The Wiener Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Astronomie (Vienna Special Interest Group for Astronomy) has announced a workshop in Vienna, Austria at which astronomy imaging on a shoe string will be lectured.

From their blurb (translated from German and summarized):

In addition to the CCD cameras that have been specifically designed for astronomical applications and cost several thousand Euro, many new vendors have recently brought products to market that cost considerably less.

Using these much cheaper CCD cameras, it is possible to attain exceptional results on a very tight budget. Such cameras ship without expensive thermoelectrical cooling and in contrary to the much more expensive cameras are fitted with smaller CCD chips that are mass produced.

This workshop will present a number of cameras in this budget category. Amongst others, astronomy cameras manufactured by The Imaging Source will be demonstrated.

Lead by Dr. Thomas Schröfl, the workshop will take place on Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 15:00 at the Hotel Sofienalpe, 1140 Vienna, Austria. The fee for participating starts at EUR 22.00.

The web site of Wiener Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Astronomie has a section dedicated to the workshop.