tomato
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Everything posted by tomato
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I suspect there is either dust or IFN just about everywhere, it’s only comparatively recently that imagers have had the kit/software/inclination to record it. If you don’t want it, image under frequently cloudy, light polluted skies, the UK is a great location for this.😉
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Yes, a tremendous success, and respect to the folks who designed and built it.
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Top notch, it's a great FOV with the Ha arc coming in on the RHS.👍
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A great FOV with lots of different classes on show. I can see several tiny galaxies not picked up by the PI annotation, which is nearly always the case on deep images like this.
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Here is ARP 114, imaged over the last couple of nights (I know, it's nearly a full moon, right?) 9.7 hrs integration with the Esprit 150/QHY268 dual rig. The frame has bee significantly cropped to put the group to the fore. There is an exquisite image by Adam Block of these galaxies, NGC 2276, the face on spiral galaxy, looks for all the world like a tiny version of M101. Not so with my version, but then I bet he didn't get a picture on his phone of the Wolf Moon Dog on the same night.😉 Thanks for looking
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Just wondering if there is any consensus on which is the best company to use to ship a small parcel to China? For some reason UPS, DHL, FedEx can’t find my destination address to quote me even though I’m selecting it from their drop down lists.🤔 I have a reasonable quote from Royal Mail, but there are contrasting opinions on SGL about their quality of service. Any suggestions gratefully received.
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Spoke with Steve at Touptek Europe, they don't hold any spares but he is relaying my situation to his technical contact in China. He suspects they will also be reluctant to supply me a board even though it is entirely at my own risk, so it would have to go back to China. I would prefer if I could do this via Touptek Europe, then maybe I would only have to send it to an address in the UK.
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Teleskop Express have replied promptly but cannot supply a PCB. They suggested I try Touptek direct, so that’s my next port of call.
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Yes, I still can’t work if my hesitation in plugging the power plug was the cause, or the camera would have gone pop anyway. Still, my current view is at 2 years old the camera still owes me something so if I can’t get hold of a replacement PCB, it will go back to China. I’m sure a few RisingCam owners will be following this thread with interest.
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I agree, I wouldn't make any claim against RC if the replacement board didn't fix the camera, after all it's me (or rather Tomatobro) doing the repair, not them. But RC hold all the cards (or PCBs, to be more precise), so if they won't ship one and I can't source one from anywhere else, it looks like I'll be exploring the joys of returning the camera to China...
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Unfortunately Rising Cam won't sell me a new power PCB on the grounds that it may not itself fix the problem, they want me to ship the camera back to them. I'm awaiting a cost estimate and of course it is Chinese New Year in Feb so I wont be shipping the camera until after the holiday. In the meantime I have contacted Teleskop Express in Germany as they are a big Touptek dealer to see if they might be more forthcoming with a replacement PCB.
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Well, there was some indication of heat and degradation around components C39 and L2 on the power PCB, see photo: However, the capacitor was removed from the board and appears to be OK. I have contacted Eddie at RisingCam, first response is that it will need to go back to China, but I'm trying to see if they would be willing to sell me a new power PCB. That would be my preferred option from a shipping and logistics standpoint, especially if the cost is reasonable.
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Although it was only a moment, there must have been some energy involved to generate the smoke and the odour. Plugging in while powered down is definitely good practice, I have plugged in devices while powered up many times without incident but not this time.
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Thanks for your thoughts, the supply came from a regulated mains powered supply: The damaged camera will be inspected this morning, I’m keen to find out what happened.
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Here is another seldom imaged galaxy, NGC 4051 in Ursa Major, it doesn't even make the Cambridge Photographic Atlas of Galaxies for some unknown reason. I got just over 10 hrs from the recent couple of clear but cold nights. I was planning on double that but when I checked on the rig around midnight the apex of the dome was heavily frosted and that is where all of my shutter motor and gear box resides so I didn't want to risk something being frozen solid and breaking when it was due to auto close around 3 a.m. But, looking through my archives I found 7 hrs of data on this galaxy with the Esprit150/ASI178 set up so this this has been combined with the 10 hrs of Esprit150/QHY268LRGB, using APP, then processed in PI and AP. Thanks for looking.
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+1 for using a printing service. I have used MyPicture for prints on aluminium and photo albums, but there are a lot to choose from.
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This is somewhat after the event but as far as I can see it has not yet been reported in this section: On 4 Jan. 2024, Koichi Itagaki, one of the most prolific supernova discoverers of our times, has found a new transient in NGC 4216, quickly confirmed to be a type Ia supernova. It’s at the South East tip of Leo so is visible from the UK from around 23:30 or so, definitely an imaging target with two other galaxies close by.
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Great SN capture. I really should set up some sort of notification alert for these events, this one certainly passed me by.
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If your imaging software records stats like the star count and mean FWHM for each image, you can look at these to see how the quality of the subs is going. Generally my targets start lower in the sky and move up towards the meridian, so the star count increases and usually the FWHM value decreases, but conditions can alter. In NINA I request a refocus if the FWHM degrades by more than 10% of the initial value.
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No I have a dedicated mains powered 12v supply with distribution modules on each scope for the power to the camera, focuser, FW etc. @Tomatobrodoesn’t have the camera yet but he has studied photos of the Touptek circuit boards and they appear to have a polarity protection diode on there. Needless to say I have plugged power into cameras many, many times and never had an event like this, hopefully we can establish exactly what happened.
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Being retired and having a permanent setup I should be relaxed and I usually am, but when something forces a change from my planned session, that’s when I get stressed. The other night I was planning to get some NB data on a galaxy, but I couldn’t find a guide star low down with the NB filter. So I decided to change the filter which on the current set up meant removing the camera. When attempting to plug the power back in I managed to short something out in the camera and fried the darn thing. Then I was stressed. Still managed to put another camera on and complete the session though.
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I’ve looked on the QHY website there is a specific procedure to update the firmware, and you don’t want a power interruption while you are doing it. Thinking back I’m sure there was a big cooling power spike on this camera during a routine cool down and it has displayed this behaviour ever since. It reminds me of the early days of video recorders, on the problem page of one of the magazines a reader said his timer on the VCR had stopped working, the magazine’s tech guru said it had probably been hit by a stray neutrino.☺️
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The other action could be to reinstall the firmware, anybody done this?
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Here is QHY’s response to the above info: Hello，Yes, judging from your latest test, the temperature control is normal, but outdoors, it may be that the heat dissipation effect is too good, causing the temperature inside the sealed camera compartment to be lower than the ambient temperature, which leads to this difference. Not quite sure where this leaves me, the camera cooling is definitely not operating correctly, as it used to operate OK at low temperatures and my QHY268mono still does. Not sure I want the faff and expense of returning it to QHY over this issue though, but last night it said the sensor was at -38 deg C with no cooling, maybe I’ll wait for the weather to warm up and see how it controls then.
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My 268mono behaved as it should last night, keeping it -10 deg C with the external temp at -5 deg C using around 4% cooling power. Not so the 268c, -38 deg C with 0% cooling! Yet if you put in a room temp environment the cooler controls as you would expect…
