Want a CCD mono but don't know where to start. Advice please

[Nigel G]

Hello.

I want to upgrade from my modified Canon 1200D, I don't have a clue about CCD's other than a mono and filter wheel is better for DSO's, and cooled is better.

I have been looking around but really not sure what I'm looking for or at.

I'm sure the more you pay the better you get, basically what sort of £'s am I looking at to get a decent mono CCD and RGB filter setup and what do I look for in cameras.

My budget is below £ 1,000. at the moment.

Can anyone suggest a good camera below my budget or should I continue saving ?

Nige.

PS. I would like to have one before the Essex annual clear night happens 14th May 2018  Blooming clouds.

[carastro]

You won't get much for £1000 unless you buy 2nd hand and even then you won't get the bigger chip cameras and then you need to add the filters and filterwheel to the price.  

There are a new range of cameras come out that I know nothing about which are the CMOS -  ZWO ASI Cameras, I don't know how good they are, these seem to be under £1000 so see what others say about them.  

Of the Atik range, the cheapest you are likely to get is the Atik314L 2nd hand and you can pick them up for around £700.  Excellent camera but a much smaller FOV to the DSLR so might come as a bit of a shock to start with.   Plus yours filters and you can get a manual filterwheel for around £100.  

HTH.

Carole 

 

[ronin]

First - Do you mean ccd or are you counting the c,ps devices as ccd ??

As a simple example all the ZWO cameras are cmos. and for reference Atik are bringing out a cmos one. Could be forced as it seems Sony are winding down ccd production. Not sure about Kodak.

Assuming ccd = ccd+cmos then I would guess that th ZWO ASI 1600 is likely to be the one that fits best, except that the mono costs more and the cooled evn more on top. Getting silly prices in some ways now.

Back to the spread sheet I have (out of date a bit) the next I would suggest is the ASI 178, the cooled variant of that in mono on FLO is £700, 6.4Mpixels. slight aspect is the chip is 7.4x5mm so a somewhat smaller one then a DSLR. But the more DSLR sized ones are like the ASI 1600 and cost £1400. Something like the ASI 174 is a bigger chip, 10.x8mm, but less pixels, 2.4Mp, are they are fairly big pixels.

After that not sure, nothing else I recorded sort of makes better sense, seems the ZWO more or less have the market now. Maybe keep an eye out on the used side but I have not seen, or more correctly cannot recall seeing, many dedicated astro camera advertised.

This is the small spreadsheet I made, now out of date as regards cost, but most of the info is still valid.

APCams.xls