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Hi Guys, New astronomer needing help with CCD :)

The_PSY3NTIST

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The_PSY3NTIST

The_PSY3NTIST

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Hi Im new to SGL so first of all hello to everyone :) Ive just bought a skywatcher explorer 200p 8" (eq5) as my first scope and really wanting to get into astrophotography so need some advice on which webcam or ccd imager to buy. I want to get a dslr eventually but unfortunately funds dont allow that at the minute. Thanks for reading this, any advice is welcome :)

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jgs001

jgs001

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You could try something like the Philip SPC900, it'll work on the moon and planets, and if you mod it (or get astronomiser to do it) you can use it for deep sky. It can be had, if you can find one, from Amazon for about £80-90.

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The Sailor

The Sailor

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Hi The_PSY3NTIST, if you wish to go down a cheap route just to check what you can do and see, yesterday I took a usb webcam apart, took the lens off and attached it to the lens of the telescope, very good pictures on the computer were to be had. A word of warning, do not touch the ccd or you will have problems. I bought a couple of cheap cams from Argos for the purpose of experimenting.

Jim

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The_PSY3NTIST

The_PSY3NTIST

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Haha yeh ive noticed already :) I have a list of things I want already that amounts to about £700 :s lol. All good fun though :) thanks for that advise. The Phillips one you mentioned looks to be the best i have seen so far but i can get the Celestron NexImage Solar System CCD Imager for the same price. Which of the two would be the best? do you know if the NexImage CCD Imager has long exposure?

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arad85

arad85

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You may also need to mod the focuser - I seem to remember people having to mod things to get more in-focus (i.e. be able to put the top of the focuser closer to the secondary mirror).

I've not tried it, but something you may well like to look into (I certainly don't have enough in-focus travel to get my DSLR to focus on my 300 dob).

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jgs001

jgs001

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As I've understood it, the SPC900 and the NexImage are in fact the same beastie in a different box. I think the NexImage is sold as a Solar System imager, therefore I don't believe it'll do long exposures without modding.

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moonbeam

moonbeam

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I have just done a search and found that the adaptor on the front of the camera will fit any webcam. Have just purchased the adapter off fleabay for £25.

Jim

Did you get the one off "skies the limit?"

Think you'll need an IR filter too.

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The_PSY3NTIST

The_PSY3NTIST

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Thankyou everyone who has posted, I have gone for the Celestron Neximage :) found one new for £79 so cant complain. Going to attack it with the soldering iron when it comes to get long exposure out of it :) cant wait to get my first shots. wish me luck :mad:

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SkyExplorer

SkyExplorer

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Hi,

Been reading your post with great interest as I'm looking at getting the SkyWatcher 200P reflector and a webcam to start imaging.

If you don't mine me asking, where did you find the Neximage for only £79, the cheapest I've seen it is around the £120 mark.

Thanks

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brantuk

brantuk

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Hi and welcome to the group.

I have both these web cams and the spc is mod'd for DSO and long exposure by astronomiser. They both have the same chip but I had the spc chip changed for the b/w more sensitive chip. Astronomiser do a great job and Andy will give you a good run down of the mod, what it includes, and why different features are included. I reccomend giving him a call.

The Neximage kit will be ok for solar sytem objects only (unless you get that mod'd too).

Have fun with it :)

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riklaunim

riklaunim

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Sometimes you can get cheap industry cams that have small webcam CCD sensor (or bit bigger) but for example in B/W version.

For example there are few examples in the net of using Unibrain Digital Board Camera - which is their webcam without the hosing and you can choose the B/W version. Or better Fire-i 501 which was used for example by: Astronominsk

Some astro shops sell also webcam - I-Tec iCam Tracer (which has "standard" webcam ICX098BQ CCD sensor)

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riklaunim

riklaunim

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Color cameras have bayer mask on them - 50% of the sensor collects green, 25% blue and 25% red wavelength. Using monochrome camera and RGB filter set (that pass red, blue or green colors) you can also get color images but with more detail, as every color is captured by 100% of the CCD. It's more advanced than color camera imaging, but gives also better quality.

Monochrome cameras are also good with other filters (like for planets and moon you can use filters that pass only IR (Baader, astronomik) - which gives more detailed image of the object), or if you want to make a lot of picture of Venus - UV filter that allows some cloud structures to be captured :))

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