just shot m42 then my CCD blew up!

[mindburner]

well that's a bit of an exaggeration. Camera fan stopped, lines across image and smoke coming from the camera body!

I think it must be some sort of power regulation issue. I'm a bit gutted to be honest as I have just managed to get a night of imaging after weeks of bad weather and the images were coming along nicely.

I just hope Atik can and will repair the problem and that it won't cost the earth

It's  428EX OSC

This is my last image before the incident

20x6 mins no darks/flats (was going to do them today)

[PeterCPC]

The link doesn't work.

Peter

[ultranova]

Very nice, very natural looking,

Hope your camera is ok.

Paul.

[Chris]

Its a lovely M42

Sorry to hear about the camera, your heart must have sank! I hope Atik can sort it out easily and cheaply, fingers crossed for you

[Stephen Green]

 A very nice image

   Stephen

[mindburner]

Many thanks guys. I have emailed Atik. So shall see what they say. I suspect regulator and or associated components but don't want to mess around with trying to fix it myself.

[Uranium235]

Wow.. camera on fire?! Were you using a fused connection? (ie: with a cigarette lighter adaptor) All my gear is fused and runs from an anti-surge socket, but the anti-surge/smoother is primarily there because the freezer creates a spike in the supply when the motor kicks in (something all fridges/freezers do). You can hear its effect for yourself by plugging in an amplifier, then flicking the lights on and off - you will hear the effect on the supply that switching has (thats why you wont/should'nt see a fridge in a recording studio).

Hope it makes a speedy recovery

[Barry-Wilson]

Such a great image, I've not yet had the courage to tackle this image with its high dynamic range.  I hope your ccd can be repaired.

Though I've never used Atik's customer service, I've read of many great examples on the forum, so fingers crossed all will be OK.

Barry

[mindburner]

Wow.. camera on fire?! Were you using a fused connection? (ie: with a cigarette lighter adaptor) All my gear is fused and runs from an anti-surge socket, but the anti-surge/smoother is primarily there because the freezer creates a spike in the supply when the motor kicks in (something all fridges/freezers do). You can hear its effect for yourself by plugging in an amplifier, then flicking the lights on and off - you will hear the effect on the supply that switching has (thats why you wont/should'nt see a fridge in a recording studio).

Hope it makes a speedy recovery

hi yes fuse went. Power supply 'appears' to be ok but I am not going to use it again. 

[toxic]

nice image and i hope all goes well with your ccd 

[pyrasanth]

That's a lovely picture of M42- the colours are fantastic. I don't have a telescope with a wider field other than the HYperstar so some objects are a bit too big for my field of view. When I last shot M42 I got the image below. I'm thinking of getting a good quality refractor & putting that on the Edge OTA.

[ollypenrice]

The image was going well and Atik are, in my experience, more than helpful. Best of luck.

Such a great image, I've not yet had the courage to tackle this image with its high dynamic range.  I hope your ccd can be repaired.

Though I've never used Atik's customer service, I've read of many great examples on the forum, so fingers crossed all will be OK.

Barry

Barry, don't be frightened of the HDR in this one. This is the tutoprial to sort it all out for you;

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/LAYMASK.HTM

Olly

[mindburner]

Everything was going so well. Got my canon lens mounted up. Red dot finder aligned. A clear night at last. Was using team viewer from a comfy location and wondered why the imaging run has stalled. Came down and saw a small bit of smoke. So powered off

[Gina]

Nice image

Thanks for posting that link again Olly   I'll be going back to M42 sometime in the near future I hope (when I get my gear working again) after doing some more on the Pacman.  I'm hoping to cover a wider field than I have in the past.

[astro mick]

As always Gina,you overcome adversity,and soldier on.

Lovely image as well.

Mick.

[ollypenrice]

Everything was going so well. Got my canon lens mounted up. Red dot finder aligned. A clear night at last. Was using team viewer from a comfy location and wondered why the imaging run has stalled. Came down and saw a small bit of smoke. So powered off

All is revealed! This was a punishment for not being out there cuddling your gear and whispering sweetly to it all night in the freezing cold...

lly

[mindburner]

All is revealed! This was a punishment for not being out there cuddling your gear and whispering sweetly to it all night in the freezing cold...

 lly

I know. I was watching BBC iplayer on one monitor and the subs coming down on the other (it's amazing how one can get so blasé about watching images from thousands of light years away. 

I did slip on the icy deck and nearly headbutted the counter weights though. A cuddly is surely better  

[mindburner]

As a bit if an update to my sorry story. Atik have confirmed that the main board in the camera is kaput. I suspect it was overloaded or shorted in someway. So I need a new PCB and cooling fan, Will cost around £180. It's actually not too bad.

The camera being away for repair did give the change to try some DSLR widefield,

I may get a Atik 4120EX at some point in the future as I think the larger chip size will give me more imaging real estate

a quick M42 with a canon 1100d and 50mm lens

[davehudsn]

Just curious - how old was your camera? I just bought the Atik 4120EX and if it "burns out" on me in short order, i will not be happy having to pay to fix it.   Their warranty statement is pretty vague......

[mindburner]

it's a couple of years old I think. I was second owner

[mindburner]

hopefully getting the camera back tomorrow, been lost without it