Re: ATM Astronomy Club's Choice: Big DOB or CCD?

["Peter D. Brooks" <pdbrooks@pacbell.net>]

Ken Hunter wrote:
> 
> I would like to dis-agree a bit here...
> 
> A CCD camera could be used to advantage by the whole club as a project.
> There seems to be a lot of interest in NEA (Near Earth Asteroids) at the
> present time, thanks in part to a few recent movies and a NEA that
> started it all. A club project of monitoring a few areas of the sky for
> changes would be doable and could include ALL members of the club.

Hmm, speaking of affordable (and non-affordable) CCDs, it looks like
the Starlight Express ones are starting to show price erosion.
In seniconductors, it's a trueism that yesterday's device cost a
lot of money, but the customers will expect you to improve the
performance whilst dropping the price.  A lot.

In one sense, we should be able to take advantage of the new field of
still CCD cameras.  At work, someone was complaining about the fact
the while CCD type camcorders are now a lot cheaper than before, a
still camera with approximately the same capability costs 20-40%
more.  However, I'm seeing more of the still cameras on the shelves,
and the prices are starting to drop.  Presumably, we'll be able to
get some of those CCDs for less than a TC245, etc....

Pete Brooks

--
Peter D. Brooks   
pdbrooks@pacbell.net
$INCLUDE "Witty saying"