APT with a ccd question please!

[Gasman]

GUys

Just licensed my copy of APT but wondering about the image viewer. I`m using APT with my Atik 314l ccd and the live image viewer shows a nice clean image with a few fairly bright stars showing at 2x2 binning but when I change to 1x1 hardly any stars at all and wondering if there is a setting I should change?. I don`t have this problem going from 2x2 to 1x1 with the Artemis software that came with the camera.

I`m not sure if many are using APT purely with ccd`s yet but I`m finding it very useful especially the focus aid.

Thanks

Steve

[jnc71106]

artemis does an auto stretch on the image i'm not sure if APT can do that. i know it has gamma and i think brightness settings for the image you can adjust, maybe give that a try

just had a look and it has an option for moving the black and white points in the the histogram

[kirkster501]

I find it a little unstable and "lock up" prone with my CCD (Atik 460). When it works it is great. If it were stable it would be my imaging app of choice. It was great with my DSLR.

I have not sussed out the scripts bit with APT either. So its Artemis for me until stability of APT with CCD improves.

Steve

[Gasman]

I agree I think it could become a very useful piece of software for ccd use. It has a histogram to click on for dark and bright settings maybe have a play with those?. I think most of the settings are designed mainly for Cannon cameras and ccd`s seem to be something Ivo has looked to add on. A new version is due out soon with some extra stuff for ccd`ers I gather.

I was wondering too about a `warm up` setting to avoid thermal shock to the camera and Ivo is working on that too, he seems pretty quick to respond to questions!

Steve

[kirkster501]

I was wondering too about a `warm up` setting to avoid thermal shock to the camera and Ivo is working on that too, he seems pretty quick to respond to questions!

Agreed, that's another crucial feature missing.

A little more work on stability would take ti from "good" to "fantastic" IMO. I'd be prepared to pay extra for it too.

[jnc71106]

i will be trying APT over the next week as it can link to PHD for dithering

[Gasman]

Mmm a little clunky tonight screen kept freezing and needed reboot once

Steve

[kirkster501]

Yes, that's my experience too. However, to be fair to APT, I have found freezes in other software (AstroTortilla, MainSequence and a couple of others) making use of the ASCOM driver popup where you select you camera.. Hmmm, wonder if its the Atik drivers causing issues? Artemis driving the CCD avoiding ASCOM never seems to freeze/lockup. That makes me think it could be an ASCOM driver related matter.....