Camera for planetary imaging & live viewing

[souls33k3r]

Hi All,

I currently own a Celestron EdgeHD 8" on a NEQ6 pro mount and since Jupiter season has started, i would love to get myself involved in to some planetary imaging.

On the other hand, i would also love to get the most out of the camera for live view to show the kids what daddy is looking at.

So what choices do i have? 

I do not want to spend a fortune on a camera so limiting myself to £350

Thanks in advance

[D4N]

An ASI178MC would be good, I've used mine for eaa and it worked really well.  ZWO have a deal where Astrolive is free to use with their cameras so that's what I used with it.

I have not used it for planetary yet but by all accounts it should be great for that too.

[souls33k3r]

The pixel size is a lot smaller on 178MC than the 224MC so unless i am imaging at F/15 or something i wouldn't be able to achieve the optimal imaging scale for which i will need to think bigger. 224MC can take me up to F/19-20. Am i doing this right?

[D4N]

The 178 has a larger chip and higher resolution but yes smaller pixels too.

I'm not sure if you plan to use a reducer or a Barlow but here's what they look like on the C8 looking at M1;

 

[souls33k3r]

Cheers Dan, i did have a look at this before posting but i am actually getting confused with the specification of the camera which would work best with my scope.

I actually have both the reducer and TV 2.5x barlow.

I don't plan to image the DSOs as such, only just planetary but i'd certainly like to do live viewing of the DSOs with details showing with whatever camera i buy.

[D4N]

I'm not a planetary expert by any means but so far as I know 0.25"/pixel is ideal for good seeing and down to 0.1"/pixel for,excellent seeing.

Oddly enough the 178 would give 0.24"/pixel in your scope and 0.1"/pixel with the barlow.

The 224 is 0.38 and 0.15 respectively.

[neil phillips]

10 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Hi All,

I currently own a Celestron EdgeHD 8" on a NEQ6 pro mount and since Jupiter season has started, i would love to get myself involved in to some planetary imaging.

On the other hand, i would also love to get the most out of the camera for live view to show the kids what daddy is looking at.

So what choices do i have? 

I do not want to spend a fortune on a camera so limiting myself to £350

Thanks in advance

Altair do nice cameras with most of the interesting chips covered. 224 - 178 - 174 ect The software for the cameras can do live stacking in seconds on any target, its fast. Planetary, Lunar, or even deepsky Can be stacked. The live view question. Would be helped somewhat with live stacking if that's important to you. The only two brands I have used for modern cameras are ZWO and Altair. Both have given me good results

[PeterCPC]

I use the 224 with my C9.25 for planetary imaging and am pleased with the results but you also need an IR cut filter with it. It can be used for DSOs with short exposures and Sharpcap has live stacking. To get the best with this camera you need a USB3.

Peter