The Starlight Express HX-516 USB.

This is the smaller brother of my SBIG ST-10XME and I bought this for high resolution imaging of Moon and planets on those rare nights where the seeing is good enough. The HX-516 is better than the SBIG ST-10 for this because:

- it has a small chip that downloads fast;

- it permits shutter times as short as 0.001 s (where the SBIG ST-10 shortest time is only 0.12 s);

- it has very low noise/dark current;

- it is 16 bit rather than the 8 bit seen with webcams);

- the small size of the camera is also a plus for this kind of work.

Another use of the HX-516 is wide field sky survey imaging, using a 8 mm f/4 sigma objective. This is coupled to the HX-516 with a M-42 to C-mount adapter and a C-mount to Pentax adapter to mount the 8 mm lens (or any other Pentax-K mount lens). The camera can then take unattended, unguided exposures while I'm busy with the telescope and ST-10.

A few first results are shown below, but the weather did not allow much use of it.

This image was taken in prime focus of my Celestron 14 SCT.

Comet Macholz with a TMB APO 80 mm refractor at f/4.8.

M45 with the 80 mm TMB APO, the weather was too hazy for a better result.

Also imaged with the TMB 80 mm APO at f/4.8.