ASI1600mm cool

[Gina]

Top notch service as usual Steve   Thank you

[Andyb90]

I was waiting for the USB hub. Have just ordered. It will be my first dedicated astro camera.

I've gone for the SX USB filter wheel and Baader 36mm filters (Ha, Oii,  LRGB). 

Andy.

[FLO]

17 minutes ago, Andyb90 said:

I was waiting for the USB hub. Have just ordered. It will be my first dedicated astro camera.

Thank-you  

We only noticed our ZWO ASI1600MM Cool stock had an integrated USB hub when dispatching Gina's order.  In theory all our ZWO ASI1600MM Cool will have the same from here onwards but we will check every one prior to dispatch, to be sure. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[FLO]

22 hours ago, FLO said:

In theory all our ZWO ASI1600MM Cool will have the same from here onwards but we will check every one prior to dispatch, to be sure. 

We can confirm all our 1600MM-Cooled now have the integrated USB hub. 

It will be a while longer before we have the MC-Cooled model with the hub but that too is in the pipeline... 

[MattJenko]

I have the gift of timing. Slipped past the 10% discount, caught the Brexit pound slide reprice and beat the integrated hub. Good job I don't care

[nightster]

ZWO keeps adding products and features at a blistering pace. Just another reason I want to try this camera.

[Gina]

I have my first test image with the ASI1600MM-Cool on the Esprit 80ED pointing out of the living room window.  This is without any filter though the EFW2 is in the optical path as is the OAG.  This gives the right distance for the field flattener for the Esprit.  Software is SharpCap and this is a screenshot of the Preview screen.  There is around 20% cropping as the camera resolution is too much for the laptop screen.  There is also loss of resolution due to uploading here.  The camera cooling is OFF as I'm using USB power only.

[Gina]

Moon images.  Or to be more precise - screenshots of FreeView showing the Preview image in SharpCap and APT.  I'll sort out a sub from APT and post that shortly - after converting FITS to TIFF, resizing and saving in PNG.

[Gina]

Here is a section of the moon still resized a bit to fit the upload criteria, saved in PNG format.  This was focussed by hand so a sharper image may be possible.  I also overexposed it - APT doesn't have auto-exposure.  Also this is one sub and stacking a number would probably also result in a better image.

[MattJenko]

Here is an Ha image while the moon was out last night. Only stretched with histogram and a small curves tweak.

5min subs, 35 of them. Using a TS60 scope at 260mm focal length. I still have some spacing issues as the edges are not right, but it is not the cameras fault!

 

[Gina]

That's nice   I'm hoping to try DSO imaging tonight with my SW Esprit 80ED Pro - that's 400mm FL @ f5.

[MattJenko]

Gina - did you try doing sub frames when looking at the moon, or just full sized? Am interested to see if this could double up as a decent USB3 planetary cam, using a smaller region of interest. Would really make this camera a decent all rounder. Might try it out at some point, but now I have got it set up for DSO, am loath to fiddle with it...

[Gina]

I guess you mean ROI - Region Of Interest - no I didn't think of that last night, I'm afraid.  Just went for full frames.  I see no reason why you shouldn't do ROI though and use it for planetary.

[Jokehoba]

Getting to grips with my new ZWO ASI1600MM...very different to what I'm used to. Up to now I've solely used a DSLR and been quite pleased with the NB results. But here's a comparison of Ha, both taken at nearly full Moon (1100D last month, ZWO last night). Both have been calibrated and stretched but otherwise no further processing. I think I'm going to like the ZWO .

There does seem to be a bit of amp glow on the right-hand side of the ZWO image. What's the best way to combat this?

John

[swag72]

The best way to combat amp glow is using calibration frames.... in this case darks should take out the amp glow.

[Jokehoba]

7 minutes ago, swag72 said:

The best way to combat amp glow is using calibration frames.... in this case darks should take out the amp glow.

Thanks Sara. I'll review my processing. The glow is evident in the lights and the darks I used.

[wimvb]

3 hours ago, Jokehoba said:

Getting to grips with my new ZWO ASI1600MM...very different to what I'm used to. Up to now I've solely used a DSLR and been quite pleased with the NB results. But here's a comparison of Ha, both taken at nearly full Moon (1100D last month, ZWO last night). Both have been calibrated and stretched but otherwise no further processing. I think I'm going to like the ZWO .

There does seem to be a bit of amp glow on the right-hand side of the ZWO image. What's the best way to combat this?

John

 

 

I like this comparison. From what I've read on the ZWO forum, amp glow calibrates out quite easily using darks, as Sara suggested.

Can you provide image details: single frame or stack, exposure time (ISO for the DSLR), etc?

I wish I could afford one ...

[Jokehoba]

Hi @wimvb. I'm going to re-do my darks to see what difference that will make.

Upper image is with the ASI1600MM - 8" SCT at F6.3, binned 1x1, 160mins (32 x 300s) cooled to -10C and using the 'highest dynamic range' setting on the ZWO.

Lower image, Canon 1100D - 8" SCT at F6.3, ISO800, 205mins (41 x 300s) cooled to 5C

Both are using a Baader 2" 7nm Ha filter.

John

[MattJenko]

I get the same glow, as can be seen in my Ha image above. will try out calibration frames - only taken some flats so far.

[wimvb]

That's a good comparison of the two cameras.

Besides the lower noise, the ZWO also has much tighter stars. CMOS is coming of age.

[Andyb90]

I read some posts on CN a while back about an ASCOM driver update that reportedly removed some of the amp glow.

The version was reported to be v1.0.2.5. What version is everyone using?

I see on the zwo website the latest version is v1.0.2.13

Andy.

[wimvb]

The smaller sensor cameras suffered more from amp glow. Late last year, ZWO reported that they were fixing this problem. I believe that part of that fix was in software, i.e. the dirvers. But they were also working on a hardware fix. My guess is that the new cameras will have this fix in place.

[Jokehoba]

49 minutes ago, Andyb90 said:

I read some posts on CN a while back about an ASCOM driver update that reportedly removed some of the amp glow.

The version was reported to be v1.0.2.5. What version is everyone using?

I see on the zwo website the latest version is v1.0.2.13

Andy.

Now this has got me scratching my head ... I downloaded and installed the latest ZWO ASCOM driver - ASICamera ASCOM Setup V1.0.2.13.exe - yet Windows reports I'm using 1.0.0.3 from 2014! Is this Windows 10 trying to be clever? I'm imaging as I type so won't update the driver until tomorrow. Is this my amp glow problem?

[Jokehoba]

2 hours ago, MattJenko said:

I get the same glow, as can be seen in my Ha image above. will try out calibration frames - only taken some flats so far.

@MattJenko   Maybe your driver has reverted?

[Gina]

I can't see any amp glow in my images so far.  Here are two single subs from last night.  First is 120s exposure and second is 60s exposure.  Histogram stretched in Photoshop and reduced in size by about 4x for upload here.  PNG format.  Cooled to -25°C.  Scope was SW Esprit 80 ED Pro with EFW2 and 1.25" Astrodon 5nm Ha filter.  Have to say, this camera is looking very impressive.