astrophotography cameras

[Janus]

Hello all 

I'm new to astronomy, and recently I have been enjoying my new telescope quite a lot.

I have long thought of going more into astrophotography, but I am not sure about which camera I should buy and what tybe; dslr or CCD cameras.

what cameras do you recommend?

thanks in advance

 

[Stargazer33]

What are you interested in imaging? Planets or Deep Sky Objects (DSOs).

CCD/CMOS webcams are good for planetary imaging where you take a short video and then use stacking software such as Autostakkert! or Registax to stack the best frames into one image which is cleaner than any single video frame. DSLRs are better for DSOs as they generally have a bigger sensor and you take single frame long exposures - anything up to 10 minutes or more.Good

entry level CCD/CMOS webcams are the ZWO ASI120MM/C and the QHY5L II m/c. As for DSLRs, the Canon 1100D is a popular model.

High level CCD cameras are also used for DSOs but you are talking €100s to €1000s.

HTH

[Janus]

oh year forgot to say.. i think i want to start out with planets

[ollypenrice]

1 minute ago, Janus said:

oh year forgot to say.. i think i want to start out with planets

Then use the fast frame (video) camera method. You shoot a short session of video but then treat each frame as an image and combine the best to get good signal to noise ratio and to beat the distorting effects of the seeing, which are variable over very short time frames.

Olly

[ronin]

Easy option is that if you have a DSLR then use that, you will need an Intervalometer (Remote timer) to get the exposures - well it is a lot easier. That way you can get started without too much additional expense, you would need a T-ring and possible one other adaptor.

If you wanted a dedicated camera then you presently have 2 areas to look into: ccd as in Atik and others or cmos as in ZWO cameras. Cannot say what physical advantages and disadvnatages there are to either. I know of no comparison being/been made and made available to APer's. It would be interesting, as I suspect there are plus and minus aspect for each.

If you have a DSLR to use then find out about performing all the actions manually. One other possible advantage of a DSLR is that you can at first jsut use the DSLR and the supplied lens to get wide field shots, hence no need for a few nights to attach DSLR and bits to a scope. Again fully manual as in 20 second exposure, ISO 800, aperture set to max -1 stop, manually focused.

What scope and mount have you? The mount really needs to be equitorial and driven as a minimum. Goto is better (generally the motors are better) and even with goto you have to get good polar alignment other the goto will track but may not fully compenste for field rotation.

[Janus]

Hello guys, first thanks for the advice you already have given 

I have the celestron nexstar se (my first scope, im brand new) on the goto mount, and i can get a pretty good polar alignment on my good days  

btw i dont have a DSLR