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CCDCalc - A Visual Calculator for Matching Telescope and Camera
Above: Screen shot of CCD Calculator. Click image for full-size version.
This is a freeware version of a Visual Basic program I developed for my book. The program has lists of telescopes and cameras that allow you to pick a combination and evaluate its performance. The left side (above) allows you to pick equipment from lists, or to customize the equipment parameters (focal ratio, Barlow/reducer, pixel size, bin mode, etc.). The left side also displays the image scale, field of view, and other useful information. The right side of the program shows the field of view of the camera/telescope combination. This gives you instant visual feedback on the usefulness of your selections. No help file is available for this version, but the interface is fairly simple - pick a telescope, pick a camera, and evaluate the results visually.
The freeware version has more features than the popular web CCD Calculator found on my personal web site. This freeware version has fewer reference images than the full version. It retains all of the feature you need to make useful comparisons with different setups. You can use the program to learn about image scale and to assist you in deciding what cameras will work well with a given telescope.
Click here to download the free CCD Calculator program (1.5MB) ]
To install:
- Download the EXE file using the above link
- Save to an empty folder
- Run ccdcalcfull.exe
- Follow the on-screen instructions