Alternative to SPC900NC

[rusirius]

Has anyone come up with an alternative to the Phillips SPC900NC yet?

I was also looking at the Mintron after reading about it in the Astronomy now magazine recently, but it does not appear to have a USB output so I would also have to buy a DVD recorder.

Of course here are the Atiks, but at £700+ they are hardly entry level.

There also seem to be some CCD cameras at around £250 but they are usually very low res (640x480 or similar) and descibed as guide cameras so I'm not sure about these.

I'm looking for something to experiment with, but also something that is capable of producing reasonable and encouraging images before deciding whether to go for something more serious. It would also be useful if the camera could be used like the Mintron, to display the output to a computer screen or TV. If only you could imitate the Mintron's stacking on the fly as it were on a PC that wuld cover all bases.

[Demonperformer]

There is a USB adaptor for the Mintron [£40 at Modern Astronomy]

[jgs001]

If you're potentially also looking at getting into guiding, the QHY5v makes a corker of a little camera, both for guiding and Lunar (planetary should also be good, although I've not had an oppo to try as yet). Yes it's more expensive than the SPC900, although I did see the SPC900 on Amazon.

The only issue with the QHY5v is the drivers are difficult to install and make it all work.