atik 314l+ mono from ebay

[valefor]

just a random one. ive just brought one and took delivery of it today. im use to seeing these red cameras on flo so i was quite supprised when i opened the box to find it was pink.

is this a normal colour fade that happens on the cases of these cameras or is this not as advertised? it has the correct sticker on the back and seems to work fine. not that ive had first light yet.

sorry if im just being paranoid or stupid. its my first ccd after finally taking the plunge from dslr imaging.

one more thing. device manager in win7 detected it as a 314l. doesnt say 314l+ but the sticker on the camera does

 

dave

[tomato]

Hi Dave,

I have seen some well used Atik cameras displaying that sort of shade of colour, I'm sure others on SGL will be along to confirm this.

I had a 314+ OSC, which I've recently sold, I think the difference is you can set the cooling temperature rather always have full cooling. 

You should see this in the Artemis capture software.

Clear Skies

Steve

[valefor]

Hi Steve

i was just playing with those settings so it does have the cooling settings. well thats a load off. i must admit tho it wasnt what i expected out of the box. i trust these things do just fit direct to a 2" focuser and i dont need anything else to fit it to my ed80?

looking forward to having a play next time we have clear skies. (some point next year i asume). lol

ive got a bunch of filters. rgb ha and o3. not brought the s2 yet and filter wheel is in the pipeline.

dave

[Davey-T]

Don't worry about it mine has faded to pale pink, still works fine.

Here's a pic of 2 Atiks 314L+ at the bottom

Dave

[tomato]

It should come with a 1.25" screw in adapter, I have a 2" focuser on my scope so I bought some 2" extension tubes to attach the camera. 

I have just moved to mono plus filters so like you have this to look forward to.

[valefor]

wow Dave. thanks for the pic but just looking at that is tripping me up. haha. thats a lot of cables. 

Steve. no it didnt come with the adapter. but i do have a few things like that kicking around. maybe my one from my t ring mite fit. il give it a go in a sec.

i cant wait for it. mite have a mono go at first just to play around. also mite take my time and save up for a efw as i have a obsy that im hoping to make remotely controlled in the future.

 

[Davey-T]

Mine shows as Atik 314L in device manager.

Dave

[valefor]

Oh thats great. thanks guys. im feeling a lot more comfortable now. and my adapter from my t ring fits it perfectly. im on a role. 

now i think im going to have a play with some software trials and see what i fancy. but thank for putting my mind at rest. 

and now for the steep learning curve. i can feel my headache starting already. haha.

dave

[Davey-T]

Use the Atik capture software for umm capturing.

Did it come with a CD disc ? if it did don't use it, download the latest Atik core software from their site.

Dave

[valefor]

3 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Use the Atik capture software for umm capturing.

Did it come with a CD disc ? if it did don't use it, download the latest Atik core software from their site.

Dave

ooo i actually pre-empted you on that one. yes it did come with the disc but i went to atik for the latest software and drivers. already had a small play with atremis. seems like a fairly straight forward bit of software. (he says hoping).

what do you guys use to stack the images? ive been using dss and ps for years but are things like maxim dl and/or nebulosity superior?

[Davey-T]

Ah the slippery slope of astro imaging spending is looming 

I tried DSS  but didn't get great results, I use Maxim but it's too expensive unless you use it as a one program does all, which it will but I don't use it for processing, I use P'Shop for that.

I'd try a few demo versions of stuff to see what suits you, there's a new one out called Astro Pixel Processor that's worth a try.

Dave

[geordie85]

1 hour ago, valefor said:

ooo i actually pre-empted you on that one. yes it did come with the disc but i went to atik for the latest software and drivers. already had a small play with atremis. seems like a fairly straight forward bit of software. (he says hoping).

 

Atremis is very straightforward, that's why I like it. Simple and easy to use.

I use dss for stacking and PS for processing but I've been looking I to Astro art for stacking, just need some spare pennies first. 

 

[tomato]

Yes a +1 for Artemis capture, nice and straightforward to use. 

Although seemingly not much used, I calibrated and stacked my OSC subs with Atik Dawn, worked every time.

[carastro]

Quote

 i trust these things do just fit direct to a 2" focuser and i dont need anything else to fit it to my ed80?

looking forward to having a play next time we have clear skies. (some point next year i asume). lol

ive got a bunch of filters. rgb ha and o3. not brought the s2 yet and filter wheel is in the pipeline.

Did you get a Luminance filter to go with your RGB filters?  You'll need that for better detail.

The 1.25" nosepiece will go into the 1.25" drawtube just fine, however to avoid coma you'll find you'll need either a field flattener or focal reducer, just as you did for your DSLR which will convert it to 2" nosepiece.  You can hopefully use the same one if the threads match.  

Once you get the filterwheel it should screw directly to the camera and you'll end up with a 2" nosepiece on the scope side of the FW onto which you can fit the FF/FR.  I have only ever use Brightstar and Atik FWs but if you get a different brand, make sure it will fit the Atik camera (Maybe they all do, I have no experience of other brands).  

Anyway, for a practice run, you can certainly use the Atik314L with the 1.25" nosepiece.  Lovely camera I have one and it's one of my treasured possessions.

I used DSS for stacking to start with, but now use Astroart which is much quicker and seems to work better. 

