What do you think I shoud buy, or not buy?

[radarsski]

Hey all, I now own a Canon T5i; no mod. I bought an Orion f/3.9 Newt Astrograph. I have a chance tomorrow to get a well kept Canon 5d Mark II for 450. I want to mod the T5i to a full spectrum camera, but I will be buying filters if I want to use it as a non-AP camera once in awhile. The 5D MKII is a fine camera I am told, the shudder count is under 50k and works perfectly. All the lenses for the T5i will work on it and take fine pictures. I could get that one modified, but want some input as to what you all think. Would I be better off modifying the T5i and use filters with it for AP/Terrestrial, and save my money, or get the 5D since it is a steal, or keep the T5i, and leave it as it is and buy a dedicated AP camera such as the ZWO ASI294MC 11.3 MP or something similar. I am 66 years old and I want to photograph the Universe as much as I can fore I croak. Thanx for looking.
Oregon: Not so Clear Skies right now.
Radarsski HAPPY NEW YEAR

[Baskevo]

IMO, if you are planning on eventually purchasing a dedicated AP camera at some point, I would save the money on fiddling with your current DSLR cameras and get that cooling function! That's what I did, I went from a t7i to a cooled mono CMOS, and I do not regret it! Granted, I've only had it for a few weeks.

Do you live in some dark skies?

[radarsski]

Hey James, thanks for the input and yes , not far from me there are Bortle 4 skies. I can get in my motorhome and be at class 3 skies in an hour. Live NW of Portland Oregon and around Mount Saint Helens there are some sweet dark sites. It is so dark with no Moon that you have a hard time making out Constellations because all of the stars. In your opinion, would you get a color camera rather than a mono camera and what are the advantages of the two. With color, in processing, do you just enhance the color, or go with mono so as to get more detail?
James, my sleeping meds are kicking in and I'm off to bed. Would like to learn what you know about the cameras and general knowledge. The T5i is a great camera and I will save my bucks for a cooled cool camera.
Thanks again and Happy New Year.
Radarsski

[Baskevo]

Hey James, thanks for the input and yes , not far from me there are Bortle 4 skies. I can get in my motorhome and be at class 3 skies in an hour. Live NW of Portland Oregon and around Mount Saint Helens there are some sweet dark sites. It is so dark with no Moon that you have a hard time making out Constellations because all of the stars. In your opinion, would you get a color camera rather than a mono camera and what are the advantages of the two. With color, in processing, do you just enhance the color, or go with mono so as to get more detail?
James, my sleeping meds are kicking in and I'm off to bed. Would like to learn what you know about the cameras and general knowledge. The T5i is a great camera and I will save my bucks for a cooled cool camera.
Thanks again and Happy New Year.
Radarsski

So, keep in mind that I am pretty new to this myself with only 4 - 5 months of experience, so take what I say with a grain of salt and hopefully someone else will chime in here!

A monochrome camera will allow you a lot more control over your images, with the ability to use different filters, and even the ability to use narrowband filters which can be a lot of fun. They are especially handy in light polluted skies, like my bortle class 8/9. However, people use them in dark skies as well because of the crazy amount of detail you can catch with them. I believe you can use narrowband with color cameras, but it is better with monochrome (maybe someone else can explain why, I'm not totally sure and I don't want to give you the wrong info). With a monochrome camera, you will have to take 3 - 4 times as many subframes, a set of subframes for each filter (red, green, blue, or narrowband). So while they can be a huge improvement for a lot of people, it can be very time consuming and more processor intensive. You will also have to learn a bit more with a mono than color.

If I lived in a dark site, I would have probably gone with a color camera because of the ease-of-use, but I'm sure there are people on here who would totally disagree. If I'm not mistaken, it goes something like this:
If you are looking for the best images with the least amount of noise and greater detail, and don't care about how many exposures it takes, then monochrome is the choice.
If you want to get really great images (because you're in a dark site) but don't want to spend 4x as long imaging and don't want to pay extra for filters/wheel, then color would be the choice.

Oh, there's also the price. You can get a monochrome camera for around the same price, but you also have to purchase filters and the filter wheel, which for me it was double the price (because I went with narrowband).

Again, I may be missing things, especially the technical stuff like quantum efficiency and what-not, which I do not know a whole lot about. I do know that people usually recommend monochrome over color, but you can get really great pictures using just a cooled color CMOS. I would do some more research, because it is different for everyone!

I'm sure whichever you decide, I can look forward to some really beautiful images!

