bomberbaz

unforcast cloud has rolled in, 😱 Tomorrow nights forcast is better so here's hoping

I will hopefully be doing a magnetic cooler test later tonight. Everything is setup and just awaiting darkness to come along. I only plan doing 2x 20 minutes though using 224mc OSC. That is 20 without cooler and 20 with. My bench test results copied yours exactly.

I am so excited about this visit, I have no doubt my mind will be blown by what will be revealed.

I made a homemade cooler before using a peltier chip and pc cooling fan, however I first tried cooling with just a fan. The cooling fan alone dropped temperature of the camera about 2.5C only. When I added the peltier chip the cooling increased to around 15C but the big issue was power consumption. The peltier chip, which was the lowest 12V I could find was incredibly hungry. In the end I scrapped it due to the whole setup being unwieldy as well as power hungry. So I am very keen to try out this phone cooler, a reduction of circa 10 degrees gives you a very workable camera temperature as long as ambient is within reasonable parameters. What that is only time will tell but I am guessing 20C ambient will give you a decent camera temp to start from. Obvs the lower the better (within reason).

If you have a very flush fitting, cooler on camera back is it really necessary. What level of difference might you expect?

Should add, I will also be trying out the 120mm mini guide too so hopefully will improve my guiding of the AZ GTi. I am realistic about this though, there is backlash in RA that despite my best efforts is not going to change.

I will have mine tomorrow (Black Shark magnetic cooler) and conditions look favourable. If they remain so I will try two grabs of M27 (with and without cooler) and see what we end up with.

@Dark Raven I ended up buying the magnetic cooler due to seller issues for the phone cooler version. I already have a 10000 m/amp powerbank so should be ample to run it. For the phone cooler version amazon were the only uk seller, the 3rd party uk seller on there had awful reviews which I am not prepared to risk my money with. Other sellers were overseas.

Some very interesting results there. I am going to probably return my bits before using them. I didn't manage such good results before and even with more knowledge, the Black Shark coolers are specialised and appear much better and very importantly, much lighter.

Interesting and at odds with what I have been reading. However it's all about trial and error and I am looking forward to having a play around to see where things will lie with myself. Some interesting information on this page imaging with uncooled 224mc - Google Search

Not bad at all for 15 mins uncooled. You can see why the dithering is needed, if your on 10-15 second subs I think I would be doing them less often but there is no serious amp glow. Did you have any calibration files, and what length/gain were the subs?

I am wanting to use the 224 for similar smaller DSO that will frame better in it's smaller resolution as well as planetary when they decide to reappear. There is loads of info out there and what I am gathering is some fantastic results are being achieved using it on short, higher gain exposures. I also believe there is talk of dithering to improve the short frame results as being essential as well as adding short pause between subs to prevent amp glow going crazy. Also don't even bother if the ambient temperature exceeds 15c, the background noise of the camera goes off scale beyond this apparently. I don't understand all the technical side of it but the application idea above makes good sense and should be fun playing around with. I think it will be a case of trial and error making several batches of subs and calibration frames over a night on the same object and carrying out simple standardised processing to compare. The set one @herne gave on here for use in Siril would be a great standard basic process to compare. As for my tinkering with the 224, I am currently ordering in some pc peripherals and other bits and bobs to try and fashion a diy cooler. This will be without the peltier chip, the idea is to cool by a few degrees to just give it an edge over standard non cooled camera and allow you to squeeze that bit more out of it.

Re-process of the Cygnus Loop, I found some extra data and also added some new darks to the frames to calibrate out the amp glow. Data is now at 30x 30secs Gain 212 (unity111) and 10x60secs gain 212, Total of 1 hours data. I am as much pleased with the processing (although a tad red/over stretched) as I am with my data grab.

Hello all, quick update on the rig. I have managed to source a 2nd hand WO wedge for £150, heard nothing but good about them so why not. TBF I have really got better with the SW star adventurer one but I am given to believe this is another step up. I may keep the SW one unless someone wants one for the AZ Gti! Also just bought one of these new ZWO ASI 120MM Mini USB 2.0 Mono Camera | First Light Optics For the difference between new and 2nd hand I couldn't be bothered waiting. I am going to do some tinkering with the ZWO 224mc to make it a worthwhile winter option when the evenings are cooler.

My understanding is they are both made by the same people, I looked into this same matter some months since.

Both Nebula are emission nebula which are strong in the OIII spectrum. (Planetary nebula generally all are) Svbony do one of those which I believe is reasonable but a Astronomik version is a class above and although admit ably expensive, would be a once in a lifetime type purchase. Astronomik OIII Filter | First Light Optics

The usual suspect Amazon were obliging. Thanks guys.

Hello all. I have a ZWO DUO Band filter which had a finger print smear on it, so I decided to use baader fluid to clean it. Now it shows a purple smeared tinge to it from the attempted clean. I have some de-ionised water available. Would a careful clean with cotton buds lightly dampened and dried the same method be adviseable?

I will try again on it but try to frame it a little better and reduce the gain. Visually this is a great object to look at and imaged correctly it is also a pearl.

I had a quick bash at grabbing the Veil on my rig but as you can see A. it is just a little too big to fit well, @Priesters rig does a much better job and B. I tried to squeeze too much out of the camera and ended up with a lot of amp glow bleeding into the left hand side. Still, it's not bad for 15 minutes of data and the stars are looking much tighter..

This is what I was thinking, thanks for your reply. Steve

Hello all. I currently use a ZWO 224mc for guiding along with a ASI Air+. The guide image is B&W so am I right in thinking the software in the AIR+ will be binning the colour pixels to make a B&W composite pixel to use in guiding? thanks all Steve

Are we on a different thread of thought here. I am referring to the guide scope which I understood automatically binned it's images as the system works on b&w only

I use a 224mc as guide with a 30mm F4 guide. Main scope used with the 183mc is a 50mm F4.8. Similar FL. I have actually just tweaked my calibration settings taking account of the short FL and the binned tracking image, I am hoping for a quicker calibration (5 or 6 steps) that in turn adds a little more accuracy.

My clear outside and ventusky apps are slightly at odds with each other, I am trying a different camera tonight to try and get to bottom of the odd star shapes. I am of the opinion that it may well be my ASI 183 mc pro where the fault lies but I need another set of files to compare. If it is the camera at least that would eliminate my tracking concerns with the AZ/GTi. I will try and grab a little data on the owl to see. @Pixies, welcome to the gang, have you had the welcome initiation ritual done on you yet 😉🤣