However, having said that, there are some really slick cameras out there that are nearly as good and MUCH smaller. Polaris Industries (141 W. Wieuca Rd, 300-B, Atlanta, GA 30342-3219, 1-800-752-3571) makes one camera that is about the size of a quarter (38mm square)! I have not used this one but it sure is impressive. It could easily be mounted at the prime focus inside any telescope. This camera (MB-750U) uses low voltage (8-14 VDC) and is 0.4 lux, which would get a 9th or maybe 10th mag. star in a 13-inch.
We just got and are using the Edmund Sci. camera "WATEC Monochrome Camera" (#M39,244 $435.00) which is a .2 lux camera. The thing is really sensitive though I have not yet finished testing it. What is really impressive is that it has all its features (auto/manual gain control and auto-lens controls) all packed into a unit that will nearly fit INSIDE a 1.25" eyepiece holder. Boy, does that make the focal plane accessable! We use ours for guiding on objects set on the slit of our Echelle Spectrograph. I was able, using this, to see all the major albedo features on Mars using the 61-inch Catalina telescope using a reflected image off the jaws of the slit. I had to turn the gain way down (~10% level) and with Mars only 7-sec. across we could easily see the features, N.pole cap, and S.hood. The reflection surface of the slit jaws is really cruddy and with the old RCA vidicon we would just get a featureless blob which we would center on the slit.
Whatever you do, just make sure you have manual gain availability. You will need it on planets. You'll constantly fighting an autogain.
Good luck,
<+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+> ^ ^ ^ _/ _/_/_/ _/ Richard "Rik" Hill ^ ^ _/ _/ _/ _/ Planetary Occultations Group ^ ^ _/ _/_/_/ _/ Planetary Atmospheres Group ^ ^ _/ _/ _/ LUNAR & PLANETARY LAB. ^ ^ _/ _/ _/ Univ. of Arizona ^ ^ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ Tucson, Az 85721 ^ ^ ^ ^ http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill ^ <+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+>