Recommend me a cooled CCD please

[Zakalwe]

Budget about £900.

What would you recommend for galaxy and nebula imaging. Am using an Equinox Pro 80mm F6.25 frac with a field flattener. I am choosing between buying a DSLR and modding it (£300-500) but am thinking that I will get better performance from a cooled CCD (if nothing, then I will get more imaging time as I can use the same darks from a CCD camera across different sessions, as opposed to taking darks every session with an uncooled DSLR).

Atik320e is in this sort of budget. QHY8L?

[Demonperformer]

Don' know enough about it to recommend a particular camera, but the comments I received when considering a similar option were:

* ccd camera does not require 'gap' between exposures to cool down electronics like dslr

* darks would be less of an issue because it is cooled, and for short exposures may not be required at all

* ccd is 16-bit as compared with dslr 12-bit, so better sensitivity (not the right word - not necessarily picking up fainter things, but more ability to differentiate between things of close brightness - if that makes sense)

[shaunster]

id save more and go for a 314L+ if your thinking of a 320e

or get one second hand

[Zakalwe]

id save more and go for a 314L+ if your thinking of a 320e

Thanks shaunster. Can you explain the reasons why (apart from "more expensive is better":p)

[Psychobilly]

OSC or Mono ?... if its mono dont forget to budget for LRGB and/or Narrowband filters and a filter wheel....

Billy...

[Zakalwe]

OSC or Mono ?... if its mono dont forget to budget for LRGB and/or Narrowband filters and a filter wheel....

Billy...

Good point Billy.

OSC is the answer. My imaging time is scarce enough, and at this stage I do not have access to clear enough skies to have time to do LRGB imaging.

Steve J

[shaunster]

If we are talking OSC then the QHY8 is a good bet

Its not actually quicker to take images using OSC, you just get a colour image sooner.

IMO mono is much more versatile and performs better under polluted skies !

[Psychobilly]

If we are talking OSC then the QHY8 is a good bet

Its not actually quicker to take images using OSC, you just get a colour image sooner.

IMO mono is much more versatile and performs better under polluted skies !

Agreed...

And potentailly more expensive....

[Zakalwe]

If we are talking OSC then the QHY8 is a good bet

Its not actually quicker to take images using OSC, you just get a colour image sooner.

IMO mono is much more versatile and performs better under polluted skies !

Whoops... I forgot about the decreased sensitivity of OSC.

My skies are fairly badly polluted.....should I be looking to get into narrowband imaging?