ASI1600mm cool

[ollypenrice]

On 20/05/2016 at 03:32, iwols said:

just looking at the asi 1600 colour cooled,would love more reviews though

Surely a shame to impose the Bayer Matrix on yourself? Mono lets you shoot and blend in Ha which transforms many targets and can be done in moonlight? I also insist tha mono LRGB is faster than OSC and you don't shoot twice as much green as you want or need. (The Bayer matrix is not RGB but RGGB.)

300/1200 usually means 300 aperture and 1200 focal length.

The really key thing about these cameras is the low read noise which means that the advantage of fewer and longer subs is negated. However, I wouldn't over estimate a 'lucky imaging' effect when subs are thirty seconds long or so. The moments of good seeing tend to be sub second in planetary imaging.

Olly

[Tiny Small]

10 hours ago, geordie85 said:

I just don't like how noisy the 383L is. 

Get more subs. The more you stack, the more the noise will even out and disappear. 

[Gina]

Have to say, I too am liking the larger sensor and higher resolution of the ASI1600MM-Cool after the 460EX mono.  I am having to adjust my way of working to take care of the much greater amount of data from the ZWO camera.

[Zakalwe]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Surely a shame to impose the Bayer Matrix on yourself? Mono lets you shoot and blend in Ha which transforms many targets and can be done in moonlight?

^^This^^
These cameras seem to sing in narrowband so I'm not sure why you'd inflict OSC on yourself. Especially as you already have the filterwheel and filters.

[brrttpaul]

just got in opened my laptop, its a lenovo thinkpad x201 windows 7, i will google it now see if i can find out what usb

EDIT usb 2 it is

[SkyBound]

7 minutes ago, brrttpaul said:

just got in opened my laptop, its a lenovo thinkpad x201 windows 7, i will google it now see if i can find out what usb

EDIT usb 2 it is

I used to have one of those, a few years old but superb laptops, mine had the core 2 duo processor, plenty fast enough...  

[brrttpaul]

the only tyhing i keep on it is astronomy based, maxim CDC etc as i only paid £100 refurb so dont want to fill it with junk but i hate the touchpad prefer a mouse but it only has 3 usb ports I was thinking of getting a hub but would it bring problems. at the moment everythings running fine my eqmod etc dont want to risk the port not found syndrome again

[SkyBound]

1 hour ago, brrttpaul said:

the only tyhing i keep on it is astronomy based, maxim CDC etc as i only paid £100 refurb so dont want to fill it with junk but i hate the touchpad prefer a mouse but it only has 3 usb ports I was thinking of getting a hub but would it bring problems. at the moment everythings running fine my eqmod etc dont want to risk the port not found syndrome again

You can get docking stations for them, that have extra USB ports, DVD drive, serial port, network port...and a few more, that's what I had but mine was set up permenantly in my warm room.. so did not have to be portable

[brrttpaul]

i was just going over the various posts on the zwo again, the one thing i noticed (or missed) i havnt seen maxim useed with it, I presume it can though ? as thats what I have been using and starting to get along with it so dont really want to change anyone tried this with maxim?

[Sp@ce_d]

On 17/10/2016 at 22:49, geordie85 said:

I just don't like how noisy the 383L is. Also been thinking of putting it up for trade for another atik camera that has a Sony sensor plus cash.

I've managed a few decent photos but feel I'm loosing signal/ detail in the noise reduction process.

Are you dithering?.. a must with this chip.

[Demonperformer]

11 hours ago, brrttpaul said:

i was just going over the various posts on the zwo again, the one thing i noticed (or missed) i havnt seen maxim useed with it, I presume it can though ? as thats what I have been using and starting to get along with it so dont really want to change anyone tried this with maxim?

final paragraph says it can be used as an autoguider with maxim, so would guess you are safe with it as the main camera.

[Sp@ce_d]

11 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

final paragraph says it can be used as an autoguider with maxim, so would guess you are safe with it as the main camera.

Yeah I was wondering too.. a quick Googles threw up some using Maxim with the Ascom driver for it.. dunno if there's a dedicated but that should do. I switched over to the Ascom driver for my Atiks in Maxim after they broke temperature reporting for the native one..

[Allinthehead]

My zwo filter wheel has arrived and tonight looks like it might be clear to try it out. I also had a 5 nm astrodon ha filter delivered on Tuesday but it has a scratch on it. I decided to visit their website and found this " All Astrodon filters are inspected several times before shipping.  They are shipped from Astrodon without flaws. "

I find this to be an incredibly odd thing to have on a website as clearly this is untrue. It had a little sticker on the side of the case saying that the filter had been checked. 

Has anybody else experienced issues with their filters. I assume i can't use mine as it would affect the image? It's dissapointing but i have the zwo optimised rgb set for tonight.

[Allinthehead]

So testing with the filter wheel i managed 45 minutes in 30 second subs. Does anyone know why my stars are egg shaped? Would it be space between the reducer and the sensor? I have an 80ed and matching .85 ff and reducer.

[Andyb90]

That looks like it could be a spacing issue. The stars look round in the centre but distorted at the edges. Have a look at this thread. The diagrams at the bottom of the page show patterns when spacing is too long or too short.

