MarsG76

HI All, Sharing with you my latest image that I processed so far. This is the Eagle nebula (M16/NGC6611) in the constellation Serpens imaged through narrowband filters using an 8" SCT (at the native 2032mm focal length), with a QHY268M camera o a hypertuned CGEM mount. The total exposure time of this image was 18 hours and 25 minutes. Exposures: SII:17x1200s, Hα:17x600s, OIII:17x900s, Hβ:17x1200s @ BIN2x2/HCG:62/Offset:25 The color channel assignments are SII, HAlpha and OIII as RGB, and the HAlpha, OIII and HBeta (as RGB) used for the star colors. Clear Skies, Mariusz

Hi Ivo, I had about 90 minutes of semi clear sky to try PAPS in the southern hemisphere and it worked... The routine was automated until I had to tweak the Alt/Az knobs. I measured my tracking before (as I had it set for imaging) and after PAPS using PHD2 and I can happily report that PAPS has improved my PA by a factor of 4 (according to PHD2 "Guide Assistant").... My A was close as it was but any improvement is a bonus. Thanks APT team.

Hi Astronomers, This post is mostly for owners for the QHY268M coldmos astro camera, possibly other QHY cameras, particularly the newer models, BUT might help other if it has a similar protection measure. I noticed that my QHY268M camera had a big problem in cooling the sensor than keeping the temperature at the set point. I set the camera to cool to -10C (from an ambient of 17C) and it took a very long time, about 15 minutes, to reach -10C, cooling power was sitting solid at 100%. BUT as soon as I started exposing (Dark frames during this night), the temperature started to rise... cooling still at 100% I stopped the exposures, but the temperature did not resume to cool... I stopped and restarted software controlled cooling and still the temperature did not drop... it didn't drop until I did a power cycle of the camera, but the behaviour of the camera was the same. I use APT 3.99.1 for my imaging control, BUT I want to say at this point that APT was NOT the problem. I tried the same procedure in QHY's EZCam with exactly the same results, except when I connected the camera I got a dialogue message ”Camera may not be able to reach the maximum cooling power”... I did suspect the PSU, the QHY supplied 12V 6A unit, and it might contribute to the problem but this PSU delivers enough power to run the QHY268M cooling at 30C below ambience. This QHY camera has a Under Voltage Lock Out (UVLO) protection which will stop or limit cooling when this condition is set in the camera. This condition is set when the PSU voltage drops below 11V. The solution to this is to reset the UVLO condition is in the latest version of the EZCap software, under the "Adventage Menu" (I'm sure that was meant to be "Advanced" but what do I know... there you can check the UVLO status and reset the UVLO status by clicking on the "Reset Flash Code" within the EZcap_QT app shown below: When I did it, the "Sensor UVLO Status" still reports the same value of 1, as it did before the reset, but the ”Camera may not be able to reach the maximum cooling power” dialog message did not show up when connecting the camera to EZcap, which was displayed every time I connected the camera to the program before the reset. So something has effectively been reset or changed. After the reset, the camera cooled to -10C in about 5 minutes, sustained the temperature at -10C during my darks exposures and this was with 63% cooling power, in an ambient environment which was 1.5C warmer than before. Now for the reason of my camera's UVLO. The action that (I think) triggered my UVLO condition was that I changed the temperature cooling steps to 6C (from the default 3C) in the cooling setting in APT Cooling Aid, hoping to cool the camera faster, but this just made the cooling power go straight to 100%, drawing power from the PSU too fast, causing the voltage to drop below 11V momentarily... Since I reverted back to 3C steps, the cooling power increases steadily, the temperature is reached in a few minutes and I never had the cooling issue since. QHY268M Camera UVLO Codes: The QHY programming documentation defined the following UVLO status codes: 0 = init 1 = good 2 = checkErr 3 = monitorErr 8 = good 9 = powerChipErr Hopefully this will help someone with this problem and they wont have to waste possible months waiting for a camera replacement thinking that its faulty when it might not be... I had to write this because I did see someone with this problem on the QHY's own forum and their response was "I can replace it for you..." totally unnecessary.... Clear Skies, Mariusz

