DaveS

Ran your image (JPEG thumbnail) through AstroArt for gradient removal Genuine flats would be a lot better.

Written by geeks for geeks. Same as always.

OK, I solved the problem by reading closely the PDF that came with the driver, only really possible when I had it on the big screen of the office computer, instead of the laptop I was using in the obsy for RDP. Turned out I had downloaded 64 bit drivers, while Maxim needed 32 bit ones. Given I had Win10 64 bit, a natural mistake to make. But why the bloody hell couldn't it have said something like "Oops, the drivers are 64 bit but I need 32 bit"? Instead of ininteligible gobbledegook. I could have fixed it in 5 mins instead of pulling my hair out and nearly taking a sledgehammer to the whole shebang.

With gobbledegook I suppose this means something to geeks, but is meaningless gobbledegook to me. All I know is that I had the camera working and would connect to Maxim when I bought the bloody thing but now this. I've downloaded the bloody drivers and installed them, so I don't know anymore. Might sell up and be done with it.

+1 for AstroArt, it's very underrated and unfairly overlooked in the rush to the latest "flavour of the month" software. As @Merlin66 says above, it's more than just a post processing package, and can handle all your camera control, guiding, and platesolving needs. I also use GIMP (Which is very powerful now) and Affinity Photo.

The ones on my DDM85 are Renishaw (I think) absolute encoders running at 0.02" per "tick".

Woefully underpowered for any serious processing. Start thinking quad core, then add as many as you can afford, similarly with RAM, start at 16 GB and add as much more as funds will allow. Nothing below i7 / Ryzen 9 if you can possibly afford it. Don't skimp on the monitor either, look for wide gamut that can be calibrated else your images will have wonky colour casts.

M33 very clear in the 10x50s, even though it's barely 30 deg up and still in the Weymouth / Dorchester LP. Will have to try again when it's higher, may even be on the edge of naked eye visibility.

I can see M33 in my Vortex Crossfire 10x50s, but I'm at the dark end of Bortle 4, very nearly 3 and the MW is bright, detailed and glittering. At least it is when the sky is cooperating.

If you can hang on until Feb there will be a mono version of the QHY268. Should be awesome.

Thanks for confirming that Andrew.

OK, thanks. Found it.

Thanks, will check Maxim, though I think ASA Sequence only uses Maxim for the camera control.

Thanks Andrew, here it is. 12 sub -20C Stack.fit

I'll try, but I think AA is very different to PI

This is the stats for the 12 sub stack I've just done of my -20C Darks Hope this makes sense to someone.

OK, I was wrong about the minimum ADU, re-reading the hiso it runs from 114 to 450 odd. How do I add a pedestal in AA? Or can I do it in <axim during capture. Damn, I should know these things, I've been imaging long enough.

OK, the bandwidth is 80, and the gain zero but the offset is 10. The files are 16bit raw.

The Darks are showing a comb-like gaussian distribution with a min ADU 0f 163

According to the ZWO ASCOM driver it's set to Offset 10. Too low?

Here is a single unstretched Oxygen flat Flat-0021O.fit

and rechecked my flats, it's only the first sub of the list that is zero seconds, all the others are 2.0 sec like the dark flats.

OK, just checked the capture setting, and it was set to 16 bit, so that source of error is cleared up.

Now taking a set of 10 min Darks at -20c. Also checked the flat settings an I did set 2 sec exposures, so why they read 0.000 sec is a mystery.

Now my eyes ache, so will sign off until the morning.