Scope and camera combinations for EEVA

[Martin Meredith]

22 hours ago, vlaiv said:

You also have the setup that I recommended 8" F/4 scope sampling at 2"/px. Your camera has 8.3µm pixel size and you don't need to bin in order to get 2.11"/px. It does not have cooling so you probably don't apply darks, or take darks at the beginning of each session - which is not going to be convenient for remote setup.

 

Darks can be applied if they exist, as any previously-captured dark master of the right exposure length and temperature is automatically placed in a calibration library. Having said that, I tend not to take darks these days as I don't see many visible advantages. I have separate hot pixel removal so that accomplishes one of the most important functions of darks. In a remote setting darks are still easy to take with a filterwheel. Being a cheapskate I use a piece of flocking taped over one of the filter holders.

Martin

[vlaiv]

7 minutes ago, Steve Loy said:

It came down to a matter of practical examples of what it can do in the reports forum, the familiarity of several users here with that particular camera singing it's praises. And some kind words of encouragement on getting started simply, so that I can arm myself with knowledge further down the line if I want to branch out  into other equipment. 

You help and advice on cameras so far has been brilliant (if confusing for a newbie ), I cant thank you all enough.

Any thoughts on an appropriate scope to pair with it for EEVA? 

If you want to have 2"/px resolution, then you can either:

Get a scope with about 600-650mm of focal length or go with double that and bin x2, so 1200-1300mm

Not much of choice in 600-650mm region - you are limited to 5" scope there, maybe 6" F/4.

Alternative would be too look for decent refractor with about 1000mm FL and use 0.6" FF/FR from Long Perng?

With 1200-1300mm you have much more options - you can easily get that with 10" F/5 newtonian, or 8" RC reduced by x0.8

 

[vlaiv]

5 minutes ago, Martin Meredith said:

Darks can be applied if they exist, as any previously-captured dark master of the right exposure length and temperature is automatically placed in a calibration library. Having said that, I tend not to take darks these days as I don't see many visible advantages. I have separate hot pixel removal so that accomplishes one of the most important functions of darks. In a remote setting darks are still easy to take with a filterwheel. Being a cheapskate I use a piece of flocking taped over one of the filter holders.

Martin

Good point about filter wheel and darks.

That makes using non cooled camera a viable option, but then again - one in principle can go without darks and flats for EEVA.

I can see filter wheel with mono camera being very useful - not in terms of color, but rather in terms of filters like IR pass, UHC or multiband filters for nebula and now of course - blank for darks.

[Steve Loy]

Thought I would give a quick update.

After much deliberation, advice, and headache, I have decided that for now, I will hold of on the purchase of a new scope and mount. I am going to grab a new camera, hook it up to my 150 newt and just play around for a while to get a feel for EEVA, and the software / usage.

That way, once my obs is closer to being built (some time in the summer) I should have a better idea of the kind of scope I want to buy and a practical idea of the kind of results I can expect.

Once again, thankyou all for the time you invested into helping me, it is very much appreciated