CCD Equipment

This is one of the best times to be an amateur astronomer due the vast expansion of affordable equipment available to those interested in this hobby (or lifestyle)! I remember just a few years ago ANY CCD camera worth using was well over $5,000 as a base price; today, you can purchase a much higher quality imager with a color filter wheel for around $5,000!

Our SBIG ST-2000 XCM is a single shot Color Imager which features a 1.9 mega pixel imager as well as a self guiding chip.

From the SBIG website "This is essentially the same CCD as the KAI-2020M used in the ST-2000XM monochrome camera with the exception of an RGB filter matrix over the pixel array. The KAI-2020CM CCD is a 2 megapixel progressive scan detector with an active image area of 1.92 million pixels. The active image area is 1600 x 1200 pixels. This array is 75% larger than the Sony CCD used in competitors' "one-shot color megapixel" cameras, nearly as large as an ST-8XME, and the ST-2000XM is a self-guiding camera, utilizing SBIG's patented dual sensor design. Although the imaging CCD is nearly the same size as the KAF-1602E used in the ST-8XME, due to the smaller pixel size it contains nearly half a million more pixels than the ST-8XME.

The ST-2000XM monochrome CCD: 1600 x 1200 pixels at 7.4 microns square. The guide chip is the TC-237H with 657 x 495 pixels at 7.4 microns square." (http://www.sbig.com/sbwhtmls/online.htm)

My advice? Yes, SBIG cameras can be expensive, but not so much so that you should deprive yourself of one. Consider this; SBIG cameras have electromechanical shutters, do not have column defects, frequently have self guiding chips within the camera (no need for an additional camera to guide), very low thermal noise, wide field images, an electric cooling fan and the ability achieve -30ºC cooling resulting in a superior quality camera.

Think about this: Take a look at Astronomy or Sky & Telescope magazines and notice that the reader pictures section is almost entirely taken with SBIG cameras. Its not popularity or prevalence that makes SBIG cameras number one for amateur photos in astronomy magazines, it's quality of the cameras and images plain and simple.

If you are planning on controlling your telescope and imaging over the internet or a home network think about how you would take dark frames if you don't have access to the scope; if you DON'T have a shutter on your imager, you are out of luck. You could use stored dark frames from your dark frame directory but just a few degrees out of balance up or down and, blip, your dogmeat! But, if you are not at the actual location it would be a big problem, not to mention the fact that if you did not have an actual shutter on your imager, you will certainly have errant photons on your dark frame exposures. Programs such as CCDSoft, The Sky X, and Maxim DL version 5 (which I HIGHLY recommend) can handle all of the imaging requirements automatically, even if you are not actually in front of your scope!