Also, side note, make sure before you buy a camera that the sensor will fit well with your OTA. There are websites online that can tell you if your desired setup will result in oversampling or under sampling. Let us know if you'd like some help with that!

[UlteriorModem]

Would I be better off modifying the T5i and use filters with it for AP/Terrestrial

In a word, no. Once the IR filter is removed the camera is only suitable for Astrophotography. Its days of 'regular' imaging are over.

Also note that the mod can and quite often does go wrong leaving you with a useless paper weight.

The advice to get a dedicated cooled cmos camera is quite sound.

[SkyHiker]

I see several 5d mark ii bodies on Ebay for that price, one for $400 so no need to rush.

The 5d mark ii is full frame 36x24 mm, the 294mc pro is 19x13 mm, about 1/3 of the area. The full frame sensor could get you M31 entirely which the 294 can't do. Make sure your CC can handle that size.

When modded the price of the 5d mark ii is about the same but the weight is much more.

It can store the images on flash so it is easier to use.

However with a 2" focuser you might get vignetting - I have seen spectacular images from a 6D by Fishlocator on the AF but he had a 2.5" focuser. I recommend checking all threads there started by him.

If the focuser were not an issue personally I would go with the modified 5d mark ii. Actually I would go with a 6D for a bit more because I know that one works well.

[UlteriorModem]

I see several 5d mark ii bodies on Ebay for that price, one for $400 so no need to rush.

The 5d mark ii is full frame 36x24 mm, the 294mc pro is 19x13 mm, about 1/3 of the area. The full frame sensor could get you M31 entirely which the 294 can't do. Make sure your CC can handle that size.

When modded the price of the 5d mark ii is about the same but the weight is much more.

It can store the images on flash so it is easier to use.

However with a 2" focuser you might get vignetting - I have seen spectacular images from a 6D by Fishlocator on the AF but he had a 2.5" focuser. I recommend checking all threads there started by him.

If the focuser were not an issue personally I would go with the modified 5d mark ii. Actually I would go with a 6D for a bit more because I know that one works well.

This is what you get with a large sensor and some of the issues Henk describes.

Vigenetting by Tom Whit, on Flickr

[radarsski]

What if I were t use my T5i with the 1.25 adapter? Also, will I get vignetting using the adapter? I have the adapters and also 1.25 LBGR filters and a few narrow band filters now. "Optical vignetting is caused by light hitting the lens aperture at a strong angle - an internal physical obstruction. This effect is often noticed in images taken with wide angle and wide aperture lenses used with wide open apertures." Wikipedia. So, if I am using an adapter that takes the angle of the camera and reduces it will I get better images than with he 2 inch adapter? Any and all advice welcome.
Clear skies,
Radarsski

[UlteriorModem]

Your filters are the bottleneck I'm afraid.

Pretty sure you will have some vigenetting win an ASP-C sized chip.

But fear not, a good set of flats will help to rectify it.

[radarsski]

Thanx Tom, I can always count on you to give me the info I need. I see you have the ASI071mc-pro. I have looked at a good camera, and really don't want to mod my T5i after hearing the problems I may have. I can scrape together about 800 to get an ZWO ASI 183 PRO COOLED COLOR CMOS. I want to get going on some imaging if it ever quits raining here, should've bought a case of umbrellas I guess. Right now I am learning to use imaging and stacking and processing software. Have Adobe Creative Cloud subscription I have to learn and I'm learning to run my Polemaster, guide-scope, and mount. When I get to the point where I feel I can justify getting a new camera I will. Please give me your take on the ASI 183. I hear that it is a sweet camera. Thanx again for your input. All of you.
Clear skies,
Ron

[UlteriorModem]

Not really familiar with the 183. I went and looked at the specs and it appears to have pretty small pixels at 2.4 uM which would be good for longer focal lengths.

You want to strive for approximately 1 to 2 arc seconds per pixel. Here is a handy calculator to help you figure that out.

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd

I also have used the 1600mc and had good results with that. It is somewhat similar to the 183. It did however begin to develop some glow after a few years of use.

Adobe is usefull for final processing tweaks but for the initial calibration, registration, and stacking there are several good choices. My preferred tool is PixInsight but it is a bit pricey. Another good choice is Star Tools. They also happen to be a sponsor of these forums

https://www.startools.org/

Lastely I dont remember you mentioning what mount you will be using. By far that is the most important piece of the setup. As I like to say ~It's all about the mount~