From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: August 31, 2011 10:30:12 AM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: My First Exoplanet Transit.

Hi Terrence;

On 31-Aug-11, at 8:11 AM, Terrence R. Redding wrote:

This is wonderful. Milton, based on your experience, what would you consider to be the ideal configuration to do exoplanet transits with a Mac?

Is there a best camera?

Umm the Dage cameras are cooled internally (Astro IIDC supports this too and you can set camera temperature) and use Kodak sensors:

http://www.dagemti.com/cameras/cooled.htm

But they were VERY ($6K+) expensive last time I looked for their low end models.

The next best would be the Grasshopper 2 FireWire 800 model:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/message/5217

Even though they are currently limited to 5.5 minute exposures (something that could be changed in a future firmware update with enough requests), they look to be a really great camera optimized for low light low noise modes. 5.5 minute exposures should be more than enough for variable star, asteroid or exoplanet photometry.

HTH..

Milton Aupperle