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Atik 383L+

FLO

By FLO
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Neil27

Neil27

Posted
Posted

No problem Steve.

James has emailed me and we have (breifly) discussed the supply of the camera. I believe there may be one spare, if so I'd like it please. I'll contact you later regardiing payment, at work (:)) at the moment and telephone signal is rubbish!

Thanks for the response.

Neil.

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Neil27

Neil27

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Camera arrived, just had it powered up, connected to the pc, cooling at default setting +5 degrees, everything works a treat....one happy bunny......:)

One question Steve, any chance you do the mains power adapter for the camera? I have a power tank but its unreliable so would prefer to power it off a proper mains adapter. I've checked the atik and flo website and don't see any reference to any?

Thanks, Neil.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Any more news on the delivery of these please?

Pretty keen on getting one if any are availble. At this price its a steal.

Agreed. We have so many Atiks already that I have no hope of justifying one of these but I dearly wish that it were otherwise! I hope you get your snappers on one and tell us about it.

Olly

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Neil27

Neil27

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Agreed. We have so many Atiks already that I have no hope of justifying one of these but I dearly wish that it were otherwise! I hope you get your snappers on one and tell us about it.

Olly

Another one won't be noticed Olly.....:mad:

Powered up and very happy with it so far. Just got to crack this focusing lark, jeez what a pain. Canon live view spoils you...:)

Hope to have some test images over the weekend.....:icon_scratch:

By the way, lovely place you have down in France, any chance I can bring my tak and pentax to play for a free week....:)

Neil.

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adamsp123

adamsp123

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Camera arrived, just had it powered up, connected to the pc, cooling at default setting +5 degrees, everything works a treat....one happy bunny......:)

One question Steve, any chance you do the mains power adapter for the camera? I have a power tank but its unreliable so would prefer to power it off a proper mains adapter. I've checked the atik and flo website and don't see any reference to any?

Thanks, Neil.

I bought a decent mains to 12V DC with cigarette lighter socket for mine, plus it powers my 12V dew control straps, works a treat.

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FLO

FLO

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One question Steve, any chance you do the mains power adapter for the camera? I have a power tank but its unreliable so would prefer to power it off a proper mains adapter. I've checked the atik and flo website and don't see any reference to any?

Any well-made 12-volt (11-13.8v) regulated or switch-mode power supply capable of around 3-amp will do nicely. We use and recommend the XM21X series from Maplins, though you would also need a cig' plug adapter. Be careful not to accidentally reverse the polarity(!) We did look into offering one ourselves but were unable to source one of sufficient quality at a competitive price.

For reference, the power-lead supplied with the Atik 383L plus has a regular 5/2.1mm centre-tip-positive plug.

Hope that helps,

Steve

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Neil27

Neil27

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Yes mate, I have used the atik software, but as I only got it on Wednesday and took a few sample images, I've not really tried in anger yet!

Must say the software is very easy to use, so just need dark clear nights now....:)

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NickH

NickH

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cant you focus with the atik software? i use it an achieve focus in a matter of minutes

Takes a matter of seconds with the 314L... that's the point...

Focus is just more fiddly

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Lars

Lars

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Question from a CCD-photography wannabe here:

I've been shooting with a Canon 450 for 2 years but am now on the waiting list for an Atik383 which will be my first CCD.

As already was mentioned, Live-view makes it very easy to focus with the Canon camera, but what is it that makes the 383 difficult to focus compared to the 314L?

Is it possible to use a Live-view feature with the 314L but not with the 383 so the extra time is because of the amount of subframes needed for focusing?

Regards

Lars

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Neil27

Neil27

Posted
Posted
Question from a CCD-photography wannabe here:

I've been shooting with a Canon 450 for 2 years but am now on the waiting list for an Atik383 which will be my first CCD.

As already was mentioned, Live-view makes it very easy to focus with the Canon camera, but what is it that makes the 383 difficult to focus compared to the 314L?

Is it possible to use a Live-view feature with the 314L but not with the 383 so the extra time is because of the amount of subframes needed for focusing?

Regards

Lars

Hi Lars my situation is exactly like yours. I image with a canon 450d and found focusing with live view very easy.

There is no 'live view' type feature with the atik. What you do (or can do with the supplied software) is take very short, but looped exposures of the star and as they are downloaded, you look at the laptop screen and make adjustments to the focuser.

The good news is I went out last night at about 10.30 and within half an hour of switching everything on had pretty good focus. So not as difficult as I had thought. I even managed a few 4 minute subs before the clouds rolled in, so my opinion is it's not THAT hard but is more fiddly.

Hope that helps.

Neil.

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NickH

NickH

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Thank you...that was my point..

It's more fiddly...shutter against no shutter...end of story!

Plus read time etc (bigger frame)...

It's all swings and roundabouts, as the extra FOV for me is the best bit..

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RobH

RobH

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What are the focusing problems chaps. Obviously it is to do with the shutter, but I'd like to hear some details as this camera is one I'm seriously considering.

I use robofocus and focusmax....would this work with it? I tend to use a 5th or 6th mag star when focusing so the exposures are around a second or so.

Also, has anyone had dewing problems and is the open circuitry causing any issues.

1 1/4 inch filters......how much vignetting?

Cheers

Rob

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Lars

Lars

Posted
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Thanks Neil and Nick. I think I've got the picture...:)

I saw in the specs that it is possible to use a 100x100 pixel subframe for focusing. I guess that's what you meant when you wrote about looping and downloading a picture.

Does the looping work like in for example PHD guiding or are the pictures saved on the harddrive?

Regards

Lars

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Neil27

Neil27

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I've managed to focus quite quickly last night, from going down to the observatory and switching everything on, within half an hour I was up and running with pretty good focus achieved, a lot better than I thought. The software supplied is very easy to use.

In answer to your questions Lars, the pictures are downloaded in the 'loop' function and are not saved unless you want them to be. You can also 'zoom' in onto a specific area/star and that helps even more with focusing.

I've a few sample pictures, m51 and m3 both are 4 minute subs with no image manipulation other than a light stretch of the histogram.

My only concern is the 'swirl' mark and several dots on the image. Any ideas guys? Dirt on the camera/scope? Will this be an issue or can the use of bias, flats etc get rid of it? I've blown the m3 image to show up the swirls and dots!

post-15843-133877456512_thumb.jpg

post-15843-13387745652_thumb.jpg

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RobH

RobH

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Hello Niel.

The marks are dirt. The small ones will be dust grains on the glass in front of the chip, and the large mark may well be a finger mark in this position too.

If the large mark isn't there, thenit's on the filter.

The smaller the mark (for dust etc) the closer to the chip.

The swirl looks quite clear, so will also be close to the chip.

Cheers

Rob

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adamsp123

adamsp123

Posted
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As per my other thread, focusing with a Bahtinov mask is easy, my problem it seems is keeping the draw tube from slipping. Hopefully I will get clear skies tonight for some testing. At the mo I have started taking Darks 4mins at -20C for a darks library.

I hope there are no dewing issues, that would not be good.

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NickH

NickH

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Rob, it's the read time (preview mode helps), and sub frame option also helps... compared to the live view pretty much on the 314L...but you get such a monster FOV (and binning works like a charm at 2x2 to up the sensitivity as it's NOT as sensitive as the 285 based cams)...

It's a keeper for sure, but also if you can, keep the 285!

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