I am getting a CCD camera!

[Spookyer]

Seasons greetings to all.

After about 6 months of learning the ropes a bit using my DSLR I have decided to purchase a CCD mono camera.

After a fair bit of research I decided on a SBIG STT-8300 with self guiding filter wheel and Baader LRGB filters. I have ordered it from Peter Ward from Advanced Telescope Supplies. Peter has been good answering my queries to date and I like to know there is someone in Australia to provide support if required.

I have also ordered Ha and OIII 5nm filters directly from Astrodon.

I went with SBIG because although by far from the cheapest they seemed to have the most integrated solution and I want something that is going to work with a minimum of fuss. I have also bought the standard cover for the filter wheel and a Nikon adapter so I can use my Nikon lenses with the filter wheel.

I plan on purchasing Sequence Generator Pro. It appears The latest version (2.3) now supports the dual chip setups like the STT and self guiding filter wheel.

My decision was motivated by a wish to do a bit more imaging between new moons and narrow band imaging should give me the ability to image from home and avoid most of the light pollution. I plan to get the colour data for my images on the dark weekends when I can get away. The ability to cool the sensor should also be a bonus with noise though my Nikon D4 was pretty good with this anyway.

I will report on how it all goes so others using DSLRs and considering adding a CCD camera can benefit from my experience.

I know I will have to learn a new process for Pixinsight to combine my channel data.

If anyone has a documented PI workflow for mono CCD cameras and wants to share I would be much obliged. I will be checking out what tutes I can find online of course but nice to get something from someone on the forum who I know produces the results.

Anyway, just a bit excited about it all and felt I had to share.:rofl:

Cheers
Brett

[RickS]

Congratulations, Brett! I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with the new kit.

I have a documented workflow for PI. It's currently in the form of a mind map and some of it is in shorthand but I can probably clean it up and make it readable. I also keep processing notes on all my images that I'm happy to share.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Spookyer]

Thanks Rick that would awesome, much appreciated.

Brett

[cometcatcher]

Congratulations! You'll be smokin' with the CCD camera.

[alistairsam]

congrats Brett,
thats a great buy. Did you get the AO.

I've got the little brother, the stf8300m.
Narrowband is pretty cool. what bandwidth are the filters.
Look forward to some equipment pics

Cheers
Alistair

[Spookyer]

I am at 925mm focal length so didn't think the AO was worth it. Can add later if required. I got the 5nm Astrodon Ha and OIII filters.

Brett

[Spookyer]

Okay, progress today, just over two weeks from payment to delivery, that is not too bad I reckon:eyepop:
Thanks to Peter at ATS.

Now I just have to figure out how to put it all together and make it all work!

Any tips with putting the 36mm filters into the filter wheel?

[alistairsam]

Nice
If the filters are the baader 36mm, you'll have to look for a small arrow on the side of the glass.
I believe that has to point to the scope.
Has to do with the AR coatings.
I got the lrgb and nb baader and all of them had the arrow.

Look forward to first light.
Bet its going to cloud up for a week now.
We know who to blame;)

Cheers
Alistair

[kosh]

I'm looking to get a dedicated mono CCD in a few months time time ( something in the ATIK range perhaps ) so I am interested to hear about your experiences. Good luck. Can't wait for some pics.

[ozstronomer]

Congrats on the new camera Brett, looks good :thumbsup:

Hope you have time to run it through it's paces before the next outing at 10CH

The Sbig should run nicely with Sequence Generator Pro Software.

[Spookyer]

thanks guys.

Yes Geoff, will have a play this weekend to try and get it going before the new moon weekend.

I inserted all the filters as per the instructions. Went with LRGBHaOIII. With the Baaders I put he arrow pointing towards the scope thanks Alistair.

I got the Astrodon unmounted 36mm Ha and OIII filters. However they do have a black rim around the glass that appears to be the same height as the glass so doesn't actually add anything height wise to the filter. I had the impression that unmounted filters were just glass with no edging? These two filters are 3mm high.

Anyway I put them in with the oring in the slot first as per the instructions but they sat a bit higher than the 2mm high baader filters with orings on top of the filters which is hardly surprising. This caused the filter cover piece that secures the filters to bow a little bit as I tightened down the screws. I hope this is okay:question: and that they will sit flat.

If anyone else using the Astrodon 36mm unmounted filters could comment that would be good. I would feel a lot better if others had similar experiences.

[RickS]

Just FYI, Don (Astrodon) Goldman talked about this at AAIC 2013 and he says the arrows don't matter unless you are using lasers:

http://www.astrodon.com/Orphan/astrodonfaqnarrowband/#h18

Cheers,
Rick.

[Spookyer]

Yes Rick, I remember Don saying it didn't matter for the Astrodons, but it does seem to matter with the Baaders.

Any comments from anyone on the black rims around the astrodons, is that what unmounted filters are like?

