Pointers Please

[Shelster1973]

RIght....having had a bit of blood rush, went and bought the Starlight Xpress SXVR-694 High QE Mono cam that FLO had put up in the special offers section.

Have not got any filters to go with it as yet, is just pure mono cam, so was wondering if anyone had any pointers as to how to take my 1st tentative steps in to the dark world of mono ccd imaging.

Have run the numbers through a FoV calculator and at 1x1 binning am getting a resolution of 1.17"/pixel with a FoV of 53.65' x 42.92'

Control softwar wise I have no clue, but was thinking of using any bundled software for now until I can get my head around it and also to allow the funds to build up again.

 

[Ibbo!]

first job is to get the ccd working with the SX drivers.

I know its more money but would suggest AstroArt or some other software to run the cam.

[Shelster1973]

Cheers....already have PI for my pre and post processing stuff, so a lot of Astro Art looks like it will be duplicating what I already have and be wasted money.

[Shelster1973]

May try the free trial of SGP and see how I get on with that....

[cardconvict]

I have just walked into the realms of ccd imaging and have the trius 694.

I'm using SGPRO on trial and Is brilliant, so good I will be buying it once paid at the end of the month. I have tried the camera in mono and took a few images of M81 and worked very well and cooled to -20. I have now got a filter wheel which is manual, baader filters 1.25. Went out tonight and nearly got all my set up wet hope I get out tomorrow night now.

[gnomus]

I'd also recommend SGP.

[Shelster1973]

Yeah....got the demo installed on my laptop now and am liking it very much so far

Just now need to sort out my back focus issues. ...don't have enough travel in my focuser at present but have the extension tube coming back this week as had low profile one in for my dslr

Does sgp do plate solving too or will I have to stick with astro tortilla for that?

Just need to find me a nice juicy Ha target now....may have also bought a 7nm Ha 2" filter on Friday too

[cardconvict]

Yeah SGPro does do plate solving I have played with it but not in the field ?

With the 694 you will be able to use the 1.25 Filters instead of the 2" and save yourself alot of money.

[gnomus]

3 hours ago, Shelster1973 said:

Yeah....got the demo installed on my laptop now and am liking it very much so far

Just now need to sort out my back focus issues. ...don't have enough travel in my focuser at present but have the extension tube coming back this week as had low profile one in for my dslr

Does sgp do plate solving too or will I have to stick with astro tortilla for that?

Just need to find me a nice juicy Ha target now....may have also bought a 7nm Ha 2" filter on Friday too

SGP is worth it for the plate solving alone!  

[Shelster1973]

2 hours ago, cardconvict said:

16 minutes ago, gnomus said:

SGP is worth it for the plate solving alone!  

Cool..will have a look at a few tutorials and get my head around it...

Yeah SGPro does do plate solving I have played with it but not in the field ?

With the 694 you will be able to use the 1.25 Filters instead of the 2" and save yourself alot of money.

Do you not suffer any vignetting with them?  Went for the 2" one as am using the MPCC as a nose piece and with not having filter wheel at present can simply screw this to the front of the MPCC

 

Not sure what went wrong with the quoting there.......

[cardconvict]

Nope no issues with it. I have a manual filters wheel which is close to the ccd chip anyway and I have a focal reducer, with the focal reducer I need to have 110mm gap from the focal reducer to the CCD chip.

[cardconvict]

The only 2" filter I will be buying is a hutech light pollution filter which will screw into the end of a adapter.

[Shelster1973]

Will look at getting 1.25" filters and wheel then.  Can sell on the 2" Ha to minimise the costs of getting the set, but that will be a fair few months down the line, so going to make the most of what I have at present.

Have a 2 " UHC-S/L Booster filter already, so will use that also. 

Quick aside, but if I image a traget in Ha and then in 'full mono' using the UHC filter, am I going to be able to combine these to get a false colour image?

[geordie85]

11 hours ago, Shelster1973 said:

Will look at getting 1.25" filters and wheel then.  Can sell on the 2" Ha to minimise the costs of getting the set, but that will be a fair few months down the line, so going to make the most of what I have at present.

Have a 2 " UHC-S/L Booster filter already, so will use that also. 

Quick aside, but if I image a traget in Ha and then in 'full mono' using the UHC filter, am I going to be able to combine these to get a false colour image?

When you decide to sell your Ha filter I'd be interested as long as the price is right.