ccd competition

[solarandi]

evening all,

i'm looking at buying an entry level ccd, and am interested in the neximage but i see the orion starshoot planetary imager can also be used as an autoguider. would this be the better buy in the long term

or is there another option to consider. £350 is about my limit at the moment.

many thanks.

[riklaunim]

Look at QHY5v or other from QHY5 servies (also OpticStar CMOS cams). Their are quite cheap and much better than webcams and NexImage which is a webcam. Orion items in Europe will be rather more expensive than direct chinese or local brands.

I saw somewhere some second hand QHY... keep an eye on U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell or TS second hand.

[barkis]

There was a Meade DSI Pro for sale on Astro Buy and Sell UK,

Cheap at £200. A good imaging camera, and would also be an excellent guide cam.

Ron.

[solarandi]

thanks for the reply

i'll investigate those options

thanks.

[barkis]

thanks for the reply

i'll investigate those options

thanks.

Here's a link to the Mead DSI. It could have been sold, so you would need to email the seller to make sure. That site is slow to tidy the board up.

Ron.

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=34827

[ncjunk]

You can normally pick up a colour dsi for 100 if you can afford to wait for one to turn up.

[solarandi]

again thanks for the advice

i hadn't considered buying secondhand and i see the meade dsi is considered an option. presumably i could download any missing software from the meade site (i'm thinking missing cd discs may be a problem with secondhand purchases)

[NickH]

Don't worry on that one...lots of us can send you the software

Atik 16ic is another v good option

[old_eyes]

I use and have a lot of fun with a one shot colour Atik 16ic - and it makes a great guide camera too. A second hand one is well within your budget and they turn up pretty regularly.

old_eyes

[Shibby]

Your other option worth considering is a DSLR. One advantage is the larger chip size, which gives you a wider FOV. You could actually buy a modified 350D for your £350 budget.

There's also disadvantages of course, you couldn't use it as a guider and they're not cooled so there's often more noise and you'd need to take more subs to get rid of it.

[red dwalf]

don`t worry to much about buying second hand, i`ve bought second hand cameras in the past and they are usually very well looked after and a bargain from new, also most if not all the software is available from the website sometimes with newer updated versions of it.

i bought a Meade DSI PRO 2 mono with filters and cooler and it`s a great bit of kit and a good saving from new,

if your looking to get planet images first i`d recommend a webcam, cheap easy to use and get good results then think about moving onto DSO`S later as this is a hole lot more complicated i find

[TheThing]

I can thoroughly recommend the Orion StarShoot . Gives excellent results and I picked mine up 2nd hand from this forum. Very nicely priced too!