Magnum

I agree its very low noise whatever temperature, and if your running off of a battery then of course battery life is more important.

 But the point of a cooled camera to me is to get the cleanest possible data,  and where power isn't a factor then its clear from both the Player One and ZWO graphs that Dark current drops continuously until -15 then starts to level off as it approaches -20C, I can see a difference in my narrowband data, so it clearly is worth cooling more.

There are no rules in this hobby, I just like to get as close to the optimum wherever possible.

cheers

Lee

18 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

Looks good. I personally wouldn't bother cooling to -15 with this sensor, -5 or even 0 C should be fine.

Thanks

Not sure why you wouldn't make use of the cooling if it's there, the Dark Current charts show an improvement down to -15C then it levels off as it approaches -20C so cleaner the better. and ive been using my ZWO533 at -15C for 3 years

Lee

I tested my friend Tommy Norton's new Player One camera last night for him on the Heart Nebula, here is my processed image.

Pretty identical image quality to my ZWO ASI533MC Pro which uses the same sensor, only difference I noticed is the cooling is more efficient, it was only using 14% power -15C.

Camera: Player One Ares C Pro.

Telescope: Sharpstar 61EDPHII f4.5 Triplet.

Filter: Altair Triband V1.

Mount: EQ8 Pro

Guided, Captured, Stacked & stretched in MaximDL, Graxpert AI gradient removal, Starnett++, Processed in Photoshop. No Darks or Flats

Captured this quick image last night of the heart of Cynus centred on Gamma Cygni.
10 x 10 mins in Ha
Camera: ATIk383L Mono + Baader 7nm Ha
Scope: Samyang 135mm F2 lens @ F2.8
Mount: EQ8 Pro
Guided, Captured, Stacked and stretched in MaximDL5, final processing in Starnett++ and Photoshop.

In the process of going through my OSC workflow using MaximDL & Photoshop with a fellow UKAI member I produced this screenshot showing the 4 main save points, starting with the RAW stack just corrected for gradients and DDP strech in Maxim, then star removal with Starnett++, then processed to taste in photoshop and denoised in Topaz, then with the stars added back. I captured this image a year ago and is one of my favoroutiue images that ive captured to date, centred on the crescent nebula and surrounding Ha emissions and bow shocks.

This was 38 x 180 sec subs with my ASI533MC & Samyang 135 mm lens @ f2.4 + Optolong Lenhance duo band filter.

As per my usual lazy workflow no Darks or Flats were used just dithering & Maxims Flatten Background routine.

And the final version full size 

Lee

Funny thing is ive watched so many tutorials of people using the modern Pix Insight processing, yet their images never start the right colour ( usually very green ) and they spend hours trying to correct it by continuously subtracting one colour after the other until it no longer resembles the original data. yet my old school workflow from Maxim has very neutral colour from the start ( as long as the colour convert window is set correctly for the camera & filter, it applies the colour setting to every sub BEFORE stacking ) which is a much friendlier starting point to process from and further tweak the colour, I'm convinced this is a more accurate way to process the data without damaging it. but there are only a handful of people still using Maxim these days.

Never imaged this target before NGC6820 in Vulpecula, not sure why ive never put this on the list before as its very nice and the pillars are quite similar to M16. its located about 3 degrees from the much more famous M27. Not very bright but looking good in 15 min subs. then old favourite the Elephant trunk.

8 x 15 min Ha subs for NGC 6820 and 18 x 10 min Ha subs for IC1396

Telescope: Meade 127mm F7.5 Triplet refractor.

Camera: Atik 460EX mono CCD.

Filter: Baader 7nm Ha

Mount: EQ8 pro

Guided, captured, and DDP stretch in MaximDL 5. Processed in photoshop

Lee

At last a clear night, I imaged IC1396 the Elephant Trunk Nebula at 2 focal length, here is the wide angle shot, I noticed a fuzzy green trail at the bottom edge then did some investigating to find I had by by chance captured Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS too.

51 x 180 sec subs

Mount: EQ8

Optics: Samyang 135mm f2 lens @ f2.4

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC, Gain100 -15C

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Location: Kent, UK, Bortle 6.

Guided, Captured, Stacked, Flatten Background, Colour Calibration stretched with DDP in Maxim DL5.

Final processing in Photoshop, Starnet++V2 for Mac M1.

30 minutes ago, peter shah said:

Its a great target and worth going back to definitely, I will probably do the same at some point with the 16in and go in tight on some of those lovely knotted regions..

Yes I was thinking going in tighter on the knotted regions too. 

My normal scope for close up work and galaxies  is my Meade 127mm f7.5 triplet with 952mm FL, but feel I need a bit more FL lately , looks like you were using 1140mm with this image.

I used to image with an old Meade 8" sct OTA reduced to 1200mm to good effect but sold it when I bought the 127 ( probably a mistake, the idea was big refractor eliminates problems of dew and mirror flop of an SCT which it did, but at the expense of reduced resolution, its never quite matched the detail I was getting in the old SCT)  Then recently I spotted an old 8" LX50 going  for an amazing bargain price that I couldn't pass up, so going to give to give that a go and see if I can improve on the refractor images again

Annoyingly I also own a 12" LX200GPS in my 2nd observatory which is optical amazing, but never managed to get good enough guiding for deep sky with it, so it only gets used for planetary. maybe I ill have to save up to buy a 2nd EQ8 to mount it on 😛 

Lee

Oooh I really like that one Peter.

Ive always imaged this target with wider FOV, but this makes me want to attack again with my larger scopes.

Lee

5 minutes ago, peter shah said:

Gorgeous!!....deep  and full of detail 

Thanks Peter, I just wish I could get a clear night to grab the Oiii to finish it. Ive only had 1 crystal clear night in Kent in month and months. 

