ASI1600MM some measurements

[andrew s]

Prior to using my ASI1600MM - cool I decided to check its performance. I am happy to say it performs as expected.

I share the results just to show how quick and easy it is. For the first set of measurements you just need two each of Bias, Darks and Flats. Then following this http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/isis/noise/result.htm you I got with gain set at 200, Offset 50

Gain 0.029 e/ADU (16 bit) or 0.468 e/ADU (12 bit)

RON 1.4 e

Offset 599 16 bit ADU

Dark current 0.0086 e/s

All as expected. You don't have to use ISIS you can do the calculations in Excel if you have an image-processing package to measure the mean and STD of the frames

I then took 8 each of Darks and Flats to cover the range of exposure times and ADU values I would be using to check for linearity.  Averaging them and plotting in Excel

gave

 

Which look fine so I am happy that I can get good quality data from the camera. The error bars is the expected shot noise for the averaged frames.

It is also worth keeping a check to see if the camera drifts with time.

It is so easy to do I would urge everyone to test their expensive cameras.

Regards Andrew

[MarsG76]

CMOS is definitely the future of astro imaging. Perhaps sCMOS.. 95% QE even better.

[Demonperformer]

Good to know it working as anticipated, Andrew. Will have to have a look through that link when I have more time.

[andrew s]

33 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

CMOS is definitely the future of astro imaging.

Certainly given he price performance and where the manufactures are putting their development monies. The only area where they lack our typical CCDs is with amp glow. If they crack that it will be wonderful.

On 12 bit v 16 bit AD conversion Christien Buil comments here http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/atik_vs_zwo/ " For the very popular CCD camera ATIK 460EX, the measured electronic gain is 0.274 e-/ADU, the RON is 5.5 e- and digital coding is on 16 bits, so the true dynamic is 11.67 bits… CMOS technologie is not so ridiculous !"

Regards Andrew

[George 47]

Sharpcap has an automatic routine to do a lot of this for you.