Placidus
15-02-2018, 07:32 PM
Approximately four months ago, our Apogee Aspen CG16M started to develop ice crystals on the sensor. This was covered by a lifetime warranty.
We sent the camera to Andor in Belfast, UK, who now own Apogee. They took almost three months to repair the chamber seal.
To us, this seems at best cruelly leisurely, and at worst punitively cynical.
The whole experience has left us with a very bad taste in our mouth, and we cannot recommend Apogee to anyone.
We bolted the repaired camera back onto the scope, and found the parked position pointing straight at M42. That seemed an auspicious omen.
Great Orion Nebula (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-qzVRbGD/0/f364c3eb/O/M42%20H-alpha%202%20hrs.jpg)
Repaired Apogee Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave CDK. 8 off 15 minute exposures, plus a few ragtag 10 and 20 second exposures of the core. A little wavelet sharpening only.
This is not our best work, and we don't expect to be told it is good, but it is a tremendous (if bitter-sweet) relief to be back in the saddle.
For what it's worth, you can see not just the four main stars of the Trapezium, but the next two brightest are clearly visible.
The generator fans died during the night, the generator overheaded and turned itself off, so we only got 45 minutes of matching darks. No flats were used, as we will need a whole new set and we're not emotionally up to it right now.
We sent the camera to Andor in Belfast, UK, who now own Apogee. They took almost three months to repair the chamber seal.
To us, this seems at best cruelly leisurely, and at worst punitively cynical.
The whole experience has left us with a very bad taste in our mouth, and we cannot recommend Apogee to anyone.
We bolted the repaired camera back onto the scope, and found the parked position pointing straight at M42. That seemed an auspicious omen.
Great Orion Nebula (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-qzVRbGD/0/f364c3eb/O/M42%20H-alpha%202%20hrs.jpg)
Repaired Apogee Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave CDK. 8 off 15 minute exposures, plus a few ragtag 10 and 20 second exposures of the core. A little wavelet sharpening only.
This is not our best work, and we don't expect to be told it is good, but it is a tremendous (if bitter-sweet) relief to be back in the saddle.
For what it's worth, you can see not just the four main stars of the Trapezium, but the next two brightest are clearly visible.
The generator fans died during the night, the generator overheaded and turned itself off, so we only got 45 minutes of matching darks. No flats were used, as we will need a whole new set and we're not emotionally up to it right now.