Suggestions on CCD astrophotography camera.?

Question

I am an astrophotography noob and am going to buy my first camera, I have a 10" reflector. I usually view DSOs, planets, star cluster, etc. I have a dob mount, I know this sucks for me lol. I have spoken to a man in Switzerland who had his solar photo published in spaceweather.com. He was using a 10" Newtonian and a dob mount, so I know it can be done. 

Im patient, I know astrophotography takes time. I also am looking to take solar pics for the Venus transit next year. What I want is something that can take pictures and live video, I don't care if I have to take thousands of pics just to get a ten good shots. I do that with my iPod already. Lol. 

Price-wise I am looking around $300-400. It can be slightly above, but nothing too crazy. Remember I'll still have to buy filters and whatever else I many need, so any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks.

birchardvilleobservatory · Answer

There are several planetary and solar cameras that are available.  Try www.telescope.com, as one place to start.

If you want your dob mounted telescope to follow the stars, planets, etc., consider an Equatorial Platform.  There is a lot of information in Yahoo Groups "eqplatforms" group, and some at my site:

You wouldn't need the EQ Platform for Sun, Moon, and bright planets, since exposure time can be short.  Still, tracking while setting things up can be a big help, and it really helps when you invite a bunch of people to look at .... through your scope.  Manual tracking gets old and slows things down a lot when showing people things like the moons of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn, or even the mountains on the Moon

Stephen Cheatley · Answer

It might be a little over budget, but look at an Orion StarShoot Deep Space video camera.

Angela D · Answer

buy a dslr or use a modified webcam. both work well.

Anonymous · Answer

http://www.sbig.com/

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Suggestions on CCD astrophotography camera.?

4 Answers