Thommy

Adam, thanks for the explanation. But there is not so much difference in read noise between the 585MC and 553MC. For both cameras the read noise where HCG sets in is 1.5e-. For higher gains the read noise of the 585 is marginally lower. The dynamic range of the 553 is somewhat higher which is not so important if you keep the exposures very short. The pixel area is roughly 70 % larger for the 553. When speaking of sensitivity that is important! On the other hand the QEmax of the 585 is 91% compared to 80% for the 553, according to ZWO. Further, this difference increases for longer wavelengths. I wonder if the 91% is correct for the 585 when taking the color filters into account? I do not see a big advantage of the 585 (for short exposures). Perhaps the higher color resolution of the 585 could be one. Another conclusion: I think, I will stick to mono's ....

Adam, why is that?

I think it depends on how the new sensor fits into existing cameras. If the new mono version of the 533 chip is similar to the color version, which is reasonable to assume, it should be straightforward for camera makers to replace the chip in existing 533 color models. In fact, I see posts both here and on CN claiming that both ZWO and QHY have announced that they will make the mono version available. Im unable to find the actual announcements, though?

Yes! My RGB filters are Baader, and Ha filter is Astronomics. The RGB filters are roughly parfocal, but the Ha is far off. I too have to manually refocus the guidecam when switching between RGB and Ha. The solution is to buy/sell filters to have a parfocal set. Or to use a guide scope instead, of course, but to be honest I've spend too much time avoiding flexure.

Great news! Now, let's convince our European camera producers to look at this chip when planning for next mono camera model! /Thommy

Nice one! Actually, NGC 3184 is the galaxy, while NGC 3180 and NGC 3181 are star clusters in the galaxy. I like your images for several reasons - one is that I own a mn190 as well and consider to purchase the ASI294MM PRO camera, and so I have a good chance to see what to expect! Keep posting! /Thommy

I think it should do the trick - remember to select the AR option when you upload the firmware to your wheel. The download contains both versions!

Are you using the "AR" version of the firmware? /Thommy

Excellent shot - in particular taking the difficult circumstances in consideration. We often see widefield images of vdb objects (or other reflection and emission nebulae), but actually they also provide a wealth of detail, as you demonstrate here. Not to talk down the widefield images - they just have something else to offer. Really nice to see a closeup. /Thommy

Ha, I know the problem. I have loads of master L, R, G and B files (but mostly L) but somehow I never find the time to combine them before going to the next target.

The ASI294MM would fit my needs perfectly (pixel size, sensor size etc.). But strange to see amp-glow, when ZWO already produce cameras without amp-glow. ATIK has announced that they work on a new camera - any rumours? /Thommy

Dear CCD-Freak, or any other owner of a 533 camera - would it be possible to link to some raw files (i.e. non-de-bayered) taken with this camera? I think it could be useful for me to play around with them. /Thommy

That's the one I got as well. It is intended as a warning and not an error. The new version should fix this. Remember to use the most recent SX ASCOM driver.

In the meantime, the NINA guys reported back to me that they had solved the issue in the latest ver. 1.10 beta version. I installed this version on my old laptop to test and voila! Now it connects, you can change the settings and download images from the camera. You may not have the same problem. Actually, my camera connected before as well, but somehow NINA waited until the CCD temperature was read which would never happen as it is not supported by the camera. Try to install the 1.10 beta version to see if this helps. Do you get any error messages?

I tend to agree with you. Do anyone know if a new CMOS based mono camera similar to 553MC (pixelsize, QE, chipsize, full well, read noise and bit depth) is on the rise? Any rumours?

Adam, Thanks for the comprehensive explanation. My first thought was that the quoted calculation makes sense. Now I'm not so sure. Take the pixels covered by a red filter, let's call it "red pixels" for now. For every 2x2 pixels there is one red pixel. By multiplying with the percentage of red pixels, you assume that the red light hitting this red pixel is spread over the 2x2 "superpixel", and that the remaining three pixels are not active to red light. Is this a good approximation? I would say that it is a problem for the resolution, but not for the efficiency. As I understand it, but to be honest this is not my field of expertice, a de-bayer interpolates the values for pixels between the red pixels, but takes into account that blue pixels are a bit sensitive to red light as well. With regard to your discussion on square pixels, incidently my current camera shares chip with Lodestar 2. Normally, I don't really see this, but some platesolvers are really sensitive to rectangular pixels! /Thommy

That's right. They always announce the peak value. I have seen the relative efficiency across the spectrum somewhere, and it looks quite flat, which is also positive. But how much is absorbed by the filters? 10-20%?

Working from home those days makes me reconsider future astro projects😎 The 553mc camera (IMX 533) seems very nice - deep full-well (almost 20,000 at gain 100), reasonable read noise (1,5 e at gain 100) and 14 bit converter. Further, the QE is close to 80%. I'm almost convinced it's time to go back to OSC from mono. Almost ... I suppose the referenced QE is not taking the colour layer into account? Have you seen any references on what the "true" QE is? Do any of you know of any plans to incorporate a similar chip but mono into a astro-camera? What are the experiences so far? /Thommy

Really no one having the same problem as me? I did a conformity test on the SX ascom driver, but it passed with no remarks. Now, I have replaced my old laptop as well with WIN 10 instead of WIN 7, but unfortunately the problem persists - everything within the imaging window of NINA is inactive. It's a shame, really, NINA seems very neat.

It's fascinating how deep you can go with modest equipment. Your MN190/ASI174MM combo seems to perform really well. The 174MM has a higher read noise compared to newer CMOS sensors, which is of disadvantage when you are interested in faint fuzzies. Still you do well! What gain do you use? Do you live in reasonable dark settings? /Thommy

I always use exposure times between 3 and 5 s with my EQ8. If I use 2 s, guide stars seem to move randomly indicating that I try to chase the seeing. This is always resulting in inferior guiding. In your plots above, it seems that the corrections for the plot with 3 s exposure are very small. As far as I can tell, the problem with using 3 s or more is not the mount, but that corrections are insufficient. It is a bit strange since your agressiveness setting are quite insisting. What is the guide speed setting for your mount? A few things to check: Is the orientation of your guide camera correct? Is there a slight imbalance of your mount to the east? Do you have a good guide calibration? /Thommy

I agree with the others that you should test it on several nights to see if your findings are consistent. TS are known for their first-class service. If I were you, I would contact them and explain the problem. /Thommy

Just noticed this now. A very detailed image of IC342. I don't recall to have seen an image of the hidden galaxy with both structure and star forming regions to stand out so clear as in this one. Well done! /Thommy

I tried to install latest Nightly and x86 version. Both tests failed, as exposure time, binning and "start imaging" in the imaging window are still grey. The NINA log is not very informative - only problem is reading ccd temperature, but that's not implemented for my camera anyway. So if anyone had the same issue with NINA and a SX camera, and solved the issue - PLEASE let me know!

I did try to play around with different settings with no success, but my working hypothesis is now that the problem is with NINA and not with the driver. My plan is to try the latest nightly and, if this does not work, to install the x86 version. When work and the usual diseases in the family permits me to test .... I will update the thread when I have some news, but if others have some similar experiences (and solutions) please let me know. /Thommy