Well, My ST8300 Arrived today at 11 am.. I've had some fun getting it all fitted up to the CFW etc.. To my surprise, the FLI CFW and SBIG Camera did not burst into flames when I touched them together!
Driver install is done, and I've had a quick play with it, in a 28.7 degree room the camera cooled to -10c in less than a minute and is sitting at -10c now on 81% cooler load... within spec..
Its running a 5 minute dark now at -10c, and I will post that up soon..
The camera is a lot smaller than I'd imagined it to be.. and actually looks very nice indeed..
There will be pics of the setup and a dark frame image or two later today...
I dare say first light is not going to be today.... The clouds are thicker today than they've been all week..
Heres the 300s dark, resized down to fit on the forums, and stretched fairly heavily..
There is a slight gradient, this is likely my fault, as the camera is sitting face down on a coffee table, and not exactly what I'd call "Dark"
The fan is quite a lot quieter than some of my previous cameras... Its slightly louder than my QHY8 which was silent, but much quieter than the Starshoot Pro, ST-9 or ST-10
Well, My ST8300 Arrived today at 11 am.. I've had some fun getting it all fitted up to the CFW etc.. To my surprise, the FLI CFW and SBIG Camera did not burst into flames when I touched them together!
I dare say first light is not going to be today.... The clouds are thicker today than they've been all week..
Excitement rating: 13^10/10
Whoohoo!...does this mean the clouds are going to part now? ... apparently YES! Saturday looks good. Not in QLD though. I see no other choice for you than to post the camera down to Sydney and I'll happily test it for you
Chris - Cant go wrong mate.. Its small, relatively light, quiet, cheap and from what I'm seeing in these dark frames, fairly clean at -10c. I cant wait to try it out at night when its cooler and I can drop that to -15 ~ -20c
Kieth - Yes, Im keen to get out and do some imaging.. As this will be my first foray into LRGB imaging, or narrowband with a mono camera, I don't expect fantastic results straight up... It will take some getting used to. But I'll definitely be giving it my all..
Humayun - Sometimes being bad is being very very good!
Martin - looking at the darks at full size, there is a few... maybe 30 spread across the image in random locations... Nothing in the grand scheme of things.. It does look very very clean even at -10c.. It can only get better from there... one would imagine
As an Aside, Just plugged it all into MaximDL 5, ST8300/FLI 2-7/QHY5 - Everything connects up fine, filterwheel does its thing, guider will run looping exposures while the CFW is changing filters, and while the camera is taking exposures...
If you send it over to my place now, i can BURN it in for ya.
It is crystal clear here for the rest of the week according to the weather bureau.
(Bugger it has changed already :p ).
now, in the first pic, I'd already screwed on the rather large FLI AD-2 adapter for attaching the camera to the CFW... so it looks a little strange front on, but you get the idea.. I've also fitted the handles to the camera so I can attach it to the scope somehow.. the imaging train from the focuser back is about 2.4kgs and about $7k worth... A few dollars more than I'd like to see hitting the floor should something go pair shaped...
Anyway.. its ready to rock! And look... It was meant to be... My QHY5 and ST8300 are practically the same colour (in real life they appear much closer in colour than in the pics) Oh and excuse the low image quality, Mobile phone camera used... MMMM Tasty Toys!!
Depends on how soon I can afford a STX-16803, a filter wheel and a set of 50mm square filters... Not any time soon i'd imagine.. I'm giving this setup a lifespan of 3 years in my service... The camera is heaps more than I can handle, it will probably take me 3 months to get to a point where I can use it to even a quarter of its potential... and many years before I grow out of it...