Atik 460ex

[johnrt]

During the last week or so I have sold off all the family heir looms in the quest to get my mitts on an Atik 460ex. Yesterday was the big day and just after lunch the FedEx guy dropped off my package from FLO. Top service once again!!

Initial impressions it's chunkier and heavier than I imagined, having been used to the 314l+ before, but as usual the build and finish is of top quality as expected from Atik.

I set off shooting a 100 bias and 65 flat frames ready for if the clouds ever decide to part again, which quickly lead me to my second realisation - the file sizes from the 460ex v's the 314l+ are huge!! I am used to 2.8mb per sub, but the 460 plops them out at nearly 12mb!! My calibration files added up to over 1.2gb of data to transfer from the laptop to iMac - I went out.

The bias frame stacked up and looks very clean, much cleaner than my 314l+ in fact.

The flat frame shows some vignetting out to the corners of the frame, exaggerated here by the Screen Transfer in Pixinsight.

CCD inspector flat frame analysis reports a drop off of  around 12% maximum out to the corners so this should calibrate out easily.

Roll on some clear skies so I can take this baby for a test drive!!!

[GuillermoBarrancos]

Nice!! I am looking at you with great envy! 

The 460ex is on my own short list of possible CCD candidates.

[Coco]

I'm surprised there is any fall off at all, its not exactly a large chip..

Congrats on the camera

[johnrt]

I'm surprised there is any fall off at all, its not exactly a large chip..

Congrats on the camera

Could be the APCCDT67 telecompressor that causes the vignetting?

[swag72]

A super chip on this one - I'm sure you'll love it. 

[Epicycle]

Great camera! I'm thinking about a similar move, i.e. replacing my H9 by a 694 and I would be interested to see if you find any big

difference between the two except chip size,

E.

[johnrt]

There was a nice little moonless clear spell last night as the Saharan pollution got pushed out over the north sea and I was able to take the Atik 460ex for a test drive. I collcted 13 x 10 minute lum subs before the need to get up at half past 7 the following morning drove me to bed.

Well I'm pretty happy, the vignetting was taken care of by flats perfectly and the chip is so much more sensitive than the 285 chip in my old 314l+. The image attached is a fraction of the time I'd shoot with the old camera and is already matching it for noise levels and depth. The 694 chip is so quiet. Fantastic camera!!

[mbrickley]

Fantastic first light image.

I've got a 460ex and have been thrilled with it too. I like the very light weight.

I've been toying with doing some photometry and I posted a separate topic on this forum yesterday with some results regards the linearity. See this post for the data but in conclusion the camera was stunningly linear to 99% plus of its full well capacity!

[swag72]

That's looking very good indeed John - I look forward to seeing more!!

[Epicycle]

Very convincing first light!

[ChrisLX200]

Fantastic first light image from the 460. You think 12MB is big? My 490 produces files near 18MB at 1x1   

I would be tempted to try to get rid of the dust bunnies - those are on the CCD window, it's not that they can't be compensated for it's the fact they can move around so flats go out of date pretty quick. For some reason my 490EX accumulates static which makes getting the dust motes off the window really difficult, as soon as you wipe them off they fly right back on.

ChrisH

[sloz1664]

Excellent first light. I saturated the life out of my first sub, it really is a sensitive camera.

I always produce new flats after every imaging session, you are 99% guaranteed no dust bunnies. 

Steve