what ccd??

[phatlad]

good evening all, i need to pick your brains.

i have a Meade DSI II pro and i am wanting to get another ccd and to guide with the DSI, but what to get? i am looking for something with alittle larger chip but not sure what, i'm happy to be looking at second hand as well as new.

i was thinking of something like a atik 16hr what to people think of them and what sort of price am i looking at for something like that?

thanks glen

[Whippy]

Hi Glen, I use an Atik 16hr and I'm happy with it, it's the predecessor to the 314L. The big downside is the relatively small chip compared to most cameras these days but it is very sensitive and you don't need to do dark frames either due to the low noise of the chip.

Saying that, you can get wide-ish fields using a short focal length scope such as a Zenithstar 66, IIRC the FOV is about 60 x 90 arcmins.

There's a whole host of images using this camera (FWIW, the Starlight Xpress H9 and the QHY2 uses the same sensor) so there's plenty of reference images to show what it can do.

Price-wise secondhand I've seen both colour and mono versions go for between £500 - £700.

HTH

Tony..

[riklaunim]

good evening all, i need to pick your brains.

i have a Meade DSI II pro and i am wanting to get another ccd and to guide with the DSI, but what to get? i am looking for something with alittle larger chip but not sure what, i'm happy to be looking at second hand as well as new.

i was thinking of something like a atik 16hr what to people think of them and what sort of price am i looking at for something like that?

thanks glen

16HR has the super ICX285 sensor, but it uses USB 1.1 to download images (and it will take some seconds for 1.1). You can get DSI III Pro new at 878L in UK (and noticably cheaper in USA, but getting them from USA will be a bit problematic). New 16HR costs about the same (so either active cooling or fast frame download )

If you use short focal lengths (small refractor) and you have good mount then you can look at small-pixel cameras - Atik 320E, 314E, Opticstar 142M-ICE. They are less sensitive than ICX285 but you get bigger resolution on short FL (and you probably can reduce the focal length to f4-3 to aid imaging).

[NickH]

DSI-III is vastly noisier than the 314L, due to lack of cooling. Dark frames are a must on that one. 16HR takes about 10s to DL a frame, 314L around 1-2 ish..

Whichever, a 285 is a great chip...small by some standards, but very very good.

[riklaunim]

So you would say that 16HR would be better than DSI III Pro? Would the older electronics cause any problems in image transfer etc?

I think you need some realy long exposures to have problems with noise (like narrowband imaging of faint objects).

[NickH]

I have and do own all of them (16HR upgraded to the 314L) and I have a DSI-III for OSC work to augment the mono 314L. The active cooling makes a difference, and I don't need darks up to 15 minute exposures on the 314L, whereas on the DSI-III 2 mins and darks are needed (except in mid winter :-)))

All are good, the 314L is just the best of the 3

[phatlad]

thank you all very much for the advice i think i am going to try get a 16hr when one comes on the market or wait till i can aford a 314e/l.

i think from what people are saying i want to go down the active cooled route.

thanks again for all your help and advice

glen

[NickH]

The e and the L are VERY VERY different beasts...the L is vastly superior... (again, have both in an observatory..)

Get the HR and then get the L is my advice, you don;t see many people on here imaging with the e!

[riklaunim]

16HR is discontinued I think. You can get one from some shops like teleskop express

[Whippy]

16HR is discontinued I think.

It is. The 314L is it's replacement.

Tony..

[NickH]

Indeed, S/H is the only hope realistically for the 16HR