Adam J

I would say that the main indicator that bad things are happening are the reflections and diffraction spikes most likely coming from the edge of the filter mount interrupting the light cone. Adam

There is just no way that a even a F3 would need more than 1.25 inch filters with a SX694, I strongly suspect something else was going on. As I understand it 36mm is fine and used by many people on the 26M with no issues. The only thing I can think is that you must have had the filter a long long way from the sensor. Adam

Skymax 150 would be my choice for planets. C6 would be ok but I think the skymax would be better. Adam

So I had not noticed this before but it looks like Sony have put a OSC / Colour sensor based on the IMX492 design on their website. Here: IMX492LQJ_Flyer.pdf (sony-semicon.com) not to be confused with: IMX294CJK_Flyer.pdf (sony-semicon.com) They are not the same sensor. The IMX294CJK is currently used in the ASI294mc pro and it uses a odd Quad Bayer Matrix to provide 4.6um effective pixels but with each of the RGGB sub pixels themselves being made up of a cluster of 4....sub sub pixels... Below this is the IMX492LLJ that is currently used in the ASI294mm pro mono camera, it can be used in 1x1 or 2x2 binning. IMX492LLJ_Flyer.pdf (sony-semicon.com) Note that ZWO assumed that the IMX492LLJ was in effect a mono version of the IMX294CKJ....it seems that as I predicted some time back this is not quite the case and the reason for the IMX492 designation was that the way the pixels are read is different and so a revision of the silicon has taken place. SO this new IMX492LQJ is in fact a OSC version of the mono IMX492LLJ used in the ASI294mm pro that is using a conventional RGGB matrix on 2.3um pixels for a 12-bit, 47.08mp sensor. I expect two things, 1) This is going to turn up in Astro cameras at some point in the future. 2) ZWO having painted themselves into a corner by calling the IMX492LLJ based camera the ASI294mm pro, have a headache now as to what to call a camera based on this sensor.....ASI492mc pro???? Adam

Yes the 1.25 inch filters will not cover a APS-C sized sensor, you will need 36mm filters for that. The best you can get from 1.25 inch is about F4 with a 4/3 sensor like the ASI1600mm pro or the ASI294mm pro. You can always just crop it to about that size for now without any negative effects but if you want to use the fill sensor you are going to have to change your filter and filter wheel. Adam

In that case the voltage should not drop. Might be worth doing some more testing at lower current draw and see if it is still dropping, How much charge did it take according to your charger? Adam

No that should not happen unless you are drawing more than 8 amps or so, as that will trigger some of the over current protection.

yeah, take it as supporting up to APSC and you will be fine.

Yes but it does not mention 3.6volts at any point I can see, you basically have to reverse engineer that. For me at least that does not build confidence. The only voltage it mentions at the link is 28 volts for example.

He is actually wrong it's not pinched, pinching will show that effect across the entire frame including the centre of the field. It's actually a sign that the corrector design is not working well at full frame. It's a common effect in the corners of large sensors as the reducer effectiveness breaks down. I can't find a spot diagram for this scope. However for example this is a Askar scope. Note the bottom right star 22mm spot shapes, when pixel sampled this ends up looking like a cross.

yes I actually noted 3.6volts but in my post but for some reason it's been cut short.

how are you getting 100Wh it's described as 27000mah so only 27Wh? Adam

So not sure on your battery monitor, make sure that the charger is set correctly as if its like mine it has many different options. My max charge voltage is about 14.3 - 14.4 volts on the LIFE charge profile. Take note of how much you put into the battery. Are you sure that monitor is for LIFE batteries and not Lead Acid as that would set 12.8 volts as 100% charge. Adam

No if its starting at 12.8 volts it was not properly charged to start with. It sounds to me like it barely had any charge in it. It should start at 13.4volts when fully charged. Are you charging it with a dedicated LIFE charger I hope? Charging it with anything else is potentially extremely hazardous. It should run a ASI Air for about 12-24hours. Adam

Yeah it but the RASA is 2.9x the cost normally (although it is on sale), the RASA is hardly a portable scope and where this will sit just fine on something as cheap as a SA GTI the RASA is going to need a approx. 2k mount. All said and done your are comparing a bulky £4.5k setup to a £1.4k grab and go / mobile imaging setup, making a comparison between apples and oranges. Adam

Well that is a can of worms, you are opening. Firstly the Baader 7nm is by no means a bad filter, it was the goto starter narrow band filter set for a long long time an for good reasons. On the Ha at least I never really found that you had much in the way of reflections. So what are you going to gain? Well you will gain some signal to noise by going narrower potentially most so if you go with a 3nm filter. However, you will also lose something in going for a 3nm filter and the thing you will loose is NII. What will that mean, well in my opinion it means less definition in quite a large number of targets and not just SNR. For this reason I tend to think that for Ha at least the optimal band pass is about 5nm and not 3nm. I have never felt a need to upgrade from my 5nm Astrodon filters, for me they are perfect. For a 533m you can use 1.25, 31mm or 36mm filters. The first two will cover a IMX492 sized sensor in the future to about F4 / F3 respectively and the 36mm will cover a IMX571 sized APSC sensor. So think about your upgrade path, better not to have to buy twice. The best filters are still made by Chroma and Astrodon, that is still what you yet if money is no object. But if you are only using a small IMX533 base senor i am going to guess that money is a consideration. Top tip: By the time you are spending more on your filters than you spent on your camera you are doing it wrong in my opinion. 1) Do you have a filter wheel? 2) Do you already have OIII and SII filters to go with the 7nm Ha? 3) What scope / scopes are you using? You may or may not need pre-shifted filters. Adam

Its understood, but you really cant deviate from the method or it all goes wrong. Adam

Because its not the whole frame that is rejected just the effected pixels.

All ZWO cooled cameras using sensors smaller than APSC don't use a dedicated dew heater but the are designed push waste heat from the thermo electric cooler into the camera housing preventing dew, you will not get dew unless the desiccant tablets need replacing. So in summery stop worrying it will be fine. Adam

So if the battery is charged and you connected it correctly it should at least show voltage. If it's not showing voltage then it's probably just busted. Adam

One of these adaptors from Astromechanics would solve your problem. Astromechanics You might be able to find one that is in someones old stock, I know FLO used to sell them. Apart from that it may be a problem importing. Maybe a wanted notice in the forum and on Astrobuysell uk. Adam

I would really need a better look at the connections. What type of battery are you using?

Given it's a current gen camera it would have to be over it's used price for it to be uneconomical. So that's probably anything upto and including £800 ish I would say. I really really doubt it will be that much. Adam

You don't actually need the 12volt regulator for the LiFePO4 but you do if you want to be able to use other types of batteries and higher voltage power supplies and I think it adds a layer of protection to what is expensive equipment. SO with the regulator for example you could use a 4 Cell LIPO battery if you wanted or a 24volt leisure battery. or a 16volt power supply or even a 9 volt battery, it would all end up at 12.2volts. You charge it by connecting both batteries to the box and then the charger to the third XT60 connector. Then you can charge both batteries at the same time. Adam

The FSQ is a totally different optical design to this scope the effects of collimation errors are different. The issue with the FSQ85 is that it was never optically designed to cope with modern small pixel cameras., Unfortunately what your seeing here is quite typical. of this.