Just unboxed my new camera - Moravian G-4

[ChrisLX200]

Arrived today one new Moravian G4 16000 (16803) camera, plus 7-pos filterwheel, Ethernet adapter, and set of Chroma 3nM filters. I just have to figure out a way of attaching it to my scope (may need to machine an adapter of some sort, and also a tilt-plate might be useful).

ChrisH

[jaspalchadha]

Thanks quite big

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Stu]

Crikey, that looks like a serious piece of kit!! Look forward to the first results.

[ChrisLX200]

Oh yeah, big - and fairly heavy too! Needs a good focuser to cope with it. I may need to machine a tilt-plate to adjust orthoganality but that's no problem, but I will check to see how i looks first.

ChrisH

[Guest]

You will love the CCD, MORAVIAN is a VERY good CCD manufactorer.. and the service is also GREAT. ( in any case ). I have the G2-8300M

Cheers

Martin

[JamesF]

It certainly is a monster.

James

[Horwig]

That is some beast, how far west do you think the cloud cover will extend?

Looking forwards to some results.

Huw

[ChrisLX200]

That is some beast, how far west do you think the cloud cover will extend?

Looking forwards to some results.

Huw

Cloud in Cheshire usually comes from your direction, so you'll get it first :-)

ChrisH

[ultranova]

Good luck with your new bit of kit

Looks the biz

Paul

[brendant]

An awesome camera, welcome to the MI club.

Brendan.

[davew]

I'm very pleased to see it's arrived.

I notice you've bought the mini ethernet too. From what I hear it's a good piece of kit.

I can recommend you at least give the software a run out. I've got used to Maxim over the years but the Moravian capture software works very well.

Have fun,

Dave.

PS. It will be nice to know what you think about the filters after the Astrodons

[ChrisLX200]

I'm very pleased to see it's arrived.

I notice you've bought the mini ethernet too. From what I hear it's a good piece of kit.

I can recommend you at least give the software a run out. I've got used to Maxim over the years but the Moravian capture software works very well.

Have fun,

Dave.

PS. It will be nice to know what you think about the filters after the Astrodons

The mini-ethernet I finally sorted out with a new IP address, the default 192.168.0.5 was already occupied so it wouldn't connect and yet you have to access the built-in web server to change the settings. A direct connection (PC to mini-ethernet unit) didn't seem to work either for some reason. Anyway, done it now. I'll be using the camera with SGPro but I installed SIPS just to look at. Next job is loading the filters into the wheel and configuring that. All good fun :-)

ChrisH

[ChrisLX200]

Well the camera has been running over night and will be running all day today collecting a library of dark frames. I'm using -20degC which requires 80% power on the cooler (this at indoor ambient temperatures, so a delta-T of perhaps -42 degC). The frames are pretty clean, no column defects, a few hot pixels but generally I would say much cleaner than I expected. For the 7-pos filterwheel they supply 3 sets of screws and one set of rubber washers, some combination of which is used to hold the 50mm square filters in place within the carousel. Pity they don't tell you which screws you're supposed to use! So I installed the filters using 3mm cap-head screws (the rubber washers were in the same bag as those screws) only to discover the carousel would not turn when assembled. So I had to swap them all for some countersunk screws (from another bag) but using the same rubber washers. Now the carousel rotates as it should but in the process added a fair amount of dust. It's difficult (if not impossible) to install the filters without getting _some_ dust in there but I was hoping to minimise it, I'll be needing to take flats anyway.

The ethernet adapter is working fine, it offers 4 USB ports to handle 4 cameras concurrently but in my case with a single camera I don't think the remaining 3 USB ports can be used for anything else. The adapter has an embedded computer + SSD hard disk and is not just a simple USB>ethernet converter, the camera quickly dumps the image data to the adapter then gets on with the next frame while the adpater transfers the data (as I understand it anyway).

I'm using SIPS to capture my darks at the moment, it's a bit clunky and reminiscent of AstroArt in many ways. Whilst it appears competant I don't think I want to use it as a substitute for SGPro, so that will be my next job - integrating it with that.

ChrisH

[MartinB]

Very interested to hear how you get on Chris. As for focusing, how about one of these bad boys http://www.clementfocuser.com/bellerophoniii.html

[ChrisLX200]

Very interested to hear how you get on Chris. As for focusing, how about one of these bad boys http://www.clementfocuser.com/bellerophoniii.html

I've seen that design before, in fact I seem to remember the prototype many years ago (back in my LX200 days...) and the designer was promoting its virtues. I didn't know it is now a product that can be bought. However, I suspect I'll end up either with a FLI Atlas or a very robust R&P focuser. The FLI is very stiff but only has 3/8" total movement so needs a long extension tube (but it's expensive!).

ChrisH

[MartinB]

I first came across the Bellepheron in and article in which Neil Fleming was singing it's praises. He'd upgraded from the R+P focuser on his FSQ!!!

Who was your supplier Chris?

[ChrisLX200]

I first came across the Bellepheron in and article in which Neil Fleming was singing it's praises. He'd upgraded from the R+P focuser on his FSQ!!!

Who was your supplier Chris?

For the camera + filters it was Bernard @ Modern Astronomy.

ChrisH