Debbie, I have both kinds of cameras but my best images have been with the monochrome. My tracking has improved but look at my gallery and you can compare single shot color images with a Starlight Xpress SXVF-H9C camera and images with my monochrome QSI-583 with 3 color filters (last three pages of my gallery starting with M31). See: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=289 Don -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Debbie Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 12:58 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] 8300 Kodak chips I found this yesterday while on the cloudynights forums. Scroll down and view the video on the right of the webpage. Amazing color images! http://www.johnrcrilly.com/LX200-14/ Now I'm leaning towards a monochrome camera. Don, is your camera monochrome or color? Debbie On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 1:22 PM, Don J. Colton <djcolton@piol.com> wrote:
Debbie,
See
http://www.sbig.com/FAQ/General/Should_I_buy_a_Color_CCD_or_Monochrome_CCD_.
htm. This is a simple explanation of color vs. mono by the Company that makes both.
-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Debbie Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 12:43 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] 8300 Kodak chips
Joe,
Why the huge difference in quality? It seems to me if one pays $2000 for a CCD camera you should be able to get some high quality images, color or mono. If you are shooting star clusters and galaxies, would there be much of a diiference? Maybe there would be with the Veil Nebula and other nebulae. I'm going to have to research this a little more.
Debbie
On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 11:14 AM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com
wrote:
Hi Debbie, That question is much more complicated than one might think. I've learned a lot about imagers since I joined the SBIG users group. One consideration is to match the camera's pixel size with the focal length of the telescope. SBIG offers two of the 8300 cameras, at the same price: color and mono. Almost all the imagers want the mono version, as counter-intuitive as that is. The reason is that the color version has a color chip, which gives color with one exposure but isn't as sharp as using filters. The mono version has no filters, which you have to buy separately, along with a filter wheel -- a pretty expensive proposition, on top of the $1,995 for the camera. The mono version takes color pics by making exposures through the red, green and blue filters, which you then combine with software. (Most folks also take a luminosity exposure too at the same time.) The best thing is to learn, learn, learn before you get locked into any system. My feeling is it's a good idea to call OPT and talk with one of the experts, just go over all the questions you might have and ask for a recommendation. From my own experience -- and granted, this was years ago -- they will steer you in the right direction even if you intend to buy there and the recommendation leads you to choose something less expensive. -- Best wishes, Joe --- On Sun, 12/12/10, Debbie <astrodeb@beyondbb.com> wrote:
From: Debbie <astrodeb@beyondbb.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] 8300 Kodak chips To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Sunday, December 12, 2010, 10:43 AM I noticed on OPT's website that there are a couple of different cameras that have the full-frame 8300 Kodak chips. Should a novice imager go with ATIK, SBIG, or Orion's Parsec camera? I would appreciate some opinions from experienced imagers. I'm just gathering information at the moment.
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