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Thanks for the reply David I’ve had a few years with the loadstar and it is a cracking little guider I have a darks and bad pixel map library for it and spent quite some time adding 4 long column defects pixel by pixel in the bad pixel map generator and to be fair, it was cleaner once done. The main object of the exercise is to have a bigger chip to find more stars at the long focal length with the Celestron OAG and I have to admit, so far, it is better with the Atik than the loadstar. Also I own a point grey (flir) Blackfly camera that I use for solar and lunar, it has the same chip as the asi and qhy 174 cameras that are increasingly popular as sensitive larger chipped guide cameras for use with OAG’’s but there isn’t an ascom driver for it so I cannot get it connected to phd otherwise I would be using that. The 174 based cameras I have mentioned are around £500 which I didn’t want to spend and as I already owned the Atik I figured it was worth an ask! I won’t be parting with the loadstar anytime soon though Cheers Bryan

Hi Rodd Well done for getting the OAG up and running! Great images! The stars look tight! OAG’s take a bit of taming and guide stars are different than using a smaller guide scope, I find the graphs in phd look disappointing sometimes but the results speak for themselves! Just out of curiosity, what mount are you using? .4 sounds like good guiding to me! Ps I was shooting space tadpoles too last night! 😊 Cheers Bryan

Thanks for the comment there is a bit more of the shell in the data but I processed it really quickly and was a bit aggressive with noise reduction due to the short integration times, loosing some of the faintest outer shell in favour of a cleaner overall look. Not my preferred way of processing but I just wanted something “clean” to show for an hours work thanks Bryan 😊

Hi Star people! I have been adjusting Tilt and spacing in my imaging train since adding the recently purchased Atik 383 and deciding to try my Atik 314l+ as a guide camera! It was clear last night but a full moon was washing out the sky so I thought I’d test the camera on the bright M27 nebula 15x 2 min (30min) Ha and Oiii bin 2x2 at about 2000fl with the 12” Meade and 6.3fr/ff then 20 min processing (quick and dirty) Not going to win any awards! It’s nothing special but it’s fun to see what you can do in an hour under challenging conditions! Thanks for looking! Bryan

Quick update It works absolutely fine! And phd has the ability to set a cooling point too!! I’m getting 0.4-0.7 guiding at 3048mm fl with a ridiculously long guiding rigg! I’m really pleased with the way the azeq6 is coping with so much weight too! I’m happy 😊

Thanks ! Can I ask, how did you cool the chip? Were you using PHD? Does it have a cooling option? Or were you guiding some other way? Sorry for all the questions Bryan

I take it you couldn’t cool the camera? I get a lot of hot pixels and column defects on the loadstar as is so maybe it’s worth a try?

Hi Thanks for taking the time to reply I think the loadstar is also a ccd the download time of the 314 is 1.9s unbinned and 0.8s binned 2x2 cheers

Hi Stargazers! I am wondering if I can repurpose my Atik314l+ as a guide camera? I currently use a loadstar 1 and at the moment it’s hanging off a Celestron OAG and guiding at f10 through my 12” Meade sct. I sometimes struggle for guide stars and would benefit from a bigger chip, the cooling would be, erm.. “cool” too! 🙄 I’ve done some initial research and not really found an answer so I thought I’d ask if anyone here has tried it? Cheers Bryan

Great image! is it possible the focus was just a tad off? The stars look a little soft or that could just be noise reduction like Carole suggested? Thanks for sharing Bryan

One more, same night, another 95 min of 15min subs through clouds, only one of the subs was cloud free! I am looking forward to matching this sensor to other scopes to play with the wider fov And, honestly, I think it was a bargain! Bryan

I hear you! I am used to the smaller cleaner sensors in the 314, 460, and 490 but I can see, like you, with dithering and the right calibration this sensor will be so much fun! cheers Bryan

Thanks for the comment 3, 314’s! awesome! I don’t have the space for an Obsy or3! And rely on the telegizmo covers over my home made pier with a dehumidifier inside keeping the rust at bay I may eventually get a cmos chip, I think it’s inevitable, but I just love the familiar reliability of the mono CCD cameras, albeit slower and reliant on good guiding 😊

