SXVF-H9 First Light Report.

[3ggman]

So I recently sold/swapped my ATIK4000 for a SXV-H9, the none set point cooling version. Tonight I got my first opportunity to get out and use it. Knowing that I wouldn't have long before the clouds rolled in, I dubious as to what I would get but I went ahead anyway as you never know when you'll get your next chance.

Software was my real big worry when I decided to go for this camera, the ease of use of the ATIK was a real selling point, it really was plug and play and from what I read about the SXV they were the opposite. I was very unsure with what acquisition software to use, as I didn't need any processing software I didn't want to pay for Maxim, however this was solved when I found Sequence Generator Pro and figured out how to use the SXV autoguider through PHD (I included the QHY5 in the swap)

Anyway long story short, the night went flawlessly, until the clouds rolled in that is. I wanted to grab something nice and bright to maximize the short time that I had and managed to grab 90mins of NGC4565. I am very happy with the result. I will have to start taking flats by the looks of it (the bunnys), strangely never had dust bunnys on the ATIK.

Not sure if anyone else uses Sequence Generator Pro, its my first time using it and I really found it to be a great program, really full of features and very easy to use, almost as easy as ArtemisCapture.

One thing that I am not sure about is the cooling of the camera, is it automatic cool down and warm up. There are options to set it in SGPro but I can't get any readouts or indication if it is cooling down or warming up.

Hopefully I will get the chance to finish this soon as this camera seems like it will be a real performer.

PS. The reason I sold the ATIK4K was to finish restoring my Ford Capri, she's just got the first coat of paint today so not long now, something to do on those long summer evenings :grin:

[ollypenrice]

I was wondering why you'd sell an Atik 4000. (I'm certainly wondering why I sold both of mine!!!) Great camera, under rated.

I don't think the camera will talk to the software about the cooler if it isn't set point. If the cooler isn't working you'll know about it once the weather warms up. I had a dead cooler which didn't matter in our mountain winters but as the spring came the pictures deteriorated fast.

Olly

[lukebl]

Good see you have got the SXVF working well. I have the same model and use an old version of Astro Art 3 to capture images, but might give Sequence Generator a go.

On your point about cooling, I've often wondered how you can tell if the cooling is actually working. Is there any way of telling? The barrel doesn't seem to get any cooler than the ambient temperature, but I guess it's well insulated.

[3ggman]

It certainly was not an easy decision to sell it, the ATIK is a fantastic camera but the car won over in the end however with the reputation of the 285 chip I was fairly confident with what I would be getting (FOV and image quality/scale wise)

Yeah Sequence Generator really made life a lot easier not sure what I would have done without it, probably tried the SXV software which didn't look at all good.

I must look into the cooling a bit more, there must be some way of telling if the camera has warmed up/cooled down, I don't like the idea of switching off the camera not knowing what temp it's at.

[lukebl]

Another though I had was that, assuming the cooling is working correctly, how long does it take to reach its optimum temperature?

[Komet]

Not sure if anyone else uses Sequence Generator Pro, its my first time using it and I really found it to be a great program, really full of features and very easy to use,

I am a total fan ...... it does heaps more than just image capture - an extremely capable and solid piece of software.