Which ccd for 8" f4 Quatro?

[P.Rees]

Hello

I use a modified 350d canon with a 8" f4 skywatcher quatro for Deep sky imaging. On an N EQ6 mount with a dual mounted bar and a 400mm camera lens with a QHY5 camera for guiding.

I am considering buying a ccd which camera would be suitable for my set up? Should I go for mono or a one shot colour? Would I be better starting a smaller wide field refractor telescope?

Many thanks Peter

[lensman57]

Hello

I use a modified 350d canon with a 8" f4 skywatcher quatro for Deep sky imaging. On an N EQ6 mount with a dual mounted bar and a 400mm camera lens with a QHY5 camera for guiding.

I am considering buying a ccd which camera would be suitable for my set up? Should I go for mono or a one shot colour? Would I be better starting a smaller wide field refractor telescope?

Many thanks Peter

Hi Peter,

As there are no replies yo your question may I suggest that you consider the Atik 314 L+ or the equivalent StarlightXpress H9 series. Mono or OSC is long debate but mono is more sensitive and higher res due to the lack of Bayer Matrix. Mono requires expensive filters and a decent filter wheel so add £500.00+ to the price of the CCD unless you buy a bundle which works out a little cheaper. If you want narrow band imaging then mono is the way but the advantage of mono is better performance in LP affected areas and with a fast F4 scope such as yours the exposure times can be quite short, in the region of 300~400Ss for most DSOs, I have an Atik 428EX OSC and I really like it but it does need a lot of long subs to get a good image, I also have an Atik 16IC mono for tipping my toes into NB and LRGB. You need to consider the pixel size of the CCD as quite a lot of the new ones have very small pixels that are suitable for short FL ED and APO scopes..

A.G

[P.Rees]

Many thanks for your reply. Will my set up with the 400mm camera lens work or should I budget for a small refractor for guiding?

Thanks again regards Peter

[lensman57]

Many thanks for your reply. Will my set up with the 400mm camera lens work or should I budget for a small refractor for guiding?

Thanks again regards Peter

HI Peter,

Scopes of 400~600 mm fL hit the sweet spot of a lot of the current CCDs from both Atik and Starlight Xpress as they are now designed to be used with short FL APO or EDs. With your F4  NEWT even my Atik 16 IC will be imaging @1.9 arcsec/pixel and this one has relatively large pixels compared to my 428EX. With 400 FL the 428EX will be imaging @ just over 2.2 arcsec/pixel but the 16 IC will be on the limits @ nearly 4 arcaec/pixel. You are good between 1.2 and 3+ for imaging . If I hadn't wasted a lot of my money on rubbish impulse buying I would have gone for an ATIK 450 mono or the mono version of my 428 EX for short FL  EDs.

Regards,

A.G

[ollypenrice]

If your pixels are too small for your FL you can always bin them provided you have a mono camera.

You need to think about chip size first, in my view. An 800mm FL with a small chip will be very limiting indeed. I used to use the precursor to the 314L at 500 and 950mm. The longer option was really tight! This is a great website for modelling fields of view andd sampling rates. http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm A 314 will not give you a big choice of targets outside galaxy season...

Mono filters don't have to be expensive. The absorption filters will do, though the interferometric ones are better. And you certainly don't need and electric wheel. Most of my images prior to this year were via a manual wheel.

Something like the Atik 383L would work well in the Quattro since the fast F ratio would suit what might be a relatively slow camera. You get a big chip but 1.25 fiters at F4 might vignette significantly so maybe the next size up would be better. Baader do three sizes, the middle ones optimized for this chip.

I've used and enjoyed mono and colour but if I only had one it would certainly be mono. I couldn't live without my Ha data! And it's slow enough using all the pixels. Using a quarter of them? Nooooo.

Olly

[P.Rees]

Thanks for your replies. I can't afford the Atik 383L at the moment. I was thinking of purchasing the Atik 314 and trying it with the quatro. And then saving for suitable wide field refractor in the future if I find the quatro difficult?

Many thanks for your help Peter 

[Guest]

I've used the QHY8 with a 254mm (1200mm) and 200mm (1000mm) reflector; and a 65mm, 80mm and 115mm refractor

They've all worked great with that camera - a multi purpose coma corrector is required with the reflectors in particular

My recommendation has to be for one shot colour as the weather here is so poor 

As for guiding I use a 60mm finder guider from Altair - absolutely fantastic method for guiding

I found this post because I was thinking about buying a quatro.  We're in the same boat it would seem :-)

Good Luck

David