Vertical bands in image

[astroman001]

Hi Guys,

Since switching from my trusted DMK21 CCD camera to the ASI120MM, I have been getting vertical banding in the image. This stripey noise is visible on the PC screen during live view and capture and seems to be independent of what is being imaged.

Any ideas how to get rid of it??

Best regards

Peter

[theo]

This looks like sensor noise Peter. It's seems quite common with the ASI120MM cameras and Cmos sensors. I returned my first ASI120MM because of this exact issue and the replacement was much better so demonstrated variance from cam to cam. I now see this sometimes with my ASI120MM-S and am just in the midst of processing some captures where I am getting these vertical lines. It really is annoying and quite difficult to remove. Flat frames and dark frame calibration is worth a go as I have had some success with this. Also check you have the latest drivers installed. Other than that you could try reducing the gain during capture as this lessens the noise output but at the expense of some frame rate of course. You could also try getting a replacement as I did but there is a risk of seeing the same issue with another camera. I hope ZWO realise that this is a problem for quite a few users and come up with a solution Asap.

Pete

[astroman001]

Hi Pete

Thanks. That's depressing. I will speak to the supplier.

Could it be electrical noise from the mains? The bands look stationary on the screen almost like looking through a dirty window with Jupiter outside!

Peter

[theo]

I doubt it's electrical noise from the mains power. As I mentioned my ASI120MM is totally free of this problem but not so the ASI120MM-S. When shooting the Lunar surface with the S camera there isn't a problem as gain settings tend to be lower. I only see it on Jupiter so far where gain is around 80% in order to achieve a reasonable frame rate and keeping a healthy histogram. It's worth having a look on the support forum for ZWO as there are a few posts on there relating to this problem.

Pete