Planetary Imaging with Celestron CPC Deluxe 800HD - Camera Choice?

[RoryG]

Hi from Shetland!

I have a Celestron CPC Deluxe 800 HD that I bought for a visual rocket launch tracking system I'm building for use at the Saxavord UK Space Port, the first launch by RFA is scheduled for August, exciting stuff! For the first year or so there will only be a handful of launches so I would like use the kit for its intended purpose - astronomy - and try some planetary, lunar and solar imaging. I have a Seestar that I use for DSO (I stack the subs and process in Siril) and also solar / lunar (raw video stacked in ASIVideoStack), so really interested in the solar system with the 800HD.

For rocket tracking I use a Panasonic GH5S with a Metabones EF to M43 0.71x Speedbooster which gives the perfect field of view, but no use for planets. The sun and the moon frame well with the reducer, but I would really like a dedicated cooled high frame rate colour astro camera for the planets, particularly Jupiter and Saturn, and to get up close and personal with the moon. I do like the ZWO products, but I'm open to any suggestions. I have a budget of around £1,000 which will include any adapters / Barlow, etc. There seems to be so many cameras out there it's hard to make an informed choice, so what better than ask the experts here!

Thanks in advance,

Rory

Here's a few of my SeeStar images, M42 with Hubble palette (300 x 10 second subs), the moon (stacked 2 minute raw video), and the sun with a Baader solar filter (stacked 3 minute raw video):

    

 

 

 

[bosun21]

Why a cooled camera? The ZWO 585MC comes in a cooled version which can also be used for deep sky imaging albeit with a smaller sensor than is normally used for DSO's. The standard uncooled 585 is also a good planetary camera with good sensitivity in IR. If you intend to use it for planetary/lunar only then I would buy an uncooled camera. There is also the 678MC and the 662MC which would be a good choice as well. If your scope is F10 then you will require a 1.5x barlow with the 585 or other camera with 2.9 sized pixels.

[RoryG]

17 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Why a cooled camera? The ZWO 585MC comes in a cooled version which can also be used for deep sky imaging albeit with a smaller sensor than is normally used for DSO's. The standard uncooled 585 is also a good planetary camera with good sensitivity in IR. If you intend to use it for planetary/lunar only then I would buy an uncooled camera. There is also the 678MC and the 662MC which would be a good choice as well. If your scope is F10 then you will require a 1.5x barlow with the 585 or other camera with 2.9 sized pixels.

Thanks for the reply. I considered cooled as I may use it for DSO, but in retrospect I think a camera specifically for planets makes sense, so thanks for the advice. I like the look of the 678MC, it ticks all the boxes and with the 1.5x barlow the FoV is excellent.

Cheers!

[Kon]

What Ian said above but you may want to consider the 715 without a Barlow. For planetary imaging you want 5xpixel size of the camera. The 715 has 1.45 pixel size so your f10 would be close to this.

[Elp]

I've used the 485 which is an uncooled camera pretty much same spec as the newer 585 (which has the added anti amp glow tech) for both planetary and dso perfectly fine. For planetary though I still prefer the venerable 224.

[RoryG]

Thanks guys. After a bit of further research I've gone for the ASI715MC without a barlow.