Andy

[Allinthehead]

21 hours ago, Andyb90 said:

That looks like it could be a spacing issue. The stars look round in the centre but distorted at the edges. Have a look at this thread. The diagrams at the bottom of the page show patterns when spacing is too long or too short.

Andy

Stars sorted. You're a legend. It's 55mm from the ff/reducer to camera sensor. 

[Andyb90]

21 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

Stars sorted. You're a legend. It's 55mm from the ff/reducer to camera sensor. 

Glad that info was of help I have the thread bookmarked and saved the images :-)

Andy

[Guest]

Hi ASI1600 owners :-)

Has anyone gotten focus using the Altair PLANOSTAR 3" Field flattener and a Altair 115mm refractor

I can't get it racked in enough to focus

Thanks for any help

David

ps. tried all the adapters the camera came with :-(

[cosmojaydee]

3 hours ago, David_L said:

Hi ASI1600 owners :-)

Has anyone gotten focus using the Altair PLANOSTAR 3" Field flattener and a Altair 115mm refractor

I can't get it racked in enough to focus

Thanks for any help

David

ps. tried all the adapters the camera came with :-(

this may help, if you have checked your spacing I apologise HTH

[cosmojaydee]

This is direct from Altair " The optional Altair PLANOSTAR 3" Field Flattener for astro-imaging (PLANOS-3.1.0-M48): This optional, dedicated large format field flattener is available separately with this telescope package for use with CCD imaging chips. The large format 3" field flattener screws into the rear of the focuser by means of a special adapter (PLANOS-3-1.0-M48-RP25-ADAPT) which replaces the rear self-centering adapter. These threaded connections reduce flex in the imaging train, resulting in tighter star images, and sharper images. A conical rear adapter with an M48 rear thread is included with the flattener, and the correct spacing for Nikon or Canon EOS DSLR cameras can be obtained with the special Altair Astro low profile Canon DLSR adapter (M48DSLR-EOS), or the standard Skywatcher Nikon M48 DSLR adapter. If you have a CCD camera, our variable M48 spacers can be used to get the right distance to the CDD chip. (See associated products for the Altair Planostar 3" field flattener). 

The optional Altair Planostar 0.79x 3" Reducer Field Flattener (PLANOS-3-0.79X-M48) converts your Wave Series telescope into a fast F5.5 focal ratio astrograph. It attaches directly to the focuser when the 2" self centering assembly is unscrewed, and no adapter is required. (See associated products).

[Guest]

7 hours ago, cosmojaydee said:

This is direct from Altair " The optional Altair PLANOSTAR 3" Field Flattener for astro-imaging (PLANOS-3.1.0-M48): This optional, dedicated large format field flattener is available separately with this telescope package for use with CCD imaging chips. The large format 3" field flattener screws into the rear of the focuser by means of a special adapter (PLANOS-3-1.0-M48-RP25-ADAPT) which replaces the rear self-centering adapter. These threaded connections reduce flex in the imaging train, resulting in tighter star images, and sharper images. A conical rear adapter with an M48 rear thread is included with the flattener, and the correct spacing for Nikon or Canon EOS DSLR cameras can be obtained with the special Altair Astro low profile Canon DLSR adapter (M48DSLR-EOS), or the standard Skywatcher Nikon M48 DSLR adapter. If you have a CCD camera, our variable M48 spacers can be used to get the right distance to the CDD chip. (See associated products for the Altair Planostar 3" field flattener). 

The optional Altair Planostar 0.79x 3" Reducer Field Flattener (PLANOS-3-0.79X-M48) converts your Wave Series telescope into a fast F5.5 focal ratio astrograph. It attaches directly to the focuser when the 2" self centering assembly is unscrewed, and no adapter is required. (See associated products).

Thanks for the info - that is really helpful as I'd forgotten about that diagram with the measurements in it.

Also the description of the optional spacers for the flattener pointed me in the right direction

One of the problems I'll have is stepping down from the thread diameter of the flattener (male) to the thread diameter of the filter wheel (female)

Thanks again

David

[Gina]

I think you'll find FLO have M48 to T2 adapters.

[DaveS]

Seriously thinking of this to go on my 80mm f/4.4 astrograph, and possibly the Meg 90 / FR. The pixel size looks a good match (2.2" / pixel), it's light, and with the ZWO filter wheel I *may* just about get away with my 1.25" filter set. FLO says no vignetting to f/5, so I'm wondering how much there'd be at f/4.4. Some, obviously, the question is, how much, and can flats take it out without trashing the image?

Anyone using 1.25" Astrodon filters in the ZWO wheel? The thought of a set of 31mm 3nm Astrodons is a bit frightening .

[Gina]

Yes, I'm using 1.25" 3nm Astrodon filters in the ZWO filter wheel and also right down to f2.5 and even f1.8 though the latter produces distortion around the edges.  Not surprising as Astrodon say their filters are only usable down to f3 - f2.5 seems alright.  There is slight vignetting but this is easily corrected with flats.

[DaveS]

Thanks Gina.

Oh dear, I fear for my poor (And getting poorer!) credit card.