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Julian's Atik 460 first light.

ollypenrice

By ollypenrice
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Guest Julian appeared with some nice stuff in his car, an EM200, Tak Baby Q and Atik460. We set it all up for the first time under a clear sky, only to discover that the seeing was mysteriously abonminable, the worst in living memory. Even so, once all the new kit was assembled we took 40 minutes per channel on the Double Cluster through Astrodon filters, the first time I've tried these. It may not be the last...

The Atik 460 is a dream. Sooooo quiet, so sensitive. The background sky on this can go to 200% and show uniformity and smoothness. This is a fabulous camera. No question.

Flats applied but no darks other than a master bias used as a dark.

Olly

DOUBLE-CLUSTER-40-MNS-PER-L.jpg

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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They say the Double Cluster is the best target to begin with - easy to pgotograph, beautiful to look at. A very good first light in my opinion, nice picture.

It's the ideal first light test. You can do it quickly, test the tracking and the corner stars and have something nice at the end of it as well!

Olly

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I don't suppose you were able to do a test shot alongside the 4000?

I've done a couple of Double Clusters in the 4000s with guests. It isn't an exacting target in terms of the elusive faint stuff but what is very clear is the difference in noise. There are hardly any hot pixels on the 460 and minimal noise once cooled to -5. How much this matters is debatable since you calibrate it out. It's very nice not to have it though. We need a clear night for a faint target before Julian leaves but for that we are in the hands of the weather Gods.

Olly

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badgers

badgers

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Love the 460ex... its great to see it in action in on the Tak in dark skies...

Looking forward to more images.

I've had a lot more hot pixels showing up lately before calibration, Although I think its down to my polar alignment skills improving as I'm not getting much natural dither between frames.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Love the 460ex... its great to see it in action in on the Tak in dark skies...

Looking forward to more images.

I've had a lot more hot pixels showing up lately before calibration, Although I think its down to my polar alignment skills improving as I'm not getting much natural dither between frames.

Why not try a master bias of 50 subs at 0.001 second, sigma combined to avoid gamma ray interference? Use that as a dark.

Olly

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gingergeek

gingergeek

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The 460 topped my research list for a CCD a few months ago and I'm glad that these reports confirm what I had researched. Once the conservatory is built in the spring (no observatory) and then a permanent pier built with control/data cabling sunk into the ground back to the conservatory then I can look forward to saving for it and maybe a Tak FSQ85 after that......wishful thinking :)

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