ASI1600mm cool

[SkyBound]

6 minutes ago, Gina said:

I think it depends on the DSO.  Where there are star forming areas producing Ha I like to add Ha to RGB.  TBH, I've never found LRGB and better than RGB but for a faint object you might want to bin 2x2 for RGB and then unbinned L could be useful.  This is based on CCD imaging - things might be different for the new ZWO CMOS cameras - these seem very different from CCD in their characteristics which I'm looking forward to exploring

Am I correct in saying that with a colour cam I would not be able to bin 2x2 ....?

so I would not be able to do that, so there is one con I guess.....

 

[Jokehoba]

On 27/08/2016 at 19:04, Zakalwe said:

I got a first chance to mount mine last night. No chance of doing any imaging as the cloud cover was about 95%!

I found the connection very flaky, with both SGP and Nebulosity constantly losing connection (actually, it would hang and report "downloading" constantly). I was connecting via a USB3 powered hub. I swapped it over to a USB2 powered hub and this improved things. Still not perfect though. Anyone else experiencing this?

I'm using FireCapture 2.5beta and APT 3.00 with this camera. I've had no problem whatsoever with FireCapture but APT does suffer the 'BUSY'/continuous image downloading issue (requiring a close/reopen of the program). This issue only seems to occur if I'm pushing APT too much, i.e., using LiveView, the focus aid and magnifier tools all at the same time in order to get real-time focusing. I always used this method without a problem with the 1100D. During normal plan execution it's absolutely fine.

My work-around is to first to use FireCapture to achieve focus. FireCapture has excellent zooming available and, unlike APT, it's possible to modify the ASI1600's settings while still capturing an image.

I'm sure it is all related to the USB download limit. Not yet tried playing with this setting yet, generally keeping it at the minimum.

[Gina]

I use SharpCap for lining up and focussing - same principle though.  I've found APT occasionally hangs but I think it's better now than a few years ago when I was using a DSLR.

[MattJenko]

A matched colour and mono for LRGB would be good for some targets, although you would have too much Green data relative to the R+B. If you bin a colour camera it basically turns into a less sensitive mono camera. The thought of trying to get 2 scopes aligned and taking images at the same gives me nightmares just thinking about it though.

[nightster]

I am seriously debating selling my 460 and picking up one of these. I've had such a problem getting subs longer then 600s that were not starting to trail but this camera may make that a moot point. Taking that idea a bit further, is it possible that this camera and others like it that follow could change the market for mounts. I mean if you don't need 10-30 minute rock solid tracking anymore why would you need a premium mount? 

[wimvb]

2 hours ago, SkyBound said:

if money was no object, would having a mono and a colour version of the same, for example the ASI1600 camera, be just as good as a mono camera and filter wheel and LRGB filters,

On the zwo website I noticed that their rgb filters are designed to exclude the sodium and mercury lines between green and red. This gives an advantage for the mono with filters, in high LP areas. The colour model would need a LP filter.

[Beeko]

Any news on how well this camera works with sequence generator pro. I had heard there had been issues but that this might be resolved?

[MattJenko]

11 hours ago, nightster said:

I am seriously debating selling my 460 and picking up one of these. I've had such a problem getting subs longer then 600s that were not starting to trail but this camera may make that a moot point. Taking that idea a bit further, is it possible that this camera and others like it that follow could change the market for mounts. I mean if you don't need 10-30 minute rock solid tracking anymore why would you need a premium mount? 

I sold my SX 694 to buy this. I don't regret it. Bigger field of view, smaller pixels so better resolution with my short FL scope and nice clean frames with short exposures. It really does seem to deliver on the specs, although I have to admit that faint narrowband does push it out of its comfort zone.

[MattJenko]

7 hours ago, Beeko said:

Any news on how well this camera works with sequence generator pro. I had heard there had been issues but that this might be resolved?

I use it with SGP and have found what seems like random intermittent connectivity issues at times, but I seem to get that with all my USB devices at the moment. It is not trouble free, but I haven't found anything terminal yet.

[topgearuk]

There seems a lot of buzz round this little camera, like many I'm close to pushing the button, it's in my cart. This is going to be a big leap in to the unknown for me coming from a Dslr.. Any advice on suitable filter wheel and reasonable filter sets? 

