I purchased my first CCD camera a couple months ago from OPT . I thought it was a steal...a Meade DSI II mono camera with LRGB filters and the outback cooling fan for 299. I posted a question on the forums at that time because I was torn between this camera and purchasing a 10" Lightbridge for taking  with me on camping trips to dark sky sites. The unanimous vote was for the imager ( which was my ultimate objective in buying the 12"LX200GPS and building my observatory in the first place) I'd like to thank everybody who answered that posting.....I admit I was surprised by the unanimous vote as I expected a split decision. Since everyone was in agreement, I went with it.(so many people can't all be wrong...can they?....lol)  Then, I waited...and waited...and waited for good weather . It stayed cold , windy, or cloudy  or some combo of them all for well over a month after I got it. It was really starting to get to me . I finally had a few clear nights so I tried to take a couple shots of my fav. objects. I posted my first shot of M57 in my previous post so here is a shot of M92 that I took the same night.( I was surprised that imaging only two objects took up so much of my night.) I seem to have a thing for that particular globular cluster. I always enjoy taking a peek at it before I go off looking for other more challenging DSO's

It is a stack of 40 20 secs shots thru my 12" at f/10. I think I need to get a focal reducer for this  camera Not perfect but only my second try at this. No post processing  except for a slight histo stretch. I  suppose I need to work on learning that sorta thing at some point. Anyway, I hope ya like my first attempt.

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Mike S.

Very cool. I'm thinking about getting that same ccd (in a few months at the earliest).

It looks good, espically for a first try, what more can you ask for?

Thanx Callistonian! It was actually pretty easy to get the captures and dark frames. I spent some time reading the downloadable pdf files that were on the opt site for the dsi's  I also downloaded some short vids from the Meade website about how to use it. I did a bit of research and worked with the camera a bit during the day before I went outside. I am glad I got a bit familiar with it before hooking it up at night. It would not have been fun diving into it for the first time in the dark. Now , the hard part comes....I have to learn the post processing stuff. And as you say.....what more can you ask for?

Nice round stars!   You apparently had a very good polar alignment.  It looks like you could easily increase your exposures beyond 20 seconds without any drift issues.   OPT sells an inexpensive .63 focal reducer that works pretty well with the DSI.   I had the Original Meade DSI color.......and used the focal reducer with my f13 scope.    I ended up buying a 80mm f5 short tube refractor to get a larger field of view for the larger deep sky objects.....M31, M42, etc.   For small objects, M57, M64, etc. I use the f13 scope to get larger scale.

Thanx WABarry. Can't wait to get out  and try some more imaging...gotta wait out the moon and more lousy weather. After I posted this I remembered that I purchased a  1.25" .5 reducer with a short 1/2" extention tube from opt when I bought the dsi. It was a special deal you got when you purchased the imager. I think it was 20.00, or maybe less. I totally forgot about the thing ....looking forward to trying it out now. I also have a 120mm f/5 refractor from Orion I would like to try some shots on. More field of view and better exposure for the same amount of time....yay!!!

Mike S.