CCD imaging? Does anyone do serious amateur imaging, what equipment is best?

Question

Yeah, I know..."best" is a relative term...I'm looking at a modest setup, maybe a Meade LX200 8" with a imager that I won't have to sell the car to get. What's good?

Answer 1

If you want to start imaging, I'd avoid SCTs.  

They tend to have long focal lengths, and this makes tracking errors more of a problem.  

Also, if you're trying to hold down costs, you'll undoubtedly end up with a small chip camera, and the longer focal length of an SCT means fewer targets will fit on your chip.

Meade Schmidt Newtonians are among the lowest cost scopes that are realistic for a beginning imager.  They have short focal ratios.  Unfortunately, they also have abysmal quality control - so be prepared to send at least one back.

Otherwise, you want a scope with an equatorial mount, and the mount should have an autoguider port.  

I like sbig cameras because they have a built in autoguider chip, but if your mount can handle the weight of a second small guide scope, Orion has some interesting options that are more affordable.  Imaging without an autoguider is possible, but it's much tougher to get good long exposures if you need to guide manually.  

Asking questions on Cloudy Nights is a good idea.  

You could also email me direct to discuss your goals.

Here are some of my images:

< http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view... >

Here is a photo of my smaller scope set up for imaging:

< http://www.ppxchat.com/MarkTMB.jpg >

Answer 2

if you have to ask here, you're already in trouble.

i use a canon dslr. lots of ppl do. depends on your definition of "serious".

Answer 3

There's an enormous price difference between the "best" CCD technology and CCD technology that works pretty well and will give you satisfying results.

At the lowest end of the scale, you could simply get a cheap video survellance camera that is designed for low-light operation, and stick it on your telescope. Cost: about $100.

Significantly better results can be gotten with a computer-controllable CCD chip that allows you to accumulate exposure on the chip for a few seconds before reading out.  Such a system can be purchased or built for a few hundred dollars, and is not very much worse than the best available astronomical CCD technology.

Answer 4

Yahoo!Answers is a TERRIBLE place to ask complex technical questions like this. Try going to one of the Yahoo groups dedicated to CCD imaging, or to cloudynights.com, if you want reliable advice from people who actually do CCD imaging (I don't myself).