Adam J

I think we are getting off the original topic, which was essentially me wondering why Starlight Xpress have not brought out any new products in the last 3-4 years and hence if they had stopped development of dedicate astronomy cameras, Steve seems so have answered this. I only mentioned CMOS products because as far as I know there will be no new CCD products from SONY and hence any new products will be CMOS based by default. It was not my intention to open another CCD vs CMOS debate. Adam

I don't think I have sufficient influence by a long long way to take responsibility for the current prices on the used CDD market. However, I have been extremely shocked that there is currently an ATIK460EX in the SGL for sale section that is listed at £500 and has not yet sold, that has got to be the deal of the century for someone as while my technical opinion based on the maths is that a similar sized sensor like the IMX533 mono will out perform it, its not by a such big margin so long as you compensate for the higher read noise by using longer exposures. You can be sure that if it doesn't sell I will be pushing someone in its direction at some point in the near future. Adam

Technically speaking I have owned a ATIK460EX for about two months before selling it on, that was back in 2019 and even then I could only get £900 for it on the used market, but I also have close friends who use such cameras and so am sufficiently familiar with them to say they are still excellent cameras. I just would not personally chose to buy one new in 2022. I find its better not to have an emotional attachment to any given technology or manufacturer although there is more to the equation than simply who sells the cheapest camera or the best sensor. Build quality, support, broader infrastructure all count. However, for the future its largely irrelevant SONY are going to stop making CCD sensors, they have literally announced as much and that forces the issue somewhat for any company that only stocks cameras based on SONY CCD sensors. Adam

Its an observation not an attack.

Hopefully this is not too political a statement for SGL but for many reasons I have the option I would rather buy from a local company than China. It seems that currently I don't have that option if I want a modern CMOS camera. So I think you can excuse my concern Steve when its been 3-4 years since Starlight Xpress released the Blue pro model CCD cameras. With no public announcements of new products since then that I am aware of I doubt that I am the only one left wondering. I would rather see a UK company succeed than fail so if this is not the case I will look forward to seeing new products from them soon and hope that they are competitively priced (not that I would expect Chinese prices mind you). What I would say is that when I spoke to them at the practical astronomy show this year, representatives of both ATIK and Starlight Xpress admitted in hushed tones that they had been wrong footed by the move of the market to CMOS sensors. Lets hope they correct that. Adam

I hear very little from this company, they seemingly have not brought out a new camera in years. I know they tried to release a CMOS range featuring the IMX304 sensor and a couple of others such as a cooled IMX290 design. But it appear that those cameras are no longer available on FLOs webpage and there is no mention of them on Starlight Xpress's own web page either. When there are plenty of excellent CMOS sensors on the market currently that seemingly outperform the SONY CCD range that they are still selling. I have got to wonder if they have given up? Atik at least are still releasing some new cameras although it seemed to take them an age to release their APX60 at a much higher cost than it was originally advertised at. All the talk currently is about ZWO, QHY and even the likes of Rising Cam. Starlight Xpress and ATIK where dominant only 7 years back when I started the hobby. So my question is has anyone recently purchased a new Starlight Xpress camera? Or is it the case as it seems to me that the Chinese CMOS cameras have killed off European astronomy camera manufacturing to the point that some of these companies are dead men walking? Adam

Looks like you could add some more spacing to gain better correction. Adam

Well oddly QHY did collaberate in making a small number of 168mono cameras, oddly as there is not mono sensor in the IMX071 range, they basically removed the bayer matrix via polishing. There always a chance you got one or that they flashed a normal sensor with the wrong firmware. However, more likely is that you have some setting wrong in NINA. Adam

I would make the assumption that you will end up with a camera eventually in the 3.75um pixel size range and hence that if you want to optomise for detail you will want to have sufficient focal length to enable about ~1-1.5 arcseconds per pixel. So something like a 700mm focal length scope is about what I would be aiming for with a mono camera. Seeing is unlikely to allow higher resolution irrespective past about that point. So honestly I would probably just switch out the 150P for a 150PDS and maybe get a ASI585mc / ASI533mc or mm Pro to go with it if it was me and I wanted to image smaller targets depending on budget. Adam

Take a look at the discussion between me and @alcol620 here and note that his stars look similar to yours prior to him adjusting the objective colimation. Look on page 9. Adam

Its not back spacing, at least its not just back spacing or all corners would be out, the fact that the camera orientation is different is suspicious of a colimation error, however, it doesn't have to be just one issue, it could be DSLR sensor tilt and colimation combined. Only a star test will reveal the true problem. One thing is certain and that is that you cant correctly adjust tilt until you have corrected the other aberrations first. Another strong possibility is that the corrector is tilted relative to the optical axis, this essentially causes very similar issues to the objective being miss colimated. I am not really a fan of any scope that cant have its colimation adjusted. Adam

In all honesty it looks more like miscolimation of the scope or focuser to me than tilt. Best way forward is to perform a star test to see if the scope has a colimation error. Appart from that what I would suggest is to rotate the camera and see if the distortion pattern stays the same or if it rotates as you rotate the camera. Tilt is the goto for everyone when they see any optical aberration but to be honest its hardly ever tilt and much more often turns out to be a optical / colimation issue. Unless the Z73 now has a colimatable lens cell then there may well be no way to correct this. Adam

Well I cant see any of this in the single frame so it is a issue with your stacking. I use APP so no longer an expert in DSS, but you need to look at your file inport settings i think. Options, Settings, Raw/FITS DDP Settings, select the tab FITS Files and use Monochrome 16 bit FITS, Color CCD Camera and select Generic RGGB in the pull-down menu. Adam

One thing that jumps to mind is are you using the correct debayering settings in DSS?

Honestly I am sure it will be fine.

Never use zero offset as it means you clip the lower pixel values. Think of it as a distribution of values that sit around a mean value (the offset) if offset is zero then negative values (relative to the offset) can't exist / are clipped. That leads to calibration issues.

That would largely depend on your choice of camera, some ASI cameras will suit having a 1.25 inch filter infront of the camera via an included adaptor. Also Astronomik actually make a M42 filter type designed to be inserted as you would insert an extender into the imaging train. So its no more or less possible to do this with the FMA180 than it is with any other telescope. Adam

To be honest i have never seen the issue with gain either, all seems simple to me but we should recognise that not everyone wants to get that involved in the process.

Basically no advantage because we stack images and so they still reach the same gradiation even with a 12-bit camera. You will reach the same 16-bit depth (or in theory more) in the final stacked image. The advantage in single frame work is real though and should provide a higher dynamic range assuming your read noise is sufficiently low.

Any feedback on this?

At f6 I would shoot 60second subs at 300gain.

Well for a start I think you missed the wall by a frame width. Also 60s exposures are the way to go with an uncooled camera. 5min exposures are way too long. Depending on f-ratio and light polution even 30s may be best. Also gain 300.

This is a dead thread not sure why it came up.

Always AR window.

As you have guiding now what I would say is that the QHY8L will benefit from longer exposures even up to 30mins would be good. Do research on darks bias and flat frames for calibration as you will require them. Pick a bright target to start with and consider a duel narrow band filter as your next upgrade. Can't wait to see some pictures. Adam