Deep Sky imaging camera advice

[Celestron4]

I am looking at changing my imaging camera and have been looking at cooled one-shot colour CCD cameras in particular as they seem a logical step up from the Canon EOS 1100D DSLR I use at the moment. My budget would ideally be £1000 or less if possible. 

ZWO seems to be a name that comes up a lot and Altair Astro have some lower priced ones on their website that look to be good options. 

Can anyone give me some advice on which camera to go for please?

Edited July 28, 2020 by Celestron4

[DaveS]

What telescope will you be using, and what targets are you interested in?

At the mo This camera looks good value, and has no amp-glow which plagues a lot of CMOS cameras, or This has a larger sensor and bigger pixels but does have amp-glow which will need calibrating out. Beyond this they get beyond your budget.

 

[Celestron4]

I have a 6” Celestron Nexstar Evolution. Schmitt-Cassegrain at the moment. It’s worked quite well for what I have looked at so far (M51, M101, M42 etc). I still have some tweaking to do regarding the tracking (currently having issues with 5 minute or longer exposures) and can probably get more out of the DSLR but I realise that I might struggle with imaging some objects, nebulae in particular. 

I have mainly been focused on galaxies so far but Iam looking at taking some pictures of NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula) and will likely look at the Flame, Horsehead and Orion nebulae in the winter.  

I hope this helps!

[DaveS]

OK, the Nexstar Evolution is an alt-az, thich means you will get field rotation with exposures more than 30 sec or so unless you have it on a wedge.

Given the 1500mm FL you'll also run into oversampling with the ASI533 unless you also bung a reducer in the light path.

The targets you want to image will all need long exposures so a wedge will be vital.

[Celestron4]

I use a Celestron AVX mount, forgot to mention that... Exposure times not an issue, just minor tweaks needed to minimise star trailing

[DaveS]

In that case, and with a sub £1k price point I would be looking at the ZWO ASI533 for a OSC camera. If you want larger then the ASI294 but be prepared for amp-glow. Beyond these cameras prices get rapidly above the £1k mark.