First Light ATIK460 - Something is not right (Anti- Blooming?)

[3ggman]

 This is 10 x 600s exp in Lum. A pretty good result except for the blooming/Spikes on two stars. It's a refractor setup, that has had the same image train for two different cameras, (An atik4000 & SXV H9) I have never seen anything like this on either of those two cameras which leaves me to believe that it's a fault in the camera, which is less than a month old.

Unfortunately the weather looks like it's going to be bad for a while, so no chance of another test anytime soon.

Any body any ides what could be causing this.

This one (below) does look more like reflections.

[ollypenrice]

The one in the lower left is orientated parallel with the long side of the chip. I'd have expected an electronic issue to give vertical artefacts. However, seen really close up on a full size sub is it absolutely horizontal? It doesn't look it to me on here. The other one is surely optical. Since one is clearly optical why not the other? I'd suspect a little dewing somewhere. This doesn't look like any camera artefact I've ever come across - but I'm sure there are plenty out there that I've yet to meet!

Olly

[3ggman]

I don't think it was dewing, I was only out for a little over two hours in total and everything was as dry as a bone when taking the equipment in, there is also no change what so ever across all the subs. I took everything apart today just to have a look and everything is spotless.

You are right though Ollie, it is not absolutely horizontal, which would rule out an electronics problem (which was my main concern really) and yes "if one is optical why not the other"

 It looks like I may get a chance tonight to do another test, I will run through all filters to see if there is any change and take it from there, maybe a few subs with no filter or flattener to rule out camera or filters.

[Uranium235]

Definitely not blooming spikes or anything to do with the camera.

Point it at a bunch of bright stars (M45 will do), and try shooting without a corrector, see if its still there. If you can, pop another camera on it to see if you get the same issue.

[NickK]

Blooming would follow the bleed channel.

Have you tried shooting a bright star with an UV/IR filter in - it could be that the CCD is different in it's sensitivity that the camera previously used.

[3ggman]

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to get back out yet. I will try it until I find the culprit, I am using astronomik LRGB filters just fyi. 

 To me they are just strange artifacts as they are so definite where as most reflections etc tend to be more scattered. Although the second cropped image, to me has two different things effecting the star.

[3ggman]

So i took everything apart again last night, tightened everything up, made sure everything was square going back together and it seems to have solved the problem.  I would love to know what exactly caused it, however I am not going to waste my time trying to find out now that it is fixed.

Thanks for the input and help guys.

1 Hour on M45 in Lum.

[Gina]

That's better

[3ggman]

Thanks Gina, yeah it's a lot better. Gotta say that I am really pleased with the camera. Really looking forward to seeing what it can do.

[Gina]

You'll love it, it's a great camera   I think it's probabably the most sensitive and lowest noise camera available.

[Uranium235]

Seems better now. Sometimes all it needs is taking apart and putting back together, my 80ED did some odd things once but I did exactly as you did (just took it apart) and it magically went away.

So its now passed what I call the "bright star test", because if a telescope cant handle that, its not worth having (from an imaging perpective).