CCD

When I first started gazing at the stars through a telescope, I had it in my mind that I would peer through the eyepiece, and photons that left some galaxy 10s of millions of years ago would enter my eye, and I would be one with the universe. Living about 20 miles from 2 major cities, Washington DC and Baltimore MD, these hopes were soon washed away in a sea of light pollution. I had resigned myself to seeing only the faintest shadow of the brightest galaxies and nebulae, when I found a technology that would let me "see" all the things that light pollution had taken away from me.

The CCD...

My first foray into electronic imaging was to modify an old WebCam for use with my scope. While I never had much success with imaging with the WebCam, I did use it as an autoguider for my first successful film image, M29.

I got serious and bought a very good starter CCD, the SBIG ST-7E. Aside from the small chip, this CCD camera had all the features of the top of the line camera; self guiding using a second CCD chip, electronically cooled, support for the CFW8 color wheel and the AO-7 tilt mirror device. This is a very good entry-level camera, and I recommend it, or its more modern USB equipped counterpart, for anyone starting out in the hobby.

I eventually got "Pixel fever", and wanted a bigger CCD. Since the top of the line ST-10XM was out of my price range, I selected the new ST-2000XM. Nearly as large as the 10, the 2000XM does lack some sensitivity when compared to the higher models. One advantage it has, though, is the ability to take very short exposures, do to its interline design. I am able to use this camera to image planets, which are too bright for the other cameras in the series.

CCD cameras are inherently black and white devices. In order to produce color images, you must take the images through a series of Red, Green, and Blue filters. While some CCD chips have these filters built in, the SBIG cameras need external filters. The CFW-8 filter wheel is an electronic device that will put any one of 5 filters in the optical path of the camera. While it may seem like an extravagance to buy a device to automatically changes color filters for you, when you could just manually screw different one on yourself, removing the camera from the scope, changing the filter, putting the camera back on the scope, reframing and refocusing wastes too much valuable imaging time.

The AO-7 is a miracle device for long focal length scopes. This device is based on a mirror that can be electronically tilted very quickly to keep the image completely stationary in the face of periodic error of the mount, and other guiding errors.

My first foray into electronic imaging was to modify an old WebCam for use with my scope. While I never had much success with imaging with the WebCam, I did use it as an autoguider for my first successful film image, M29.
	I got serious and bought a very good starter CCD, the SBIG ST-7E. Aside from the small chip, this CCD camera had all the features of the top of the line camera; self guiding using a second CCD chip, electronically cooled, support for the CFW8 color wheel and the AO-7 tilt mirror device. This is a very good entry-level camera, and I recommend it, or its more modern USB equipped counterpart, for anyone starting out in the hobby. I eventually got "Pixel fever", and wanted a bigger CCD. Since the top of the line ST-10XM was out of my price range, I selected the new ST-2000XM. Nearly as large as the 10, the 2000XM does lack some sensitivity when compared to the higher models. One advantage it has, though, is the ability to take very short exposures, do to its interline design. I am able to use this camera to image planets, which are too bright for the other cameras in the series.
CCD cameras are inherently black and white devices. In order to produce color images, you must take the images through a series of Red, Green, and Blue filters. While some CCD chips have these filters built in, the SBIG cameras need external filters. The CFW-8 filter wheel is an electronic device that will put any one of 5 filters in the optical path of the camera. While it may seem like an extravagance to buy a device to automatically changes color filters for you, when you could just manually screw different one on yourself, removing the camera from the scope, changing the filter, putting the camera back on the scope, reframing and refocusing wastes too much valuable imaging time.
	The AO-7 is a miracle device for long focal length scopes. This device is based on a mirror that can be electronically tilted very quickly to keep the image completely stationary in the face of periodic error of the mount, and other guiding errors.