ASI1600mm cool

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, Astrith said:

North American Nebula re -tweaked . Its my full time occupation at the moment figuring out Photoshop , Pixinsight  et al . 30 x 30 sec subs and darks. An amazing camera. ZWO filter wheel and ZWO filters on the way.

 

Big leap in quality there! Well done!

David

[RobRob]

31 minutes ago, David_L said:

Is the design of the system simply capable of these short exposures/gain settings rather than designed  and better suited to them?

These longer subs seem to be indicating that they are just as good if not better.

As long as your subs are not clipping the available color space you are good to go. With small band filters and a F4.8 scope 15 minutes subs are not an issue...

[alexbb]

Hardly managed to acquire almost 40 minutes of Rosette in 20s subs @300 gain, -15C.

I tried initially to shoot the Horse Head and what's around Alnitak, but forgot to switch to the Ha filter. Then to properly refocus. And if the scope was above the RA axis, it would see the window frame, if I put it below, it would hit the window frame after a while when pointing that far to South. So I had to be careful about that too. Could not properly balance, tracking was giving me trails even at 20s. Nothing worked properly. I should sleep more.

Anyway, this is the Rosette nebula, close to the full moon:

[Guest]

10 hours ago, moise212 said:

Hardly managed to acquire almost 40 minutes of Rosette in 20s subs @300 gain, -15C.

I tried initially to shoot the Horse Head and what's around Alnitak, but forgot to switch to the Ha filter. Then to properly refocus. And if the scope was above the RA axis, it would see the window frame, if I put it below, it would hit the window frame after a while when pointing that far to South. So I had to be careful about that too. Could not properly balance, tracking was giving me trails even at 20s. Nothing worked properly. I should sleep more.

Anyway, this is the Rosette nebula, close to the full moon:

 

I''m impressed you perservered under such a wide range of issues challenging you - Well done!

You've gone for much shorter subs and higher gain with this one - results look good - but why did you alter your approach from 900s? Was it just to overcome the balance issues etc?

David

 

[alexbb]

1 hour ago, David_L said:

I''m impressed you perservered under such a wide range of issues challenging you - Well done!

You've gone for much shorter subs and higher gain with this one - results look good - but why did you alter your approach from 900s? Was it just to overcome the balance issues etc?

David

 

Definitely I was going to try the camera no matter what issues I encountered. Wouldn't you test drive your new car even that arrived today even if it's raining and you're cold and you got a parking ticket just the day before?

I didn't alter my approach of 900s, I think I didn't ever try exposures longer than 600. @RobRob did that on his Veil complex and showed some posts before. And yes, unfortunately, I couldn't push the exposures longer since I was getting elongated stars. I should probably get motivated and go somewhere outside and bear the cold. And at least get a pier extension for balcony "imaging". Some of you can at least chop the trees that are blocking the view

[The storm fisherman]

Santa paid me a visit today and left me with a rather nice little present but before i can use it i have wait for the mount to come back from a service and a  tune up.

[Allinthehead]

Here are a couple of my latest images with this camera.

M45 90*60 second subs at gain 0 and offset 10 with lum filter for highest dynamic range.

 

 

California 8 hrs of 120 second subs at gain 300 and offset 15 with ha filter

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

Here are a couple of my latest images with this camera

California 8 hrs of 120 second subs at gain 300 and offset 15 with ha filter

 

 

 

 

 

That has got to be one of my favourite shots of the California Nebula - an object that is often overlooked - really well done!

David

 

[Allinthehead]

55 minutes ago, David_L said:

That has got to be one of my favourite shots of the California Nebula - an object that is often overlooked - really well done!

 

Thanks Dave.

[ngwillym]

Also took delivery of a 1600MM-Cool +filter wheel and filter, but the elves have taken it away.

i will have to be very good for a few more days yet.

and of course my apologies for contributing to the cloud next week

Neil

[Andyb90]

I  setup last night with the Esprit 100 and asi1600. I started taking 1 second subs but struggled to find a star for focusing. I then realised I had the Ha filter in place. Oh dear. Switched to L and was then fine.

I'd previously had some issues centering on a target with sgpro,  but that seemed to work okay last night. I got centered on the Rosette and started a sequence of 60s Ha subs with 300 gain. Got about 6 subs in then lost the guide star due to cloud. Then after 10 minutes the sequence recovered but I only got 3 subs before thicker cloud set in. Hopefully I'll get chance to try again on Monday as the forecast looks promising.

One thing I'm unsure of is what impact the offset setting has. I left it at 21. Is it best to lower it when using a higher gain?

Also I had my sx usb wheel connected to the back of the camera, but not the guide camera. Has anyone connected both wheel and guide camera to the 1600?  Does it work okay?

I think I could do with a longer usb 3 cable too. Will have a look for a 3m one.

Andy.

[Astrith]

ASI 1600 mono cool . 200 x 10 sec subs no darks or bias . Skywatcher 150P Star Discovery  scope. I LOVE this camera. 

[RobRob]

On 13-12-2016 at 20:48, RobRob said:

11 hours ago, Andyb90 said:

Also I had my sx usb wheel connected to the back of the camera, but not the guide camera. Has anyone connected both wheel and guide camera to the 1600?  Does it work okay?

