Which Camera for Meade 14" SCT?

stevemurphy

I'm shopping for a camera mainly for planetary/lunar imagining. I have one of the first LX200 14" SCT's from Meade. I also have a Coronado PST (was just given to me) so solar photography is also something for me to consider and play around with.

Was thinking about the ASI120MM-S, but now I might just jump on the ASI174MM instead. I haven't purchased a laptop yet, but would need one with 3.0 USB for either of the cameras so I guess this isn't really a factor in deciding which camera. If cost isn't a factor, wouldn't the larger pixel size of the ASI174MM be a better fit for this 14" scope?

Also considering which filter set to get. I think I like Astronomik's L-RGB set, but ZWO's are so much cheaper. Any suggestions? What types of filters should I get for lunar work?

Thanks for any help you can send my way.

-Steve Murphy

Chico, CA

riklaunim

For solar telescopes Micron sensors are bad due to high probability that you will get strong Newton rings. ASI174M would be best in both telescopes, while ASI120 could have those problems with Coronado.

As for RGB filters - there shouldn't be a noticeable difference, at least not at start.

Sam@ZWO

yes, as riklaunim said

ASI174MM is suitable for you expeciallly for SCT

so you can easy to adjust the focal ratio because of its larger pixel size

stevemurphy

So I just pulled the trigger and ordered the ASI174mm from Highpoint Scientific. It should get here tomorrow.

Now I'm wondering about a laptop for the camera. I've been on Craigslist looking and have come to the conclusion that people selling their used laptops are asking far too much for them - sometimes even as much as what they sell for brand new. So I think I'll turn to Best Buy and get a new system for less than what most 5 year old used laptops are going for. I found a new Toshiba unit that has one native 3.0 USB and an SSD drive. Some specs:

Intel® Celeron® processor N2840 (2MB cache and 2.66GHz processor speed.)

2GB DDR3L memory

1.6" LED-backlit TFT high-definition display (With TruBrite technology and 1366 x 768 resolution provides clear images.)

128GB mSATA solid state drive

Mobile Intel® HD graphics

Built-in high-definition webcam with stereo microphone

Multiformat media reader (supports SD, SDXC, SDHC, miniSD, microSD and MMC formats.)

1 USB 3.0 port and 1 USB 2.0 port

Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n)

Bluetooth 4.0 interface

Built-in 10/100 Ethernet LAN

Weighs only 2.9 lbs. and measures just 0.83" thin

All for $279. I can add another harddrive for storage and upgrade to 8gb RAM if need be, but I'm hoping the 128gb SSD will be adequate for a viewing session.

Its not a hot rod system by any means, but I'm hoping this will accomodate the ASI174mm's high output.

Any suggestions? Will this laptop keep up with the camera's ouput stream?

Thanks in advance-

-Steve

Chico, CA

topboxman

One single night of planetary imaging can easily gobble up to 50 GB or more. So make sure you will have enough hard disk space before you start imaging.

When I first started planetary imaging of Saturn a few weeks ago, I collected as much 6 minute videos as I could and it was about 50GB for about two hours of imaging session. My camera is ASI120MC-S. To save space, make sure you set a small enough ROI around the planet but allow some room in case the planet drifts especially at high magnification.

Peter