Cheap CCD Camera for Tri Colour Imaging

[Radar]

What would be a good CCD camera to get started with?

I want to experiment with CCD in the coming year. I want to be able to do tri colour imaging.

What is the difference between using red, green, blue, filters as opposed to using Oygen three, Sulphur 2 and Hydrogen Alpha?

I have an ST4 that I could practice with. Anyone know if that would be worth playing with?

Cheers

Ray

[Noel Carboni]

You don't say what your budget is...

I've mentioned the Starlight Xpress SXV-H9C camera in other threads... 1392 x 1040 6.45uM pixels in a 8.98 x 6.71mm active area. Not altogether cheap, but capable of absolutely pro quality imagery. I recommend it highly.

-Noel

[hpcoolahan]

hey radar, the DSI-II is a great camera for the price ($1099) get the pro one but, higher resolution than the single shot color.
as for the hubble pallet imaging , expect longer exposures,much longer than normal , u are getting only a narrow band of light through ,so more time to get those photons.results look great.

Good luck Radar
Clear Skies
Pat

[Radar]

You don't say what your budget is...

I've mentioned the Starlight Xpress SXV-H9C camera in other threads... 1392 x 1040 6.45uM pixels in a 8.98 x 6.71mm active area. Not altogether cheap, but capable of absolutely pro quality imagery. I recommend it highly.

-Noel

Probably want to spend under a $1000 Noel. Because at this stage I just want to learn the process, see how I like it, then move on from there.


hey radar, the DSI-II is a great camera for the price ($1099) get the pro one but, higher resolution than the single shot color.
as for the hubble pallet imaging , expect longer exposures,much longer than normal , u are getting only a narrow band of light through ,so more time to get those photons.results look great.

Good luck Radar
Clear Skies
Pat

I'm thinking about firing up my st4 as a camera. It is usually only an autoguider but would probably work for tri colour imaging.

So what is the actual difference between the hubble pallet and normal coloured filters?

[Noel Carboni]

The "Hubble palette" refers to the assignment of data captured through narrowband filters to color planes - SII = Red, Ha = Green, OIII = Blue. It creates unnatural but highly colorful images out of combination of narrow-band imagery. Keep in mind:

SII emissions are actually really deep red.
Ha emissions are deep red.
OIII emissions are teal (blue-green).

Narrow band filters allow only a very small set of wavelengths through. Thus, an Ha filter will allow only a very narrow set of deep red light - that given off by ionized Hydrogen - through.

"Normal" RGB imaging, by contrast, uses WIDE band filters - e.g., longer wavelengths (reds/oranges), mid-wavelengths (yellows/greens), and short wavelengths (blues/violets) - through. The recombination of data captured through these filters as an RGB image gives you more or less visible color imagery - what we'd see with our eyes.

Implications: Light pollution is generally blocked better by narrow-band filters. On the other hand, exposure times get significantly longer with narrow-band filters.

Some people image with Ha, OIII, and Hb filters to created somewhat naturally colored images. Still others image with Ha and OIII only, then synthesize a green channel from the red and blue channels. I have an action in my set for this, actually.

Neil Fleming is one of the best narrow-band imagers out there, and he prepares some of his images (e.g., the Elephant Trunk) using more than one approach, so you can see the differences: http://www.flemingastrophotography.com/nebulae.html

Neil uses several different sets of my actions - he's one of the few applying my fractal sharpening to astroimagery, and I think his work is stunning!

-Noel

[Radar]

Thanks for the info Noel.

The laptop I currently have doesn't work with my st4, the serial port has been phased out. I'm going to find a laptop this week and see how I go. I have some coloured filters, so it should be interesting to see what my first results come out like.

[Noel Carboni]

There are extremely inexpensive USB to serial port adapters available at just about any high tech store. All the electronics are in a connector, so it's essentially just a short USB to DB25 cable. I think they cost about $10.

-Noel

[rogerg]

You can't beat the Meade DSI for simplicity. Personally I'd go with the colour one not the mono one, I don't like the way they've done the filters in the pro and there's something very addictive about the extreme simplicity of the single shot colour DSI. Meade have got it sorted quite well I think.

However, there's a lot of options to weigh up.

If you're thinking of it as a temporary learning tool before you advance to a bigger & better CCD then I'd suggest seriously considering second hand purchases, save $ or get more for your $.

I wonder if there are ST-402ME cameras floating around for around $1k second hand. That's a step up from the DSI in terms of sensitivity, pixel size, array size, and will give you immediate experience with the more advanced software of CCDSoft etc.

I'd keep an eye out on the buy & sell forums for a month and see what turns up. DSI's get bought and sold almost every single day, and older or smaller SBIG's often pop up around the $1k mark.

[scorpius]

There are extremely inexpensive USB to serial port adapters available at just about any high tech store. All the electronics are in a connector, so it's essentially just a short USB to DB25 cable. I think they cost about $10.

-Noel

You beat me to it Noel. I got one last week I think it cost me around $20. Tricky Dicky and Jaycar sell them. Make sure you get the drivers for it. They do not necessarily auto install. Well not in Vista !

Dave

[Radar]

There are extremely inexpensive USB to serial port adapters available at just about any high tech store. All the electronics are in a connector, so it's essentially just a short USB to DB25 cable. I think they cost about $10.

-Noel

I bought one of these when I first bought my ST4. I wanted to be able to see the star on the screen so that I could check any drift whilst shooting. But for some reason, I just couldn't get it to work.


You can't beat the Meade DSI for simplicity. Personally I'd go with the colour one not the mono one, I don't like the way they've done the filters in the pro and there's something very addictive about the extreme simplicity of the single shot colour DSI. Meade have got it sorted quite well I think.

However, there's a lot of options to weigh up.

If you're thinking of it as a temporary learning tool before you advance to a bigger & better CCD then I'd suggest seriously considering second hand purchases, save $ or get more for your $.

I wonder if there are ST-402ME cameras floating around for around $1k second hand. That's a step up from the DSI in terms of sensitivity, pixel size, array size, and will give you immediate experience with the more advanced software of CCDSoft etc.

I'd keep an eye out on the buy & sell forums for a month and see what turns up. DSI's get bought and sold almost every single day, and older or smaller SBIG's often pop up around the $1k mark.

Cheers Rog. I'll keep a look out.


You beat me to it Noel. I got one last week I think it cost me around $20. Tricky Dicky and Jaycar sell them. Make sure you get the drivers for it. They do not necessarily auto install. Well not in Vista !
Dave

Maybe I'll try one from tricky dicky's or Jaycar. The one I have only works as a paper weight.