SBIG STV

I was thinking of buying a STV. Any comments on this product? I want to ease into CCD imaging. I thought this would be a good start.

Debbie

The STV is the best autoguider on the planet. It's also capable of many other fine features like aiding in polar-alignment. It's even a fairly decent black & white video camera. The downside is that it's merely an average ccd camera at best. The chip is very small for the dollars charged.

NUMBER 1: BUY RON WODASKI's BOOK before you purchase any equipment!!! It's worth every penny.

What type of telescope are you going to use for imaging? What focal length is it? Does it have a very good quality mount under it? Does the mount have goto capability?

There will be many opinions displayed here, but I would recommmend considering a low-cost Starlight Express camera, or the SBIG ST237A if you have a scope to match it's characteristics.

Even better, I would highly recommend video imaging to start. It's much easier and doesn't require a high quality mount at all. This may buy you time to further investigate equipment while learning the ropes of ccd imaging. Video is ccd imaging minus the costs and hassles and minus the incredible deep-sky imaging capability (if you know how to obtain it). Video is still capable of deep-sky work though. The Stellacam EX black & white video camera from Adirondack Video Astronomy can easily obtain deep-sky images. Video also offers incredible live images that film, digital cameras, and integrated ccd cameras can't offer. I own three types of media and I use my two video cameras the most because of time.

If you have your heart set on an integrated camera, you might also go cheap (~$500) and try one of the new SAC 8 cameras until you learn the ropes.

Many amateurs have entered ccd imaging without knowing how much time and effort it can take and they think that anyone with the dollars can make great images. That isn't the case. It's not impossible, but there is a learning curve and it is a talent.

--Lonnie