Atik 16ic

[stefski]

Hi All,

After looking at what some of you guys achieve, I thought I'd give the 'dark art' a go and bought one of these babies from FLO.

I've downloaded the software, plugged in the camera, with the cap on, and did a short exposure - just to see if it all works. I was expecting a black image (as the cap was on). I had allowed some time for the camera to cool down. However, I was quite surprised with how much noise there was. Basically, even a 0.1s exposure looked like an untuned tv screen, with a thick white stripe two thirds of a way to the right. Admittedly, increasing the exposure time didn't make the image much worse.

Is this normal????

When I have my WATEC astrovid camera set to a 10sec exposure with the cap on, the screen is black except fro a few hot pixels.

Was the atik camera just not cold enough? (I did run this set of exposures for 30 mins).

Any ideas?

Stef

[roundycat]

I have one and a short exposure with the cap on should be black but it depends to a large extent on how much your software is stretching the picture. It's a small chip and will cool down in a few minutes.

Dennis

[Parallax]

I would agree with Dennis. If you are using the Atik supplied capture s/w then there is a check box marked "Auto Stretch". Uncheck that and the next exposure should be black.

Steve

[stefski]

Thanks guys:)....I've done that and you're absolutely right!

Cheers,

Stef