I have the 314, 460, 490, 383, a 6d, 20d, 40d, 650d asi290, fLI Blackfly and some guide cameras! I think we might have issues! 😂

Hi Stargazers I am an Atik fan. It seems quite old school, most of the images I see these days on this forum are from CMOS chips but there are some older CCD cameras now available second hand at really good prices! I found this Atik 383 on UKabs for £550! Incredibly, there was some clear skies last night! A few clouds bobbing in and out of view but I was able to get some data to play with I have some serious tilt issues in my very long image train that I’m not sure I’ll ever get to grips with and pairing the 383 to my 12” Meade SCT with 6.3 Focal reducer was testing! I have processed and slightly cropped the result to improve the noise and dodgy stars but I can see this Camera works and will hopefully give me years of fun offering a slightly wider FOV with some of my other scopes. I thought I’d share my initial results It’s 90min of 10min exposures binned 2x2 in Ha, flats, dark flats and bias. No Darks. It looks like the camera works! Thanks for looking Bryan

Thanks lenscap I have done a bit of research before reaching out here I’ve sent a tweet yesterday with his # attached but cannot contact him directly via Twitter as we aren’t friends. I don’t know how else to use Twitter to contact somebody. Cheers Bryan

Hi Stargazers I’m clutching at straws here.. A few years ago I bought a monster 22inch goto Dob from a member from this forum. A telescope, known as “Big Blue” The guy I bought it from didn’t build it but the guy who did used to be a member of this form. I think he was called Arthur Edwards and his name on this site was Ambermile, he used to have a company in Norwich called Ambermile Engineering. I have been trying to find Arthur to get some background information and history about the construction of this telescope Does anyone on this forum know how to contact Arthur? Or possibly someone who knows him could maybe pass on my details to him so he could choose to contact me? Failing that, does anyone here have any further information about Big Blue? Thanks in advance for any help Bryan

Hi newbie Thanks for the comment If you do decide to have a go be prepared to loose a few hours!! Cheers Bryan

Hi tomato Thanks for the comment! It fits just right with the Samyang 135 and the Atik 490 chip size, quite tricky to frame at first due to its low brightness, Cheers Bryan

Hi Carole Thanks for the comment I have spent hours looking at this image and trying various adjustments, I have produced brighter more saturated versions and they do pop more but start to look a little false, however, I know what you mean and I am probably going to reprocess the whole thing sometime! cheers Bryan

Hi David! Thanks for the comment! This almost felt like a mosaic, with regards the time spent trying to capture the data! FYI, I can see there is a Samyang 135mm lens up for sale on ukabs! I know you’d do a Stirling job if you did have a go! Cheers Bryan

Thanks for the comment. I needed a lot of patience, I was trying to get the data for months and the weather was awful, as usual, it only seems to be clear on the full moon!! cheers Bryan

Thanks for the comment glafnazur I'm glad you like it It surprised me when I compared it to a full moon! I knew it was big, but it was interesting to see them on the same image! Cheers Bryan

Hi Star people! As the title states I don’t think I’m finished with this image but I want to share it as I have been looking at it for months and trying to decide whether to start again or add to It for another season or put it to bed for now? This image has been haunting me, It’s a tricky huge but faint supernova remnant between Auriga and Taurus I have spent the last weeks of winter/spring clear skies (and they are rare here) trying to collect data on this to bring out more detail I’ve a total of 12hours Oiii 6&8min subs with 20 hours ha 6/8&10 min subs combined with just over an hour of 2 min rgb subs all taken with an Atik 490 through a Samyang 135mm lens I took a shot of the full moon for scale which I superimposed as this remnant is so huge in the sky I think it’s useful to have it to scale. I am tempted to start the process again and spend another season on it but clear skies are becoming a luxury! I hope I’ve done if justice? And I hope you like it? And the one with the moon… Thanks for Looking Bryan

Thanks for that I have the 1.25” 5nm astrodon set and I would like a camera with a bigger chip too so I totally understand your issue! cheers Bryan