Other CCD for William Optics 103mm

[Tracy]

I'm not really sure which of the below will work well with the telescope - as well as possibly being used on a Celestron 8SE that we have. Working on the 8SE is not life & death as the WO 103mm is the important one as I have a lower end QHY5-II that would work on the 8SE.

I've done Google searches and found various cameras for the current version of the 50mm guide scope (any of the QHY will work and the ASI290MM-MINI/ASI174MM-MINI).

Also, the William Optics comes with a 0.8 flattener (WO P-FLAT6AII) that has 4.6mm of travel with the 103mm refractor scope.

I'm currently looking at the following CCD's. I'm aware of color and mono and have separated each out and leaning towards color since I'm not experienced enough with filters and can be somewhat impatient.

Color
ZWO ASI 294
ZWO ASI 1600 Pro Cooled
QHY 183
QHY 163
QHY 8L

Mono
ZWO ASI 178 kit (comes with 4 filters & filter wheel)
QHY 174 (no filters or wheel)
ASI 1600 Pro
QHY MINICAM6F cooled with filter wheel & proprietary filters

If I was going to go mono, I can get a ZWO ASI 1600 PRO 36MM narrow band cooled monochrome kit that comes with 7 nm, 36 mm, LRGB, and Narrowband filters and a 7 position ZWO filter wheel.

From reading, the ZWO ASI 1600 is a fairly well thought of imaging camera.

I should mention that I'm in a Bortle class 4 but very near class 6. but I have access to land that is class 3. I realize a mono would be better but is it that much harder compared to simply using a color setup? I'm really hoping someone other than me has the 103mm since it is a 2018 release telescope and has already been down this road.

With the 103 + the Flat6All I need a to hit around 55mm for the sweet spot, using extensions if necessary?

If I go with the ASI 1600 with the color wheel that gets me to 10mm there, then it comes with a 21mm T2 extender. From looking at the kit I am contemplating, it should have everything I need to go with.

 

[Tracy]

OK, after getting with a telescope shop that I purchased the scopes from, it looks like all I need is possibly a 1mm shim. So, order placed along with the 1mm shim and a 12 volt power cable for the filter wheel.

 

[Tracy]

Well, I've placed an order for a ZWO ASI 1600 Pro with 36mm filter wheel. It should be here in a few days.

 

[Tracy]

I've cancelled the ASI1600 order. I figure I really need to learn how to use what I've got before I go spending another $2000 on a telescope specific camera.

 

[Tracy]

Am honestly glad I waited. Ended up getting a ASI533mm Pro with filter wheel. Have read about some issues with the 1600mm Pro that can be resolved in processing, but the 533 doesn’t suffer from it. This camera also has NO amp glow.

The only concern is camera image is square format (1-inch, 9MP CMOS image sensor in a square format with a 3.76 um pixel size) and not rectangle, but consensus has been that is not a show stopper.