Best Camera for deep space object

[SpaceNerdz]

I've been trying to find a CCTV night-time camera for use to image deep-space astro objects as well as meteors. The only one I could find is the Water 902 H2 Ultimate. Is there another one that I could use that would be better ? My price range is $200 ~$400, although I could go up to $1000 if there are significant imaging advantages

 

[davenn]

hi SpaceNerdz

just about any semi modern digital camera ( read as last 10 years) would be better than a CCTV camera which are usually low mpix and optical quality in comparison

are you wanting just to aim camera directly at the sky or use it through a telescope ?
if directly to sky, deep sky objects are going to range from ting fuzzy blobs to non-existent
A reasonable DSLR camera and lens will improve that greatly. Putting a DSLR camera onto a telescope
using the scope as a huge telephoto lens will give awesome deep sky object pix

If you want to just do meteor skywatch then a CCTV cam would work. You would easily capture the brightest meteors
flashing across the field of view of the camera

Dave

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

CCTV night-time camera for use to image deep-space astro objects

I'm very curious why you are interested in using a CCTV camera. Do you want it connected to a monitor all the time?

 

[davenn]

may he has a second hand one lying around ? :)

I have a whole bunch of them lying around the workshop, but I have never really deemed them sensitive enough for astronomy use
That is changing with some of the low light ones now available 0.1 Lux isn't uncommon

So spaceNerdz ... you haven't come back and commented... have we helped or not ?

Dave

 

[Chronos]

A good digital cameras can be surprisingly effective for AP, and considerably cheaper than a good AP camera. You can also use it for taking ordinary pictures [which can help persuade a significant other it might actually be more than a potential paperweight]. You can always graduate to a dedicated AP camera once you get the hang of it and can justify enough money to choke a horse.

 

[SpaceNerdz]

Thanks for the response guys. The reason why I want a CCTV to do deep-space astro is... ... because that's what my professor wants ! Lol . I'm doing research at Columbia University, and we want to do astro-survey across the states... ... so not only does it have to be a good camera, it has to be cheap too ... ... Dave, we might stick to only meteors, but we'll have to buy a few cams to test to be sure.