I have a guide camera icw the ASI1600mm but I have the guide camera between the scope and filterwheel so it not guiding through a filter...

 

[Owmuchonomy]

On 9/16/2016 at 11:54, Gina said:

I haven't been able to get SharpCap to take a series of captures either   Pity because in other respects this is good software.  Regarding APT I tried increasing the pause between shots and it had no effect - the pause just seems to take place after the file download from the camera.    Why is it that no software seems to do all you want from it!!!???     I have yet to find anything that will work as I want it.  Even oaCapture that James has produced and mostly very good fails to work with exposures over 2s - he is working on it but not yet found a solution.

 

Hi Gina, what capture software did you settle on for longer exposures?  I have made JamesF aware of the oaCapture issues but I wonder what folks are using successfully for longer times?

[Gina]

APT.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Owmuchonomy said:

Hi Gina, what capture software did you settle on for longer exposures?  I have made JamesF aware of the oaCapture issues but I wonder what folks are using successfully for longer times?

Just a note that Nebulosity 4.0 has worked flawlessly for me so far with 30 and 60 sec. exposures as well as 5 to 15 minutes.

David

[Andyb90]

Tried out the camera properly on boxing night as it was completely clear. Guiding was pretty poor so had to throw out a lot of subs, but managed to get some results. These are my first mono images.

First target was the Pleiades  - Lum, 14 x 60 sec, -25c, gain 300

Then had a go at the Rosette - Ha, 120sec x 10, gain 300, -25c

Very pleased for such short integration times. I'm really looking for to experimenting more with the camera and will be upgrading my mount very soon so guiding should improve :-)

Andy.

[Guest]

That Rosette is fanstastic - I'd try dropping the gain to 139 (unity ? ) to tone down the highlights 

Really good shot!

David

 

[Andyb90]

20 hours ago, David_L said:

That Rosette is fanstastic - I'd try dropping the gain to 139 (unity ? ) to tone down the highlights 

Really good shot!

Thanks, will try dropping the gain and maybe go for 90sec exposures to further reduce the effects of poor guiding. Thats one of the things I like about this camera you can experiment with different gain settings as well as exposure to see what works best.

I also need to calibrate the Rosette image with at least darks. My current set of darks are for different gain settings. Would have done flats too, but had to rack in the focuser when packing up.

Andy.

[ngwillym]

Just like Andy - I went for M45 for first light.

However, I was just trying to see how well my EQ8 is aligned and what length of exposure I can get without trailing in my little Travelscope 70, so I started at 1 sec (gain 400) and worked up to 30 secs - had to lower the gain at 30secs.

This is a stack of 30 subs @15 secs.

Even better news is that the first and last of the 30sec subs are still aligned and show no sign of trailing - so I can ramp up to 120sec or more :-)

Then we'll have some fun bolting it on to the 127mm APO and attempt some LRGB

Neil

[Guest]

.

[alexbb]

Happy new year!

I managed to pull out these 2 images during 2 nights, 30th and 1st. The HH is just a little over 1h and the Rosette close to 2 hours. 1 minute subs @ 300 gain, 50 offset, -15C, binned 2x2. 300mm with the Tair 3s lens. Got something misaligned so I didn't go full resolution. I could also go for longer subs, but as I already started with 1 minute, I don't know if I should bother with HDR stacking or how else to include the already gathered data so probably I will stay with 1 minute for these targets. That is.. if the skies stay clear. And I should have stretch less the data.

Alex

PS. It seems that it just passed an year since my first attempt at astrophotography. On 26, more precisely.

[Guest]

17 hours ago, moise212 said:

Happy new year!

I managed to pull out these 2 images during 2 nights, 30th and 1st. The HH is just a little over 1h and the Rosette close to 2 hours. 1 minute subs @ 300 gain, 50 offset, -15C, binned 2x2. 300mm with the Tair 3s lens. Got something misaligned so I didn't go full resolution. I could also go for longer subs, but as I already started with 1 minute, I don't know if I should bother with HDR stacking or how else to include the already gathered data so probably I will stay with 1 minute for these targets. That is.. if the skies stay clear. And I should have stretch less the data.

Alex

PS. It seems that it just passed an year since my first attempt at astrophotography. On 26, more precisely.

 

 

Hi Alex

Longer subs with this camera are quite useful - 5 to 10 minute subs at unity gain seem to be getting fantastic results (have a look at the ZWO Facebook page if you're a member)

I know there was a lot of guidance at the beginning saying that it suited many very short subs but experience doesn't seem to be bearing that out?

Here's my shot of the Horsehead with 5 minute subs at unity gain - saves on processing time and space on the hard drive :-)

I don't see any reason to go for short subs with this camera unless you're not guiding -:-)

David

 

 

[alexbb]

Indeed, David, nice result you have and I should have gone longer subs. I can't start again now longer subs and discard the ones I acquired until now and I'm not very impressed by the HDR approach of the DSS so I have to stick to 1 minute subs so I can still use the ones I have. Unfortunately I'm limited to less than 1 hour/night for the Orion area. Even this way I have to do some tricks to be able to point in that area. Maybe sometime in March, April when it'll be warmer outside.

Meanwhile, I gathered some more subs and processed them until I'm shooting more on the Rosette.

Here's the IC434:

[alexbb]

And the Rosette, almost 3 hours now. Same 1 minute subs.