Lee

M17 the Omega / Swan nebula. Frustrating not to be able to image due to the weather at the moment, Ive set up a couple of times in the last week only for a cloud bank to come in from the south. So was just sitting here looking through my old data and realised I hadnt posted this image from 18th Sept 2022 even though I had processed it. I think I may have been waiting to add a few short subs for the core as it's slightly blown out due to the high dynamic range of this target. Anyway posting as is as its almost a year since I captured the data LOL.

Only 50 mins of data 5 x 10 min subs

Telescope: TSED80 f6.25 Triplet refractor reduced to f4.9

Camera: Atik 383EX mono CCD.

Filter: Baader 7nm Ha

Mount: EQ8 pro

Guided, captured, stacked and stretched in MaximDL 5. processed in Photoshop and Starnett ++V2 for Mac  M1

yes great range of colours Peter

Lee

IC5146 The Cocoon Nebula. Another image from last year that I had processed but not posted before as it wasn't finished, but came across it today and thought I may as well as it's not at all bad. Captured on 20th August 2022.
66 x 3 min subs
Telescope: Samyang 135mm f2 lens @ f2.4
Camera: ZWO ASI533MC
Filter: Optolong L Enhance
Mount: EQ8 pro
Bortle: 5.5
Guided, captured, stacked, stretchedand flatten background in MaximDL 5, processed in Photoshop + Starnett++V2 .

Nice one Olly, how much data was this and what sub lengths?

Lee

My zwo 533 does something similar if i cool the sensor too fast, zwo say that it happens du to ice crystals forming i micro voids within the sensor around some pixels, and can be a sign the desiccant needs re charging. Ive seen over a dozen other reports of this on the zwo FB group. Ive found if i cool mine slower in 5 degree stages it prevents it from happening. Though in each case it was random pixels not stellar cores, but it could still be something similar happening.

im attaching an image from my cam with and without the issue

 
Ive never seen it on a CCD sensor before but fortunately its much simpler to remove the desiccant on Atiks than it is on ZWO, so i would give that a go, out the tabs in the micro for 2 mins then replace and leave for several hours before testing it. 
A more conclusive test would be to take an image with the cooler off first.

Lee

I really like this one Olly.

Lee

17 minutes ago, assouptro said:

Love this! 

I have a version of the same area that I dedicated over 30 hours to with my 12” meade lx200 sct 

I think your version is gorgeous 

Thanks for sharing 

Bryan

Thanks i would kike to see that image, as i also own a 12” lx200 which is setup in my Dome but ive only used it for planets so far as i can never get it to guide well enough for deep sky. i could put it on my EQ8 in my roll off roof obs but that would mean taking my other 4 smaller scopes off, and dont want to do that. Seems a shame though as i think  the 12” would be great for small stuff.

lee

Thanks i just posted my my other close up version that i captured at the same time on my big scope with mono camera, and cant decide if im getting much advantage doing mono anymore , they are both 4 hours of data, yet this one looks a bit deeper albeit its taken with a faster scope f4.5 in this case vs f y.5 on the mono image. Im almost tempted to just do OSC from now on as its quicker to process , i will need to try both methods on the same scope and target soon.

lee

Captured IC410 the Tadpole Nebula twice on Monday night, the Widefield I posted couple of days ago using my OSC, and here is the close up version with my Mono cam on the Big Meade.

4 hours of data 7 x 10 mins in Ha + 17 x 10 mins in Oiii Atik 460EX Mono CCD Baader Narrowband filters Meade 127 F7.5 Series 5000 triplet refractor.

Guided, Captured, stacked and stretched in MaximDL, Star removal in Starnet++V2 experimental for Mac M1, Processed in Photoshop.

Nice

9 hours ago, gorann said:

The camera @ollypenriceis using (ASI2600MC) has a built in UV/IR filter.

Oh so it does thats interesting, I stand corrected.

Sorry Olly, as my 533MC doesn't have an IR window but just an AR window I had just presumed all ZWO OSC cameras were the same in this regard. strange they would use different window in different models when both the 533 and 2600 both have very similar chips with very similar sensitivity.

I see now the built in one cuts at 400nm while my Baader UV/IR cuts at 420nm.

Lee

Great image by the way Olly.

Ive been trying to image M78 this week from kent but my local LP from the LED motorway lights which illuminate my garden really make it difficult to do faint dust in broadband.

lee

On 20/02/2023 at 08:28, ollypenrice said:

Only the RGGB filters of the Bayer matrix itself. This was a one shot colour camera, otherwise unfiltered. We have a very dark site.

Olly

I would be tempted to still use a UV/IR block filer Olly, i know its classed as a reflector but the RASAs do contain 4 corrective glass lenses at the rear as well as the Schmidt plate at the front, so thats 5 bits of slightly refractive glass . Ive noticed your blue stars in most of your images this week have a very slight violet fringe and a UV/IR would prevent that.

 hope you dont mind me pointing this out, but is purely meant to be constructive, just my eyes are very sensitive to fringing and CA so i alway notice it no matter how slight.

lee

Captured IC410 the Tadpole Nebula on Monday night.

50 x 5 min subs

ZWO ASI 533MC camera Gain 100

Optolong L Enhance filter

Sharpstar 61 EDPHII f4.5 triplet refractor.

Guided, Captured, stacked and stretched in MaximDL, Star removal in Starnet++V2 experimental for Mac M1, Processed in Photoshop.

On 09/02/2023 at 09:48, Kon said:

Another excellent framing and image.

Cheers Kon, had to plan mess around with the rotation to fit them both in

Lee