ASI1600M Cooled + TS60ED

[MattJenko]

I wanted a small and portable widefield imaging rig. Think I might have found one. Focal length: 260mm, field of view 3.9 x 2.8 degrees. 3"/pixel.

Teleskop Express Photoline 60ED.

TS x0.79 reducer

ASI1600MM Cooled.

[MattJenko]

Narrowband was a bit of a struggle, but it is doable, and all this in just 2 panels to give you an idea of the capability of little rigs!

[Gina]

Beautiful

[RobertI]

Superb images Matt. An amazing little scope. I think you hit on the perfect pocket imaging setup with this scope and the star adventurer!

[Alien 13]

Great images, I have noticed quite a following for the ASI1600 cooled camera is this the end for CCD?

Alan

[MattJenko]

Not sure about the end, but certainly there are viable alternatives now. CMOS has taken over from CCD in nearly all other application spaces, but astronomy has stuck with them for a long while. For good reason too as they work, but interesting times indeed.

[MattJenko]

2 hours ago, RobertI said:

Superb images Matt. An amazing little scope. I think you hit on the perfect pocket imaging setup with this scope and the star adventurer!

I have to admit the images above are on an AzEQ6. Now I know the camera/scope can deliver, the finder guider has now been replaced with a mere finder and the experiment moves to the StarAdventurer and hundreds of unguided 30 second LRGB subs. My laptop won't know what is going to hit it in the next few months  

[Chris]

beautiful images Matt, I will be very keen to see how you get on with lots of 30sec subs. I have a good feeling about it as I'm sure I've seen folk on CN using thousands of 1 seconds subs even with great results. The more evidence the better and if short subs do indeed work well it opens the doors wide open for AZ mount users. I think this would be the case as doesn't fie;d rotation get stacked out?  

[Gina]

I'm thinking my CCD cameras may become redundant.  I too am using 30s subs ATM and getting very impressive results.  Particularly using high gain.  This is certainly an amazing camera

[MattJenko]

40 minutes ago, Gina said:

I'm thinking my CCD cameras may become redundant.  I too am using 30s subs ATM and getting very impressive results.  Particularly using high gain.  This is certainly an amazing camera

I haven't really played about with the gain much. Will have a little tinker. I am hoping to have it all running nicely for my trip to Kelling at the end of the month. Will be nice to not have to ram the car to the rafters with equipment

[MattJenko]

1 hour ago, Chris Lock said:

 I have a good feeling about it as I'm sure I've seen folk on CN using thousands of 1 seconds subs even with great results. The more evidence the better and if short subs do indeed work well it opens the doors wide open for AZ mount users. I think this would be the case as doesn't fie;d rotation get stacked out?  

Yes I have seen a lucky DSO image as well, which looked remarkable. Think they went for 1 sec frame video and AutoStakkert and treated it like full on planetary imaging. I haven't had the balls to risk a clear night doing that yet

As for field rotation, I think a decent image registration routine should handle it, although I guess it would require a bigger crop than dithered EQ stacks would.