New camera. But have decision problems.. :)

[Rocket Stars]

Hi! 

Current camera is a 178 color. I got it as first camera to "play" with.

Im not done with it, in a long way. But still have my eyeballs on cooling and a bigger sensor. The 178 will be used for planetary, and maby as a first guide cam. 

I bought the Celestron edge 8. Du to its capabillitis to shoot both at f2 with hyperstar (current set up). And f7 and f10.  (focal reducer for f7, is not acquired yet) It is my Swiss army knife, and I love it! 

So, I know there is no perfect camera for it all. But maby with binning. You might get decently close.. Have checked, and checked, and checked....astronomy tools. But after while. Im even further away of a decision. Actually, had my finger on "buy" button on a 183 sensor camera. But checked astro tools again... Yup I, getting a bit frustrated.. 

 

 

1. Mono or osc?  I already have a color camera. But additional filters ect adds to the cost.  Im planing to get filter wheel ect. in the future. But a drawer would be fine atm. Still, Color is easier.. But it would be fun to play with narrowbandish filters. 

2. I had my eyes on 183, as it fits Hyperstar nice. But a bigger sensor is nice. 1600mm? Its not as good fit at f2, and very oversampled at f10.. 

3. Bodysize? ZWO, QHY, Altair has bit thick body for my edge 8 hyperstar set up. It blocks the aperture a bit. But does it make much difference? Here is Atik body style a better fit. 

4. Cmos or ccd? Docent matter much to me. Best fitting camera wins. CCD is at higher cost.. 

5. Budget!!   As the world looks now. And looks like it will be going on for a while. My biz might have to be shut down completely. So I have to be a "bit" careful about spending. But im bored atm, and I can't help it. Im also astro hooked..   I think a Atik Horizon is  the limit to what I want to spend now. But, I also want to do the right thing.  Buy a cam that I will enjoy for quite some time. 

6. Buying Astro gear, contribute to keep the economy  rolling!  

7. Take me out of my misery. Help me buy antother camera! 

[happy-kat]

Have you taken a variety of images with your current setup?

[Rocket Stars]

To be honest. Not as much as I would liked to. 

What I do find. Is my Calibrationfiles aren’t great. Due to different temps. With gain as correct settings. Seems to me that it is biggest reason for cooled cameras? Noise can be calibrated out with good calibration files and stacking. But when I’m cold in the middle of the night. Annoyed of clouds rolling in. I tend to ”forget” to take flats and darks.. Eg. cooling might not the biggest advantge. It would be a temperature controlled camera!? 😳

I also have a bit of collimating issues. It is fitted in a Baader clamp style eyepeace holder. I have gotten collimation pretty much perfect. But as soon as jag touch the camera a bit to much. It moves and changes the collimation. Not much. But enough to be annoying. The clamping was what I had on hands. Ordered a c to T adapter. But didn’t get back focus perfect. That has been the driving question. Whether to try to find better adapters (I need to modify one to get correct backfocus) 

Yes. A new cam is a bit expensive solution to a wonky fitting on an existing camera. 😁😂

Honesty nr2. AA 178 c is a nice camera. Chipsize isn’t very small.Pinwheelgalaxy fits fine. Even fits a full moon on that set up. Pixelscale fits hyperstar nicely. That why I got it. When outside temperature is round 0 c. Sensor keeps around 6-8c.  I will and plan to use it a lot more. As not to unfamiliar with electronics and fine mechanics. I took it apart to check sensor flatness. Build quality was ok. I assume it’s pretty much the same on all of this cameras. Sensor flatness needed to be adjusted very little. I assume it ok for all “normal” setups. Hyperstar is supposed to be little more sensitive on sensor flatness. But my real issue was the wonky rotting on the hyperstar. 

[retret66]

I was on the same boat when I started like you, also bought the Atik horizon hoping it is easier with color but I was wrong. Not only that Atik horizon has major issues where I had to battle for Atik based in UK to return it and they replaced it but sold it. Color has less resolution, because of the bayer matrix RGGB so  one pixel is divided into 4. While mono, you get 1:1 per pixel so the resulting imaged combined with other color filter is much better and more sensitive. You can use the color for planetary and Comets.. But if you are starting, go with mono now.