[alexbb]

14 hours ago, Jokehoba said:

I'm using FireCapture 2.5beta and APT 3.00 with this camera. I've had no problem whatsoever with FireCapture but APT does suffer the 'BUSY'/continuous image downloading issue (requiring a close/reopen of the program). This issue only seems to occur if I'm pushing APT too much, i.e., using LiveView, the focus aid and magnifier tools all at the same time in order to get real-time focusing. I always used this method without a problem with the 1100D. During normal plan execution it's absolutely fine.

My work-around is to first to use FireCapture to achieve focus. FireCapture has excellent zooming available and, unlike APT, it's possible to modify the ASI1600's settings while still capturing an image.

I'm sure it is all related to the USB download limit. Not yet tried playing with this setting yet, generally keeping it at the minimum.

Not very on topic, but you might find this helpful for ASI and APT. I found out that before shooting images on bulb, shoot 1-2 frames on a short exposure (1-2s), but not on bulb + time. The BUSY problem goes away and the download works normal after. At least this worked for me with an ASI 120.

Alex

[Guest]

Well, after two days of reading I finally got my image processed - probably totally incorrectly as I'm not sure I applied the luminance correctly.

I'm really happy with the initial results though (10x60sec LRGB, 70 gain, offset 10) and had a lot of fun processing it in Pixinsight (of course the easiest part is cutting out the object and pasting it to a random starfield from my files.....har har har!)

I didn't alter the colour balance outside of PI ColourCalibration

No darks were used in the making of this image - see below

I have a question on processing I wasn't clear on and an error I encountered if someone can help

1. Processing: do you take the RGB and L linear prior to combining them in PI? It appeared to imply I should, and I did. I did a quick basic stretch on both and then combined in PI

2. I couldn't get the darks to integrate using the batch preprocess tool. Whenever I used them it made the resulting image completely black and white (white dots of stars on a black background) and so I didn't use darks

I posted some comments on my blog too if you're interested. I have another set of data to process on the Elephant Trunk and Garnet Star area. I chose that for the combination of a bright star and faint nebulosity to see how the camera reacts/behaves etc.

Clear sky here tonight I think :-)

[Owmuchonomy]

I really like that.  The framing is almost spot on and the depth to the image is there.  You could probably tease more out.  Don't ask me, I prefer Solar System imaging which takes a fraction of the time you DSO folks put in.  Excellent effort.

[Jokehoba]

1 hour ago, moise212 said:

Not very on topic, but you might find this helpful for ASI and APT. I found out that before shooting images on bulb, shoot 1-2 frames on a short exposure (1-2s), but not on bulb + time. The BUSY problem goes away and the download works normal after. At least this worked for me with an ASI 120.

Alex

Happy to try anything to avoid frustration during an imaging session. 

[Guest]

I reprocessed the image from the beginning making sure to do most of the post processing before combining the L channel and running the LinearFit process on them before combining - it looks like I preserved more colour and reduced noise as I didn't have to stretch it so much?

[Gina]

4 hours ago, topgearuk said:

There seems a lot of buzz round this little camera, like many I'm close to pushing the button, it's in my cart. This is going to be a big leap in to the unknown for me coming from a Dslr.. Any advice on suitable filter wheel and reasonable filter sets? 

This camera will work perfectly well with 1.25" filters in a filter wheel provided the distance from filter to camera is kept small.  eg. I have an Atik EFW2 which takes 9 1.25" screw-in filters with the camera directly attached using the adapter filter ring and the supplied gender changer on the camera.  The Asahi Pentax old film SLR camera lens is attached to the FW with a short adapter and easily reaches focus on the image sensor.  It also works fine with the FW attached to scopes in the usual way.  This provides a superb widefield imaging rig.  FOV is about 7x5 degrees with 135mm lens.

After a DSLR the ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool camera will "blow you away"!  It is extremely sensitive and has very low noise when cooled.  Cooling only works down to about freezing point with a DSLR I found but these cameras, although also with CMOS sensors, are completely different and cooling down to -23°C (about the lowest I have achieved consistently on these warm nights) removes most of the noise even at high gain settings.

