]

I would be interested if someone could share how this totem pole of stuff hangs off the back of the focuser please? In the case of an ED80 what do you need - extensions etc - to get the FR/FF <> EFW2 <> CCD all connected up?

I think mono is the right way to go when I pull the trigger on this eventually.

[kingboya]

I pulled the trigger on an Atik 314L+ with efw2 and filters. I placed a wanted ad on astro buy and sell and a chap got back to me. Woohoo! Pick it up Saturday. I can't wait

[kingboya]

I would be interested if someone could share how this totem pole of stuff hangs off the back of the focuser please? In the case of an ED80 what do you need - extensions etc - to get the FR/FF <> EFW2 <> CCD all connected up?

I think mono is the right way to go when I pull the trigger on this eventually.

I asked this question yesterday and this is the thread.

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?/topic/180389-Atik-314L+-with-ED80-questions

I have bought the two adapters and then a 10mm T2 extension tube with 1mm spacer from teleskop express. Hopefully that will give me the required 55mm FR to ccd chip.

[NickK]

Since he's got a Meade LX on a wedge to track accurately he's also clearly a genius, which I'm not, so I take the view that 'my mileage may differ!' Take this as proof that all you need is an LX200 on a wedge to pull in data at 2.5 metres of FL and you're cruising for a bruising...

He's also got an SX AO unit which would explain the appearance of better tracking!

[ollypenrice]

He's also got an SX AO unit which would explain the appearance of better tracking!

Ah yes.

Olly