Thalestris24

I do read horror stories about eye ops going wrong. I don't need any urgent work yet so at least I can be relaxed about it for the moment. Louise

I suffer from the effects of glare and have poor low light vision, but things aren't too bad otherwise, so I'm unlikely to get any interest yet. Louise

I find anything to do with medical interventions on the eyes very scary! I'm sure my cataracts are slowly getting worse but I know I won't even get an NHS look-in until they are really bad. Louise

I think I'd quite like to have a go with NV . Can anyone recommend equipment to do it, bearing in mind I'm in a heavily light polluted red zone? Presumably, though, I'd have the same problems with NV as I have with imaging? Thanks Louise

I'd say NV is a specialised type of eaa but lots of other things can come under the eaa heading

NV = night vision = using image intensifiers of one sort or another EAA = electronically assisted astronomy Louise

I guess this is one sort of NV? Though is a couple of years old. I've seen some awesome enhancement systems online not so long ago. Very expensive I think! Louise ps at the end of the day it involves looking at a screen images in real time rather than detecting the actual photons on your retina that have travelled across time and space

Yeah, live stacking to me is a branch of imaging since it uses a computer, imaging equipment, acquisition software and techniques, plus you end up with an, er, image! Other things like NV and EAA are really branches of observing since an image isn't (normally) saved and what you see is transient. Perhaps, the live stacking should be in the imaging section in its own thread? I'm not overly bothered personally. Louise

Quick daytime test - seems to work! About 1/4 resolution: exp = 1.3ms, gain = 12 Louise

QHY183M arrived earlier In the box: Pretty much bare bones but no interesting extras! Standard 12V cable (bottom right) is redundant. USB 3 cable (middle) is a bit short but will probably do for now. ST4 cable (top) is redundant. Desiccant and tube (top right) pretty much redundant - if you don't undo the screw for the desiccant tube, you probably won't need to! T2 to 1.25" adapter (top) might possibly get used but not necessary at the moment. The 12V power mtof lead (top left) with screw connector could get used but probably isn't necessary. No software disk supplied so will have to download the drivers. Camera weighs 449g so not heavy. Weather - cloudy Slight chance of some clear skies on Saturday night but not holding my breath... Louise

St Andrews has a Facebook page and they have open nights sometimes https://d.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1886010748081758&id=535818433101003&set=a.535891776427002&refid=13&__tn__=%2B%3D Louise

I have the datasheet!

It's just a standard tec1-12706 I've tested it and it works fine Louise

Hi I actually bought a tec and did some investigations - just out of interest (I enjoy experimenting! ). I've not had time to do much but will be free to do more after next Thursday :). Still, it occurred to me that my Atik 383l+ cools the sensor with a delta of about 40 ie down to ~-18 from a similar room temperature. It runs from 12V and only draws, at most, 2A. I figure I should be able to achieve that with the parts I have got together but have to prove it! I've learnt that coupling between the sensor and heatsink has to be really high to take heat away i.e. needs high quality heatsink thermal compound. It also needs a fairly high tightness between the cold finger and the tec. Anyway, I'll post about what I've been able to achieve in a week or so. Louise

Hi I think you should be able to focus - I take it you connected the camera (without the supplied lens) using an adapter? However, trying to use that camera at the focal length of 130p means you'll only have a very small fov. That will make it difficult to get on target. Louise

Good luck - all the best Louise

Storm Erik is spoiling all our fun! Windy washout weekend here

I had a quick look at some of them - seem ok. I'm wondering if the flats problem is specific to the above dataset? You could maybe try taking some more flats with the exposure shifted eg to, say, 35000 adu, and see if that's better. Maybe also try stacking in dss just to compare. Louise

I also wonder if there's a light leak which is messing everything up.? The calibration frames which should be dark, aren't. Louise

Ok. Um, you have a gain and offset setting for the qhy9? I take it your settings allow up to 65535 at saturation? I guess it would have to be way out to affect the normal dynamic range used in flats but maybe something odd is going on! Louise

Hi It might be worth double checking that the adu of your flats/master flat is what you think it is. You can do that quickly and easily in Fits Liberator - just check the mean raw input value from the right hand side. Louise

It's academic - ha ha!

Without an inductor wouldn't it be an effective initial short circuit? Anyway, hopefully the buck converter will do what I want. Louise

Ah, ok. I'm just experiencing a visual migraine so not seeing or thinking straight It will pass in a short while.

oops mis read your post, Gina. Yeah, I wouldn't put a capacitor across a high power pwm output. * though I suppose you could put a few diodes in between