60Da for Astrophotography - who has it and what are your opinions on pros and cons?

After this most recent lunar eclipse last night, I actually became very interested I attaching a camera body to a telescope and photographing astronomy objects.

Canon makes a specialized 60D camera for a very good price called the 60Da. I am considering buying this as a specialized tool (like my 65mm Macro lens) to use for poster sized prints that I can produce after I stack shots taken with this body.

My question is what are the advantages in actual astrophotography or disadvantages of non-astrophotography of owning this body? Who has it, and what improvements did you notice in your shots taken with the (a) version of a camera body over a non-(a) version? I see in reviews some people are claiming fairly major improvements in their astrophotography after switching to this body.

As a side note - I notice that it's infrared sensitive. So maybe it'll have an alternative use as an infrared camera too with the right filters?

catclaw wrote in post #16837383
After this most recent lunar eclipse last night, I actually became very interested I attaching a camera body to a telescope and photographing astronomy objects.

Canon makes a specialized 60D camera for a very good price called the 60Da. I am considering buying this as a specialized tool (like my 65mm Macro lens) to use for poster sized prints that I can produce after I stack shots taken with this body.

My question is what are the advantages in actual astrophotography or disadvantages of non-astrophotography of owning this body? Who has it, and what improvements did you notice in your shots taken with the (a) version of a camera body over a non-(a) version? I see in reviews some people are claiming fairly major improvements in their astrophotography after switching to this body.

As a side note - I notice that it's infrared sensitive. So maybe it'll have an alternative use as an infrared camera too with the right filters?

I don't know but also ask in the Astrophotography section
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdis​play.php?f=136

Heya,

You can get older dSLR's and have them converted to infrared. I'm afraid you're going to overpay for a 60Da frankly. Most of us in the astro forum are not using that. The guys doing serious deep space stacks, some of them are using infrared equipped cameras. I guess it depends on what you're getting into. Personally, I would favor a newer sensor if you want poster size prints. The 60Da, just because it can grab a little more light in certain wavelengths, will still have the same ISO performance, and for 20~30 second subs, that could be a problem. Also, unless your scope is tracking/guided, you're not going to do very long exposures anyways, which means even more ISO needed.

I'd either get a 6D for this, not knowing the specifics of your scope/gear, or just get an older aps-c and have it converted to infrared for cheaper.

Very best,

Having just had a long discussion regarding the merits of analogue Anti Aliasing filters in another thread, have they also removed the AA from the 60Da? It would make sense for a camera designed for imaging generally low spatial frequency subjects to remove the AA filter.

Alan

If your thinking of just shooting the moon it is pointless. The 60Da or 20Da is made for deep space. Most Astrophotographers use it with a telescope. just by a cheap dslr and you can have it modded or do it yourself for a 3rd of the price.

BigAl007 wrote in post #16838956
Having just had a long discussion regarding the merits of analogue Anti Aliasing filters in another thread, have they also removed the AA from the 60Da? It would make sense for a camera designed for imaging generally low spatial frequency subjects to remove the AA filter.

Alan

Yeah, they removed it and replaced it with a regular protective glass. Part of the reason the images come out funky for normal photography is because infrared is hitting the sensor.

Nightfire wrote in post #16838958
If your thinking of just shooting the moon it is pointless. The 60Da or 20Da is made for deep space. Most Astrophotographers use it with a telescope. just by a cheap dslr and you can have it modded or do it yourself for a 3rd of the price.

Yeah, I want to do deep space objects now.