As for filters, I have Astrodon narrowband filters which aren't cheap but I believe them to be the best available and needing only 1.25" ones the cost is far less than for the bigger ones.  You may find the cheaper Baader filters adequate if funds are limited.  The production quality of Baader filters is very good but they are slightly wider bandwidth which means the stars come out bigger and brighter compared with the DSO.  For LRGB, I find Baader filters fine but I haven't yet tried them with this camera.

[Guest]

Regarding filters - I'm using ZWO's 1.25 set with their manual filter wheel

I'm sure at £73 for 4 there must be a catch :-) in quality? Don't know - seem to be working ok for me so far

David

[Gina]

Here is my latest imaging run with this camera and the 135mm f2.5 Super Takumar lens and Ha filter.  More North American and Pelican Nebulae imaging.  30s subs with 35 of 71 stacked in DSS (it's still choosing about half the total), rotated 180° to put it the usual way up and histogram stretched in Photoshop.  No other processing.  This is the full size and full resolution image which took me 5m to upload but will allow anyone to see the full size version in all its detail.

This is Lights only - no Darks or Flats.

[trev27]

On 8/25/2016 at 12:53, Jokehoba said:

Managed to get a few hours O3 to add to the Ha posted earlier. Still not had time to fully process - too impatient to see the result! Combined as LRGB-style, HaO3O3 (Image17) and as blended channels (Image7). 

 

 

That is fantastic Jokehoba. Loving this camera as well.

[trev27]

Top notch service as usual Steve   Thank you

Ditto to that! Flo are excellent - fast shipping and great service 

Been playing around with mine as well. Arrived mid-June and we've had a whopping 10 hours or so of clear sky spread over nights. Sadly most subs taken were messed up by passing clouds.

One thing I've found necessary was to purchase a eyepiece anti-dew band.  At -15C I've found that after around 1.5 hours the front window will fog up due to the moisture in the air in the extension between the filter wheel and the window.  Have seen this reported by someone on CN also. Haven't received the band yet but it should work. It's been an odd summer over here with a relative humidity hovering over 90%-95% on those nights. Luckily I managed to pick up a Digifire 10 for a good price.

Gina, I see you are trying -25C - have you found much benefit noise-wise compared to a higher temp.

Here's one attempt. Unity gain, guided with phd, captured with APT and processed with PI and the latest PS CC. 180 second subs in HA and OII. Could not get RGB info before the clouds came in. I think it was 8xHA and 7xOIII. Surprised this much information came out. Forgive the star colours, so much still to learn in PixInsight!

Megrez 90FD with the Hotech flattener. Have found this combination much much better than when using the William Optics .8x FF/FR (horribly distored stars).

Trev

[trev27]

4 hours ago, Gina said:

Here is my latest imaging run with this camera and the 135mm f2.5 Super Takumar lens and Ha filter.  More North American and Pelican Nebulae imaging.  30s subs with 35 of 71 stacked in DSS (it's still choosing about half the total), rotated 180° to put it the usual way up and histogram stretched in Photoshop.  No other processing.  This is the full size and full resolution image which took me 5m to upload but will allow anyone to see the full size version in all its detail.

This is Lights only - no Darks or Flats.

 

Uber fanstastic. Thanks for sharing Gina. I've been planning the same shot with a Canon 135 F2 once I get my adaptor.  Not sure my Baader HA will handle that speed so may try it from a dark site with RGB filters as I have no idea how to get my IDAS into the optical train.

[Gina]

Thanks Trev

I've found going as low as possible with the cooling temperature definitely helps.  I'm using very high gain of 500 odd and just 30s exposures to avoid guiding.

[Guest]

I've used a gain of 70 for my 60sec subs - should I go higher? Is unity gain 139?

 

 

[trev27]

Thanks Gina. Makes sense.

 

21 minutes ago, David_L said:

I've used a gain of 70 for my 60sec subs - should I go higher? Is unity gain 139?

 

 

Yep, 139 is unity. Higher isn't necessarily better though - low noise at 70. I've seen alot of the CN guys using that setting.

[Gina]

Well, I like to use a high gain setting and cool the camera to reduce the noise - I believe in getting as much as possible out of my equipment and this camera just gives!   I just can't believe how good it is compared with the Atik 460EX mono CCD cameras that I've been using in the past!!   I thought the 460EX was the "bees knees" but I really love this new ZWO