CCD-Freak

Here is a picture from last month showing the new GEM45 C8 setup on the Todmorden pier I built last year.

This is what I have been dealing with for months. The intervals of clear sky are short and seldom.

Waiting for nightfall.....(^8 My old Celestron C8 on an iOptron GEM45 mount on a Todmorden pier at my SRO dark site. Getting ready to image some galaxies.

The problem could also be the Dec home switch. If it fails to find the home position when you first power up and start the alignment it is probably the culprit. Usually it take a small adjustment to make sure it closes. If that works right then I would suspect the cables as mentioned in other posts. The jacks can get dust or debris in them that can cause the encoder data to not reach the controller. I had a CGE for many years and it was a great mount.

This is one of my favorite scopes. Explore Scientific 127ED with a University Optics 80mm "Kit Scope" on an Astro Physics AP900GTO mount. Shown on a Todmorden pier at my SRO dark site.

NGC5033 is a beautiful spiral that doesn't get much attention. 100 x 180 seconds ASI-533MC with a UV-IR filter through an AT10RC on an AP900GTO mount at my SRO dark site Captured and processed with Astroart 7

So...I wanted to try something different to get "up close and personal" with galaxies so I tried an experiment imaging NGC4565 by attaching an ASI-482MC non cooled planet camera on my Ultima C8 on my GEM45 mount. I figured that with enough exposures and dithering I could get a smooth image. As usual everything was working against me...the seeing was bad, the scope was a bit out of collimation after the 200 mile road trip among other things. I exposed 100 x 120 seconds captured and processed with Astroart 8. But even with all the issues I think the experiment was a success. I am a bit amazed that a non cooled planetary camera could work this well on a DSO. I will be working with this setup during galaxy season to see if I can get it dialed in and hopefully I can get a night of good seeing to test it's full potential.

The ASI482MC does have some amp glow but it calibrates out easily. It has seems to have much less amp glow than my ASI178MM. Here is a single 120 second sub.

This is what ZWO says about the ASI482MC and the large 5.8 um pixel size are some of the reasons I decided to try it for galaxies. SNR1s=0.08lx Sony is introducing SNR1s [lx] as an index used to quantitatively evaluate picture quality at low illumination. SNR1s [lx] is an acronym consisting of “SNR” (Signal-to-Noise Ratio), “1” (represents that the signal level when noise = 1 is 1), and “s” (for Security). The lower this value is, the greater the image quality will be at low illumination. The 5.8um large pixel size allows unprecedentedly low SNR1s value of 0.08lx for ASI482MC. While ASI385MC is 0.13lx, you may see it is almost 2 times better, which brings the camera a fantastic nickname – “The King of the Night”. The amp glow is not too bad either.

So...I wanted to try something different to get "up close and personal" with galaxies so I tried an experiment imaging NGC4565 by attaching an ASI-482MC non cooled planet camera on my Ultima C8 on my GEM45 mount. I figured that with enough exposures and dithering I could get a smooth image. As usual everything was working against me...the seeing was bad, the scope was a bit out of collimation after the 200 mile road trip among other things. I exposed 100 x 120 seconds captured and processed with Astroart 8. But even with all the issues I think the experiment was a success. I am a bit amazed that a non cooled planetary camera could work this well on a DSO. I will be working with this setup during galaxy season to see if I can get it dialed in and hopefully I can get a night of good seeing to test it's full potential.

Still working well....shown with my recently acquired GEM45 mount. The Todmorden pier has been on of the best additions at my SRO site.

Finally got some clear sky so I could test the GEM45 mount on the Todmorden pier at my SRO dark site. It works great and is very stable.

Here is my recently acquired GEM45 with C8 on a Todmorden pier at my SRO dark site. I am quite happy with it's tracking and stability. I will primarily be using it with my 150 mm F2.8 Hyper Newt astrograph and smaller wide field imaging rigs.

Wow....Nice work.

I just had an 84 mph peak wind gust at my SRO dark site !!!!! The WX station is located on the property so it is quite accurate. I am glad I was not there at the time. The weather is going nuts !!!!

Player One just announced that they are coming out with a 294 camera. I wonder if they have tamed calibration issues ?????

It is the original Starbook so it is probably the version 1. He is trying to connect via the Lan. I am not sure if he has tried the ST4 port.

Thanks for your response... Sheldon has the original version of the Spinx mount and StarBook and everything else seems to work OK. Guiding calibration keeps failing. His guide scope FL is set correctly and he knows to not calibrate in the polar regions. Where is the "tracking toggle" located in the ASIair + software ???? Can you do a screen shot ???

I have a friend that is trying to use a Vixen Spinx mount with his ASIair and he can not get it to calibrate for auto-guiding. His Spinx has the early version of the Star Book which is in the list of supported mounts in the ASIair. He says it seems like it is moving too fast when it tries to calibrate like it is not set to the guiding rate. Has anyone seen this behavior? So.....Has anyone been able to get the Spinx to work right with the ASIair?

I think it is commonly called the Seagull Nebula. (^8 I love B&W Ha images.....they stand well by themselves.

This is the only picture I have ever seen of a Superscopes mount until your post. I found this picture on the web more than 20 years ago and there was no info to go with it so I don't know who took it or who the scope belonged to. Maybe someone will remember seeing it. I always thought it was beautiful and well engineered and that is why I still have the picture in my collection.

Great image....This one is going on my "To Do list"

This filter looks very interesting since it includes the blue channel. The star colors look more natural without having to process the stars separately and the nebula color is not orange like it tends to be with some filters . I just installed Siril to go along with Astroart 8 and I hope to be able to improve my processing skills. Unfortunately I don't enjoy processing as much as I do image capture so it will require some dedication on my part. This filter is going on my "want list".

The color is quite pleasing....I need to check out that filter. Great image !!! Especially when you consider the short exposure time under such difficult conditions.

I have really enjoyed the SS15028HNT. Imaging at F2.8 is a joy. I had to do a bit of tweaking when I first got it to fix some movement of the primary mirror but once that was solved it has played well. I have mainly used it with an ASI533MC and a recently acquired ASI2600MC. NGC7023 the Iris Nebula 300 x 120s (10 hours total) ASI533MC with a Baader UV-IR filter riding on an AP900 mount at my SRO dark site. Captured and processed with Astroart 8.