Carole 

 

 

[valefor]

I was having a play in the obsy last night and true enough my fr/ff did also fit the atik. My rgb set did come with a fourth filter but wasnt sure what it is. Il need to check. Astroart looks good. Bit pricy but il put it on the maybe pile. Next purchase efw and maybe a L filter 

[Merlin66]

Compared with other programs, AstroArt gives great bang per buck and will control any camera you have (as well as guiding). Allows you to stack and process.

I use it with my Lodestar, QHY5ii, ATiK16ic, and ATiK 314L for spectroscopy.

Highly recommended.

[carastro]

Quote

My rgb set did come with a fourth filter but wasnt sure what it is. Il need to check. Astroart looks good. Bit pricy but il put it on the maybe pile. Next purchase efw and maybe a L filter 

I am sure you'll find that the 4th filter is Luminance, they normally come as a set, but as you only mentioned RGB I thought maybe you'd bought a set without the luminance.  

To start with you can use the software that comes with the Atik Camera, Atik's own software = Artemis, this will save you having to buy anything else at this stage.  It's very straight forward and personally I love it.  Many people find it too simple and like software that does a lot more such as plate solve, dithering (actually the latest version of Artemis does dither).  But this will be more than adequate until you have saved some more pennies, I use it all the time as I like simple.

Carole 

[spillage]

Hi

Sorry to jump in but I have been offered the same camera. Can anyone suggest a really low cost filter wheel for one? For now a manual one should be fine.

@valef How are you finding the camera?

Cheers

Spill.

[valefor]

I haven't had a chance to test it yet. Sky is a bit light here this time of year. But will test it in a few weeks. If your only after a manual filter wheel both skywatcher and zwo do a reasonably priced one. Im looking for an electronic one as im automating my setup. 

 

Carole thanks for that. Yeah im sure it is an L filter. But will check. Im looking forward to learning more as i use the software over the next few weeks. Summer solstice is a killer here. Hopefully it will go dark soon. Gives me time to source a filter wheel. Haha

Dave

[peroni]

On 29/06/2017 at 15:30, spillage said:

Can anyone suggest a really low cost filter wheel for one? For now a manual one should be fine.

FLO recommended I use this Celestron 5 filter wheel https://www.firstlightoptics.com/filter-wheels/celestron-skyris-5-position-125-filter-wheel.html 

it was not the cheapest at £85 vs £67. But I didn't need to buy extra spacers. Double  check the space you need between the scope eyepiece and camera chip. I think it's called back focus.

I use it with my atik 460ex. 

[ollypenrice]

Pink is good! We have five Atiks here and the oldest and pinkest is the most famous, with a fair old collection of APODs and podiums in international comps. Nothing to do with me, it's Tom O'Donoghue's camera!

lly

[valefor]

so had my first light last night. used my ed80 for the first time in a long time as i favour the 150mak with my dslr. first thing is i realised that i had forgot the ed80 is out of colomation and was going to get it done when i brought a new focuser that still has not happened. but hey hoo.

the first suprise was the 314 didnt come to focus without the use of a diagonal. (glad ive recently tightened up the stock focuser on the ed80 to take the weight.) but still suprised about the lack of back focus. even with a reducer. and focusing without live view is not fun by any means. but hey hoo again. lol

so got it alligned and found my targets relatively easy. m57 and m13 and was shocked how blocky the stars were. and that artimus capture insisted on saving files at fitts not tiffs. oh well.

turns out the blocky stars were mainly down to my low res monitor that i was using. the old thing only does 1024/768 so i was glad when i checked the files on my laptop the following morning it wasnt so bad.

no filter wheel as of yet but these are my images. both are around 21 minutes each. 2x10mins and 1x1min. no binning as this made the blocky stars into megablocks (other brands are available)

please forgive the tracking errors as i forgot to rebalance after adding the diagonal. all in all. much more sencitive than my 600d. tho i do miss the colour. (hurry up filter wheel)

 

equipment: skywatcher ed80 heq5pro qhy5 finderguider, artimus capture and stacked in dss brightness corrected in ps6

m13.tif

ring1.tif

[Gazabone]

2017-04-21 Gareth M51.TIF2017-04-21 Gareth M51.TIFI bought a 314L from eBay several weeks ago and it works beautifully. Here's my first 2 attempts with it, both taken through a Meade 80mm apo 

[valefor]

hi gareth. your stars look about the same as mine. did you use a filter wheel or did you get the colour 314? did you use software to make the star spikes? did you also use artimus to capture?

dave

[Gazabone]

On 13/07/2017 at 13:10, valefor said:

hi gareth. your stars look about the same as mine. did you use a filter wheel or did you get the colour 314? did you use software to make the star spikes? did you also use artimus to capture?

dave

Hi Dave,

It is a mono camera and I used a manual filter wheel which I bought ages ago on eBay for £55. I am toying with getting an electronic wheel as the wheel I'm using "rotated" a bit when I was changing filters on the attached M27 which made processing a little more awkward. 

I used Artemis capture software for capture, DSS for stacking and Photoshop CS6 for processing. A friend of mine put in the spikes afterwards with a bit of software he has. 

I find that the subs have to be near perfect to get Dawn software to work well. Mind you, I'm very new to all of this so I'm probably not being fair to Dawn!