What camera?

[Sky Student]

Hello. I am new to DSO imaging. I'm an semi-experienced observer have done some wide field, tracked/DSLR milky way shots but have zero experience with DSO astro photography.

I just picked up a new Meade LX90 ACF 8" and since I am on a budget I'll be adding equipment as I go. I plan to add a wedge and a camera as soon as I can.

I am leaning towards a uncooled, color ZWO, but need to wade through the details and figure which one would work best for my money.  Any advice on these would be totally appreciated!

Also, does anyone have experience with the Revolution R2 imager? I read the review of the first one, on Weasner.com, and it sounds interesting and fairly easy to use. Not sure if it's still worth the money but it would be nice to have the screen for live view.

Thanks in advance and hoping clear skies prevail!

[michael8554]

I have a guided LX200GPS, but I get the impression from LX90 users here that guiding will be harder than with the nore expensive LX200's.

The very long focal length is best reduced by a Meade Or Celestron 0.66 Reducer, to make guiding easier.

And guiding is better with an Off Axis Guider than a separate guidescope.

The Imaging camera will require large pixels to give a sensible image scale, I use a Canon 6D which has 6.5mm pixels.

Michael

 

[rockinrome]

Hi there!

There is a useful tool for image scale on the Bintel website: https://www.bintel.com.au/tools/astronomy-calculator

This lets you input your scope etc. details along with the camera and shows you (for example) if you would be under/over sampling or just right.

Don't forget you can also BIN your image to get better sampling (and possibly use drizzling at the post-processing stage).

All the best
Matthew

[Sky Student]

 

 

Thank you Michael and Mathew! I appreciate the responses and am looking into off axis guiding. I am also using the calculator to figure out my best option for my imaging camera.. 

Thanks again!

Edited July 8, 2020 by Sky Student

[rickwayne]

Welcome!

Holy BUCKETS that's a lot of millimeters for starting out! Certainly won't say it can't be done, but DSO is a real course of sprouts to begin with -- you're setting yourself up for some challenges with that mount and that long a scope. But if you're on a budget, the conventional advice ("Just get a short refractor to start with") is, um, unlikely to appeal. 🙂

I would heartily second the reducer advice; someone with experience with SCTs will have to recommend which one, or if you need a flattener/reducer.

The advice about image scale is also spot-on. Really, if the pixel size is appropriate, a DSLR lacks but one advantage over an uncooled astro camera: Better hydrogen-alpha response. So I doubt the increment over your existing camera is likely to be worth the money; my advice would be to shoot with your existing camera until you can save up for a cooled astro cam, which will give you better H-alpha but also lower noise, and allow you to shoot dark frames at your convenience and reuse them, rather than wasting dark-sky time shooting them in situ.

I will give you my "conventional advice" for two purchases, though: Charles Bracken's The Deep-Sky Imaging Primer and Astro Pixel Processor.