Need help selecting a dslr or ccd for astrophtography

I guess I was getting hung up on mp and a lot of the ccd's are in the 1-2 mp range and are really pricey. I was looking at the atik 428ex. I think at this time if I go the ccd route I will probably go one shot color for cost and ease of use. Bad idea?

skater911 wrote in post #15542952
I guess I was getting hung up on mp and a lot of the ccd's are in the 1-2 mp range and are really pricey. I was looking at the atik 428ex. I think at this time if I go the ccd route I will probably go one shot color for cost and ease of use. Bad idea?

It all depends on your expectations in the end. If you want to do prints larger than a piece of computer paper with low noise and crisp nebula then the atik 383L is going to do the job, Im not sure of resolutions of the 428ex but I have seen some pretty good images taken with it. Check astrobin.com and you can search images taken by each camera. Also in the astronomy celestial viewing section of this site Megrac has a thread called Eta Carinae Nebula in Hubble palette. He used the 383L and the image is of superb quality, a very good demonstration of the results you can get with narrow band imaging.

skater911 wrote in post #15542952
I guess I was getting hung up on mp and a lot of the ccd's are in the 1-2 mp range and are really pricey. I was looking at the atik 428ex. I think at this time if I go the ccd route I will probably go one shot color for cost and ease of use. Bad idea?

I know monochrome CCD seems like a daunting idea but its not harder then OSC. You just have to shoot all your color separately. In return, its allows you to filter out the unwanted light. If you live in a region which has moderate to heavy light pollution, you may want to do what we called Narrowboand imaging. The only way to do NB is with a monochrome.

The initial cost of monochrome CCD is definitely more expensive because you have to buy a filter wheel and filter. Programs like Maxim DL makes is super easy for anyone to combine their RGB or Ha, OIII, SII exposure.

Atik is a very good company. they make excellent camera. Usually people start with the 314L+. The camera cooling system and the Sony sensor allows you to take exposure without the need of performing darks. That's a huge time saving. You can also look at the 420M. Don't be fool by the megapixel. You can get tons of details even with an 2mp camera.

I think you will get limited by OSC. You will need a lot more post processing and you won't get the level of details. I have a few friend that shoot with OSC and they get some pretty good result. so its up to you.

Maybe I will pick your brain once I save up for a ccd. Right now I am just starting and getting the hang of it before I spend a couple grand.

skater911 wrote in post #15543495
Maybe I will pick your brain once I save up for a ccd. Right now I am just starting and getting the hang of it before I spend a couple grand.

Aight. Spent your budget on the mount. Its the most important thing. If you can get an HEQ5 Pro or an NEQ6. That's a solid start. People think astrophotography is about the camera or the scope but they are wrong. Its all about the mount and the tracking. Everything else is just gravy.

fogboundturtle wrote in post #15543540
Aight. Spent your budget on the mount. Its the most important thing. If you can get an HEQ5 Pro or an NEQ6. That's a solid start. People think astrophotography is about the camera or the scope but they are wrong. Its all about the mount and the tracking. Everything else is just gravy.

+1. With a good mount, you can take some fantastic pictures with your Rebel and a good lens. With a crappy mount, it doesn't matter what camera you have, your pix will still either all suck, or you'll have to sort through a ton of them to find 1 or 2 decent ones.