Awesome stuff Ivo... you are very quick at releasing fixes... looking forward to trying it again (once the clouds clear off) and hopefully being in the southern hemisphere will not keep being my handicap 😉

In your life circumstance that you described, I recommend sticking with a DSLR. A modded DSLR can produce great images. With a DSLR you'd need to spend a bit more time on exposing objects but a DSLR can produce images that might not be as good as a dedicated astro cam, but it's not night and day difference either. I have been using a very old Canon 40D that was first full spectrum modded then later cooled, before getting my QHY268M currently used for imaging. Have a look at my album, DSO images taken before April last year are all imaged with my old Canon 40D... after April I was using the QHY, and I did image a few of the same objects as I did with the DSLR, so you can get an idea of the difference in quality that I'm getting between the two cameras.

Hello again, Similarly to my past post, after a long stretch of rain, I had a break with two clear nights., which resulted in two more images to share. Not wanting to waste this, ever increasingly rare, night sky clarity, I opened the observatory and exposed luma subs during the first night and the second night was spent capturing RGB subs... first half of the night was spent on the Hamburger Galaxy, NGC 3628, and the second half after midnight was spent on M83. The Hamburger is relatively low in the northern sky from my location, which was possibly effected by thermal currents radiating from the house roofs directly below the galaxy position. Alternately the Southern Pinwheel exposure started when it was directly overhead and was high in the sky for the duration of the exposure. These images were exposed across two nights, 3-4 & 4-5 April 2022, using a QHY268M through a Celestron C8" SCT at the native 2032mm focal length, tracked on a Hypertuned CGEM mount. Total exposure time of the Hamburger was 6 hours and 23 minutes, and M83 was 5 hours and 47 minutes through all LRGB filters. The thing I hate most about this cloud dodging imaging is that it seems rushed, with the uncertainty if there will be enough clear sky to finish images. CS, Mariusz

"Not 100% happy with it"??? That image is great... nice data and very nicely processed...

Awesome triplet.

Another awesome Leo triplet image...

Great experiment... although, as said previously, I agree that both images are great.

The equipment I used for these images was a QHY268M camera, a 80mm f6.25 BOSMA Beta-RE Achromat refractor on a "Hypertuned" CGEM mount. Filters used were 7.5nm Baader Ha, OIII and Hb narrowband. The Dolphin is quite large, this is the size at 500mm focal length. At 1280mm (f6.3 on my C8) I suspect that the bubble would be edge to edge.

In weather situations like we're having for more than the last 4 months a permanent setup is worth it's weight in gold to have the opportunity to take advantage of the moments or clarity... BUT unfortunately now I'm pushing past 2 weeks of permanent cloud and rain!!!! ARRRGHHHH Who keeps buying telescopes in my area???

I hear you... unfortunately if it's not weather that gets in the way of the hobby, it's life commitments.

Looking forward to see your work.

Thanks Alan... I would think that the Dolphin Head would be visible from NH at least?

Hello, We're having a horrible few months with weather down in Australia... weeks of rain, rain, rain with floods, followed by a semi clear with an occasional glimmer of hope than back to weeks of rain!!!! Having an observatory in my backyard allows me to take advantage of every clear moment, even if it's only for an hour or two... and thats exactly what I had to do to image my last few images... a game of cloud dodging was no exception to expose these two images. These images are also exposed through Ha, O3 and Hb filters for the red, green and blue channels, a method I tried out about 6 months ago and am liking this kind of narrowband near natural looking color look. To maximise my object gathering, I alternated exposures between the Pencil (NGC2736) and the Dolphin Head (Sh2-308) nebulae. I figured that at worst case scenario, I'll end up with a mono image or each object. These images could do with a few more hours of exposure time, but as the weather was not playing nice and the full moon was approaching, I decided to give it a rest and find new targets once the rain and clouds clear off. The total exposure time for the Dolphin Head was 8 hours and 40 minutes and for the Pencil was 9 hours and 50 minutes for all channels. These subs were exposed across multiple nights with throwing out around 25% due to cloud damaged subs. Clear Skies, Mariusz

NIce image... near full moon makes it that much more of a amazing achievement.

Awesome whisps.