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Old 12-01-2021, 04:15 PM
glend (Glen)
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EAA Camera Finally Arrives

I have been trying to source a ASI294MC camera for my EAA implementation on my Skywatcher ED150, and today the camera arrived.
As some folks would know the ASI294MC Pro has been pretty much wait listed by every retailer, and even ZWO had them on backorder (including the non-cooled version). The QHY competitor was still not actually available.

To be clear my preference was for the non-cooled version of this camera, because for an EAA live stacking visual setup, cooling is not a necessity; and I will not be returning to long sub traditional imaging.

The non-cooled version is still hard to find, as most of the sales are for the cooled version, however Teleskop-Express did recently get some stock at 705 euro, so I bought one.

Photos attached. Hopefully I will get it setup on the ED150 in coming days. It will be attached to the Skywatcher 0,85x reducer corrector, which screws onto the Esprit 3.5" focuser ( which is the standard focuser on the DX version which I own). This allows the native f8 scope to run at f6.8ish.

More to follow when I get EAA operational on this scope. Note the M48 extension tube sections in the photo are for display purposes only, exact set back is still to be determined.
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Old 15-01-2021, 10:04 AM
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Congrats on your new camera. I look forward to your review of it.

Greg.
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Old 15-01-2021, 01:38 PM
glend (Glen)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post
Congrats on your new camera. I look forward to your review of it.

Greg.

I have had a good initial session with the ASI294MC, especially considering I have no experience with Sharpcap, other than using the polar alignment feature in the field a few times. I loaded the camera driver from the ZWO website and it just worked. The Sharpcap settings will need some work, but I found a pdf file on the Net that had some good suggestions. For targets, I started easy with Orion, Tarantula, and Eta C, all of which fairly quickly stacked a useful view. I was running with the reducer, so at f6,8, and the field looked good, stars round to the edges. Back spacing on the reducer is 55mm, so i used a 37,5mm set of 48mm extension, the rest of the distance is internal to the camera sensor. . I manually focused but I think using the focus assistance of Sharpcap will make things a bit easier. It is nice to just sit in my chair and let the mount and scope do their thing, without having to contort my body to get to the EP.

No noticeable noise in the image, I left the gain at 200 which is where the lowest noise kicks in. Worked fine without cooling it seems. No drift showing up on frame alignment stats, but didn't really expect much with my pier polar alignment.

Just the one usb3 cable from the camera to the laptop, but I did use my powered usb3 extension as well just to be safe and provide more length. Pretty simple setup really. I didn't bother saving any images, but maybe Sharpcap is saving them somewhere, I don't know. Real time viewing, or stacked viewing, is fine enough for me. Next time i will have a go at some targets of lesser magnitude.


Photos attached of the complete rig.
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Last edited by glend; 15-01-2021 at 05:15 PM.
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Old 16-01-2021, 07:16 AM
JA
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Well done on making it all happen. Sounds like a dream. Now just connect it to the BIG screen TV inside for a bit of live view

Best
JA
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Old 16-01-2021, 11:14 PM
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ChrisV (Chris)
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Looks like fun Glen
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