ccd imaging -help

[polydoros]

hi everyone:hello2:

just got myself a celestron 6se and i would like to take images of planets and dso. I was thinking of spending around £400ish, any advice truly welcomed

thank

polydoros:icon_salut:

[Ant]

Planets is a fairly straight forward answer, a simple webcam (Toucam, SPC900) will do quite nicely.

DSO is a little more tricky, you could go for the dSLR route, but depending on the focuser of the 6SE, this might not be ideal.

You could have the webcam modded for long exposure, Astronomiser - Automated Astronomy and AstroImaging Solutions does a good modification.

The webcam route will be well within your budget.

I cannot think of a CCD route for DSO's that would be cheap enough (but other know far more than me).

Cheers

Ant

[Merlin66]

Should be able to pick up a good s/hand Meade DSI I or II for 200gbp. Could be used for both planets and DSO.

Leave some funds of the usual collections of adaptors/ cables etc etc.

[gary1968]

As said you can get a Meade DSI, I picked up a Mk1 DSI Pro for £100 on Astro Buy Sell.

If you want to go for a new one then this is within your budget, Orion StarShoot Deep Space Imaging Camera II I have one of these and only just getting to grips with it. It looks as though it'll be a fine camera.

There are a lot of folks on here using dslr's and the results are amazing, you should be able to pick up a new Canon 350d on flea bay for around £200, factor in the adaptors and you are still well within budget.

Please bear in mind though that you will be limited to exposures of around 60secs unless you put your 6se on a wedge, see here, SE Series - Celestron Wedge for 6SE and 8SE

Hope that helps,

Gary

[polydoros]

thanks guys forgot to mention i still have a toucam pro 2

is it worth going down the astronomiser route, also will be getting the wedge too

i can go up to £600 if pushed for ccd

thank you to every who replyed

polydoros

[yayo4ya]

Hi All. I also have a 6se. I know im very limited because of the mount but was thinking of just getting into astrophotography. I already modified an HP webcam to get an image of Saturn. I was thinking of getting a Canon T3 (1100D) to start out learning to take short exposure pics and stacking them. I was also looking at the Orion Starshoot G3 Deep Space camera. Does anyone know if the Orion cam would work with the AZ mount?

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9513/saturnh.png

[brantuk]

DMK do a range of astro cameras in your price range, also as metioned above the Orion Starshoot or Meade Dsi fit the budget. For around £600 you can also start looking at second hand Atik 314 cameras - you might get lucky (depending on age and condition) and land a colour model. Consider DSLR's too - 350D or better 1000D are very popular in the £150-£200 bracket.

I went the Astronomiser route with an SPC900 and whilst it was very well done, I think it's probably more cost effective to put the cash towards something purpose made.

If you're after planets then a webcam based camera on alt/az is fine - but for dso's an equatorial platform is pretty essential. Wedges are fine but a lot of work setting up when using different locations- better suited to a permanent setup (ie pillar mounted).