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Cameras
I will use a variety of equipment to do astrophotography. I am mainly employing my digital camera at this time. The digital camera is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to take pictures of the solar system objects. Deep space objects are a little more complicated and longer exposures are necessary. I use the Casio QV8000 model. This camera comes with a threaded lens and can expose pictures up to 64 seconds. The 64 second for a digital camera is a benefit for taking deep sky objects. Most camera don't have this feature. You are limited with a digital camera for deep space because it can not gather the light needed to take the dim object. Some pictures are possible by taking a series of exposures and stacking the images. This procedure is call image processing and is another subject by itself. Click thumbnail for a larger view.
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The newest equipment on the market today is the CCD camera. As you can see from the picture it doesn't have a lens. The scope is your lens. This system is attached to the imaging processor(the small box) and than attached to your laptop computer. The micro chip in the camera head sends the information to the processor and the computer displays the image. Sounds complicated! To a person like me, it was. Once you take the time and learn how things work it can be figured out. Focusing is the biggest problem. Once you learn the technique it becomes easy. The software program I use is Maxim DL/CCD and has the capability to automatically focus the camera for you. The camera systems I now use is the Starlight Xpress MX716, and the Meade LPI video imager. One of the advantages of the MX716 is that it can guide the scope and take a picture at the same time. This is a great camera for the price. It is very simple to use and takes excellent pictures. The learning curve for me had been tough with my first system and can take the fun out of astronomy. You want to get into this end slowly. Learn as much as you can and get with someone with experience. This will shorten the learning curve. If you keep it simple, it can be very enjoyable.