Jupiter 16th April; 1st light on new AA IMX178 Hypercam

[baggywrinkle]

My 1st images grabbed on 16th April around 1 a.m. BST on my 9.25 SCT at native focal length (2350mm)

I sold on my two ZWO120 an MC and MM to help finance the AA178. They were good cameras but I wanted something cooled and with a little more resolution and the ability to do EAA.

A learning curve as the controls in Sharpcap come up differently and there are more of them for the actual camera.

The larger image was at 1x1 (no binning) and the smaller at 2x2 binning, I also learnt to make better use of the ROI (region of interest) making it smaller and upping the frame rate. I tried at the imaging full chip setting and with the 6.2mega pixel capability  the camera slowed down on frame rate...probably due to my computer not being able to keep up despite using the USB3 connection on it.

Another new control was the choice of formats, RAW8, RAW14 RGB. I chose RAW8.

Overall I am quite please. These were 2000 frame runs, stacked in Autostakkert and the sharpened in Registax using wavelets. It was nice to capture all for Galilean Moons too.

Much more to learn though....

 

[LightBucket]

Very nice, what are the strange lines on the first image, almost looks like it's been stitched from different images, if you enlarge you will see them....

but very nice nonetheless

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice first light result. The blocking effect seen in the first Jupiter image is a stacking error that sometimes occurs when too few, or hard to track alignment points have been chosen. Changing the stacking settings (AP-size, number of frames to stack) can sometimes remove these.

[Craney]

Pardon me being thick but what are  "EAA " ?

I like the look of these cams.   I have a ZWO120mc.   I have to learn how it works before dreaming of these beauties..

 

Sean

[LightBucket]

27 minutes ago, Craney said:

Pardon me being thick but what are  "EAA " ?

I like the look of these cams.   I have a ZWO120mc.   I have to learn how it works before dreaming of these beauties..

 

Sean

Electronic aided astronomy.....I think...

[laudropb]

Very nice first light.

[baggywrinkle]

Yes Electronically Aided Astronomy

1 hour ago, Craney said:

Pardon me being thick but what are  "EAA " ?

I like the look of these cams.   I have a ZWO120mc.   I have to learn how it works before dreaming of these beauties..

 

Sean

Electronically Aided Astronomy. Of course now I have bought this beasty the nights are getting lighter.......so getting to use in EAA mode it along with getting up for work is going to be a challenge.

I am impressed with the solidity of the camera overall. The fan is almost noiseless. It came well packaged too.

It was supplied with a USB3 A to B type cable but that was 1.8m cable but that was a bit short in the obsy, so I ordered a 2.7m one off Amazon.

I have not fully tried Altair's own software which can be downloaded from their website. It works very well with Sharpcap and I don't get any drop outs which I did experience with the ZWO's.

Thanks for the Stacking tip Michael, useful to know and I was puzzling about it.

Thanks to others on our wonderful website I have also solved the documentation and user manual issues I had.

ZWO do a near clone using the same imaging chip but it is not fan cooled and is about £50 cheaper.

[baggywrinkle]

Thanks for the suggestions Michael...now re processed the image with the square 'embossed' on it.

 

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Just wondered if you might have tried longer exposures (~15-30sec) of dso's with the Hypercam 178? 

Thanks

Louise

[baggywrinkle]

Waiting to get around to it...and still getting used to the camera.

[Pete Presland]

An excellent start with your new camera. The alignment box size and position is always worth experimenting with, well done for improving the image.