ZWO ASI 183MC-PRO USB 3.0 Cooled Colour Camera

[Tim star]

Took this camera out for the first time last night. I normally use an Atik 460EX with filter wheel on an Equinox 80 and am happy with the results. I was interested in trying a OSC CMOS and was encouraged by the idea of short exposures and less imaging time for those nights when I don't have much time or that is imposed by clouds coming in.

I focussed in daylight (massive backfocus requiring the tube right out or a 50cm extender) on some trees. I usually use SG Pro and was surprised to see monochrome but understand this is because the data is raw and has to be debayered. Fair enough, so changed to Sharpcap. Focussed OK but a bit bemused by the fact that although there was blue sky the trees were grey. No changes in settings seemed to bring out the green. 

At night I tried imaging NGC 7000 but no sign of the nebula even with a 240s sub. Stars looked fine and in correct pattern for the nebula but no red in the image. I thought with this camera you could quickly get an impression of the target with auto stacking and align it but no joy here. I did get reasonable images of M31 and realised the value of paying the £10 to upgrade Sharpcap to Pro since the white and colour balance could now be adjusted to get rid of the terrible green.

Any advice? To be honest I am a bit discouraged at present and am thinking of returning the camera.

Tim  

 

 

[Adam J]

2 hours ago, Tim star said:

Took this camera out for the first time last night. I normally use an Atik 460EX with filter wheel on an Equinox 80 and am happy with the results. I was interested in trying a OSC CMOS and was encouraged by the idea of short exposures and less imaging time for those nights when I don't have much time or that is imposed by clouds coming in.

I focussed in daylight (massive backfocus requiring the tube right out or a 50cm extender) on some trees. I usually use SG Pro and was surprised to see monochrome but understand this is because the data is raw and has to be debayered. Fair enough, so changed to Sharpcap. Focussed OK but a bit bemused by the fact that although there was blue sky the trees were grey. No changes in settings seemed to bring out the green. 

At night I tried imaging NGC 7000 but no sign of the nebula even with a 240s sub. Stars looked fine and in correct pattern for the nebula but no red in the image. I thought with this camera you could quickly get an impression of the target with auto stacking and align it but no joy here. I did get reasonable images of M31 and realised the value of paying the £10 to upgrade Sharpcap to Pro since the white and colour balance could now be adjusted to get rid of the terrible green.

Any advice? To be honest I am a bit discouraged at present and am thinking of returning the camera.

Tim  

 

 

I would expect the Atik 460EX mono to be significantly more sensitive than a IMX183 OSC camera. So if that is what you are used to then I am sorry to say that I doubt you will be impressed by the new camera. People seem to think CCD is dead but its just not the case. The camera has its uses but its not a direct replacement for your 460EX mono when it comes to DSO imaging in my opinion. 

However, I would have thought that you would see the nebula! NGC7000 is very bright perticually 'The Wall' section. 

Are you using the correct bayer pattern? RGGB?

Are you 100% sure your imaging the correct area??

How is your light pollution are you using a filter?

Can you post a image? 

Adam 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Adam J

[fwm891]

I have an asi294MC Pro but when using auto stack in SharpCap all I see is stars with no hint of back nebulosity. I use SG Pro for capture, while the image is mono on screen it does show nebulosity with same sub lengths. Tend to use SharpCap for alignment early on with a bridght sky to pick out, centre and sync to the summer triangle stars which sets me up for tight goto's later in SGPro.