General question - Hyperstar Imaging

Anyone here currently imaging with a HyperStar system?

I've been looking at this a lot lately as I'm in the market for a new camera to go on my 8" SCT. I want to shoot colour and was looking at a mono & filter wheel combo as well as colour cameras. Naturally, given the money this is going to cost, I want my cake and to eat it. So I've been really keen on the FASTAR option as a means of saving money and still getting deep sky imaging quickly & easily.

However, I've been put off by the size of the cameras, filter wheels, bla blah required for the cameras I wanted on the 8" SCT. I've also explored one shot colour and they carry their own limitations. I was thoroughly confused what to do.

I trawled the usual fora for peoples views on FASTAR (a.k.a Hyperstar) and found in almost equal measure, lovers & haters. From what I can see, the only major advantage of the Hyperstar is really short exposure times and the burden this relieves you for for guiding.

To make up my own mind, I used Ron Wodaski's CCD Calc program to simulate what I could image with FASTAR and a range of CCD's versus prime focus / field flattened imaging. I came to the conclusion that a wide format camera at prime focus or field flattened (f6.7) would give me the same field of view as the FASTAR without limiting me to specific camera body / filter wheel combos. Given the €600 it would take to get an adaptor and the limitations in camera type imposed, I'm leaning away from FASTAR entirely.

In addition, I have not seen any material that sugessts for deep space imaging that HYPERSTAR would replace the need for a guider. Given this fact and the cost of an adaptor, I'm not seeing a compelling reason to go down this road.

That said, I'm not fully decided yet...so if anyone has any other views...I'm all ears

I have a Fastar compatible C14 and picked up a Starizona HyperStar some years back. I've not actually used it but the Hyperstar was going cheap.

I assume your C8 is Fastar compatible? If it is, the Hyperstar lens for the C8 is $800 but I'd bet you can find a cheap second-hand one somewhere.

The advantages of imaging is, as you say, the reduction in exposure time. But there is also the large increase in the FOV. The C14 goes from F11 down to F1.9 in Fastar mode - FOV goes from 22 x 22 arcmin to a wopping 127 x 127 arcmin. Of course, image scale suffers too - from 1.3 to 7.4 arcsec/pixel...

I do know that the C14 Hyperstar, because it is so large, will take a larger imager without obstructing the lightpath than a C8. Of course, you have to factor in the flexure of a Hyperstar itself with a camera and the other gubbins hanging off the corrector plate. Hopefully not so much flexure that the corrector breaks :pinch:

Astrophotography equipment that you need/want (like terrestrial photography) is very much dependent on what you want to image. Once you decide the kinds of images you want to take, the equipment required will follow suit. You can always buy in such a way that you have *some* flexibility but inevitably, there are limitations to any given system. What's good for deep-sky is not great for planetary etc.

The best advice I can give is spend the bulk of your time on deciding the images you want to take. Don't spec out the equipment then see what it can do...

Cheers
Dave