Help me spend some money on a ccd

[RAC]

I'm looking at a mono atik 383l+ to work with my 200L and 400L lenses and also my 1000mm fl reflector.

What does this look like for a shopping list. I did some research on the 1.25in filters and the 8300 sensor and it looks like they are ok with the TS filter drawer as its so close to the camera. Also i plan on making my own adaptor to go from the filter drawer to my lenses. i'll ge some other filters when my piggy bank recovers. I don't mind having a drawer setup as i like manual stuff, its where the fun is.

[RAC]

O well too late haha its all ordered. Just need to wait for the camera to get back in stock.

[Capricorn]

I am interested to see that a lot of the bits are from Teleskop Service. It seems they are slowly taking over the astronomy market world wide.

Do I assume you have decided on the 383 ??

[nytecam]

RAC - got your BIG cam at a good price @ NZ$ 1880 - sells in UK [Greenwitch] @ £1550 which = ~NZ$ 3000 OSC or mono

[RAC]

Those are US prices so $2257nz + 15%gst when it comes in. I got the mono camera.

[davew]

How close is close ? There are one or two camera makers that use 31mm filters as this gives a tad bigger hole. I've not looked up 31 filter drawers mind you. You may be able to fit 31 filters to the 1.25 drawer. TS will know I'm sure.

Looking forward to seeing what the two lenses will do. Good luck,

Dave.

[RAC]

How close is close ? There are one or two camera makers that use 31mm filters as this gives a tad bigger hole. I've not looked up 31 filter drawers mind you. You may be able to fit 31 filters to the 1.25 drawer. TS will know I'm sure.

Looking forward to seeing what the two lenses will do. Good luck,

Dave.

Your Moravian ccd sounds interesting.

[davew]

Your Moravian ccd sounds interesting.

It is but don't take a single person's view on anything !

ANY camera can go wrong and I don't know if New Zealand has any back up.

With regards to your filters. Some wheels can take both 1.25 and 31 mm. If you think about it, the hole in the wheel or plate is the same but the unmounted 31mm doesn't have the metal mounting to take up the space when screwing in.

Contact TS and make a good informed decision. Watch the spacing between filter and chip isn't too long

Dave.

[RAC]

I've seen a few tests with the 383 and the TS filter drawer using 1.25inch filters and it looks good so i'll give it a go. If its no good i'll move to two inch filters and use a two inch drawer.

[RAC]

Well everythings turned up and there are no clouds so just maybe i may be able to test it out on the first night of having it! I also got an 0lll and sll filter as well. At f4 with the 200mm lens the flats look very good using the 1.25in filters, i havn't tried faster yet.

I made a canon lens to m42 adaptor and it works very well so far.

IMG_5302 by meg rac, on Flickr

IMG_5275 by meg rac, on Flickr

IMG_5304 by meg rac, on Flickr

[RAC]

First test. Very windy and horrid seeing with lots of cloud so i used my 200mm 2.8L lens. This is at f2.8 and it shows very little vignetting with the use of the TS filter drawer and 1.25in filters.

The top left corner is out of focus as my lens to m42 adaptor needed adjusting.

Single 5min sub, stretch but no DBP, flats or any corrections apart from a little noise reduction.

Baader 7nm HA 1.25in filter,

canon 200mm f2.8L @f2.8

Atik 383L+mono

Atik 383L+ mono first test. by meg rac, on Flickr

Very impressed so far.

[Sam]

Looking very good!

[Gina]

Yes, looking good Only needs Levels applied to bring out a loty already

[ollypenrice]

This looks like a great setup. I had the 200L working with our Atik 4000 but the oversampling was very easy to see. The small pixels will work well. Have you seen these things from Ts? I consider them essential for lens imaging. The improvement in FWHM when I started using it was vast.

If you can get the chip distance bang on it seems likely that the 200L will work wide open if you choose a star on the 1/3 lines intersection to focus. Good info from Peter (Psychobilly) here.

Another lens trick is the diff spike free front aperture mask.

Olly

[RAC]

Yes i've used a front aperture mask with this lens before and it worked well at f4 but did add a little vigneting of its own. I'm super happy the 1.25in filters worked out with the filter drawer and the 8300 chip.

I think a 460EX would do better and very well with a lens like this.

Here's a super quick very first bi colour image test.

5x5min ha 7nm

5x5min olll 8.5nm

200mm lens @f2.8

ha=red olll=blue and green.

No flats, darks or any calibration frames. Just stacked then combined in PI.

I think im going to like this camera.

Rose bi colour test by meg rac, on Flickr

[ollypenrice]

Wow, that is absolutely super. Nothing about that image says 'camera lens' and it's as clean as a whistle right across. No flats?? You must have been imaging from an operating theatre!!

Surely you could push the sub lengths a lot harder.

Yes, you certainly are going to like this setup. It's wonderful.

Olly

[RAC]

Yeah just think what a 460ex would be like on one of these lenses! It would make a nice fast little setup! I should have really got one and i could have as customs didn't put any gst or duty on my 383. If i knew that was going to happen i could have spent the extra.

I could have gone longer on the subs but time wasn't there and i wanted to get a first try out the way.

Here's a 300sec ha fit straight from the camera at -20degC right now using the 400mm f5.6 @5.6 on Eta carinae. It also looks very clean. Im hoping to get a hour each tonight for ha olll and sll.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xhor0pwd7eqkgv/light%20ha_040.fit?m

[Gina]

Wonderful