Hi My name is Louw and I am from South Africa. I want to do some asteroid hunting but need advise on the ccd camera for my scope. I have a celestron 9.25 cpc and was looking at the ST9 -xe. Is that a over kill for the scope? I also looked at the STF that is almost the same as the discontinued Celestron nightscape 8300. Any idees on what I should look for? Thanks. Louw
ST9-XE has not been manufactured for many years. STF-8300M is one of our most popular cameras, and is most certainly a very good place to start. It is a good match for your Celestron 9.25. Doug
Thanks Doug.Nice to be certain of something.I was reading and reading but without the help of people like you one will always be uncertain. Louw
The color CCD chips were discontinued by the manufacturer. Can’t get them anymore. To be honest I’ve never recommended color CCDs. You get more sensitivity and better results with monochrome/ filter wheel, plus the option of doing narrowband imaging. With modern software there is no extra effort required to acquire and process monochrome images. Everything is automated. There are limited situations where color is still useful, such as when you have very small backfocus. Also comets can be more work to acquire/process with filters because they move so fast. But for the majority of situations the monochrome cameras are so much superior that they are clearly the way to go.
Ok Dough thanks. Now I can order this camera and get started.Do you know what a good price is on the model? I will have to order it from America. In our country you will only get the celestron nightscape which is of the market anyway.
You can order it direct (from Canada) here: http://diffractionlimited.com/product/stf-8300/ Or you can order from one of our dealers.