Brett

[RickS]

Brett,

I'd be surprised if the same argument doesn't apply to the Baader filters. Do they come with any documentation that says they should be oriented in a specific way?

The black rims on the Astrodons are intended to reduce reflections from the edge of the filter.

Cheers,
Rick.

[RickS]

Found what is claimed to be a response to the question of filter orientation from Baader:

[Spookyer]

Thanks Rick, good to know those filters were correct and were supposed to have a black rim. The balance of opinion with the Baaders seemed to be the point of the arrow is aimed at the scope so I went that way with them.

[Daveskywill]

Yes I've got 2 ST cameras. They're good.




Hi everyone here:

My name is David Williams. I'm from Centreville, MI and have a desire

to do deep-sky astrophoto-graphy. Just awhile back (1.7 years ago) had

our first roll off roof obs. And my equipment is now: A Meade LX200GPS 10" F10

an 80mm APO AT scope piggyback. An ST-2000XCM CCD dual sensor. A T2i.

And just now a Nikon D800 (36 megapixels). so that's cool. But on my setup

I've still been having the basic problems; of making my stars not so trailed.

And focus I'm just eyeballing. And there can still be noise issues, because

at sake of trying to not allow my image to trail I'll boost up the ISO so then

the noise comes out. Guess the right thing is a balance?

But I've tried doing PhD guiding and that was a learning experience.

Though at best (after tweaking more the wedge right) the graph looked a

little better, with the lines going not so vertical and could go for maybe

10-30 min before the ding would happen and get out of the green box.

So last year my accomplishments were the best at M51, then for the first

time the nebulosity around the Pleiades, then for the first time the Horse-

Head nebula. So I suppose something was being doing right.

But now I'm looking to do adaptive optics: Any advice here?

Like I'd like to use my new Nikon D800 DSLR to take the image (it's got a

35mm size sensor at 36 megapixels) And was either considering the

SBIG AO line or the Orion Steady ones.

Does anyone have also advice of what that would cost? And what

final equipment I'd need? Thank you.

David

[Spookyer]

Hi David, you might want to start your own thread mate in this forum.

[Spookyer]

Well I have now got it hooked up, after some false starts and error messages I have worked out I have to run SGP as administrator and I can now setup and run a sequence and control the filter wheel etc.

I have also adjusted my guide chip mirror according to the SBIG instructions.

I just tried to connect PHD2 to the camera but it is giving me an error of: ASCOM driver problem getting CameraXSize property

So next step is to solve that.

[Spookyer]

Ok, looks like that is solved, now I need some stars to calibrate the guider focus and give it a real test.

I am sure there are still plenty of things to go wrong.:lol:

[RickS]

It's good weather for collecting a library of bias and dark frames, Brett :)

[Spookyer]

Rick, that is a very positive spin on the current weather situation.

[ozstronomer]

Brett

Good to see you are making progress, can be a bit tricky at first making it all play nicely together. Lets hope the clouds clear soon :)

[Spookyer]

Thanks for the help offer today Geoff, I think it is as sorted as I can for now, once I get under the stars no doubt I will struggle with something or another and I might call on your expertise.;)

Brett

[ozstronomer]

No Worries

[Spookyer]

Well after a few sessions trying to use my STT8300 I am struggling. I am getting a lot of error messages and my SGP, SBIG, PHD2 combination is not playing nicely together. I am working on it but it is very frustrating I must say. The second session I seem to make some progress but then last night things that were working fine the night before didn't want to work so I am back to square 1 in many respects.

Once I get the basics working I will look into how to focus properly, improve my guiding results and then try and collect some data.

I must say due to the software issues this is a big step from using an SLR. I had everything down pat and was into imaging fairly quickly on a good night. Now I am like a total newbie again and can't get everything to play together as it should.

[alistairsam]

Hi Brett

What sort of errors are you getting and what OS are you using.
Did you install all software as administrator?

My stf8300m and lodestar worked right from day 1 with no issues, touch wood.

Eliminated all usb issues? Any screenshot's?

Cheers
Alistair

[SimmoW]

This is a good thread for us SLRers thinking of moving on up, best of luck! I'm thinking of doing the same, straight to mono rather than OSC, so will be very interested in your progress. No pressure!

[RobF]

Congrats Brett. Now is a good time of year to play with it indoors, figure out settings, cal library etc as Rick says. Hope you get a chance to fire it up under clear skies soon.

Rob

[RickS]

My basic workflow is now written up here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=1058581#post105858 1

Cheers,
Rick.

[Spookyer]

Just to update, I have had a couple of better sessions equipment wise. I seem to be getting a lot less errors, not exactly sure why but I will keep doing what I am doing now.

I have now got Pinpoint and have successfully plate solved a couple of times and have also setup a backup blind plate solver solution that took a bit of work and help to get installed.

I have successfully taken 20min subs with tight stars. My guiding error has varied between .15 (.25 arcseconds/px) and .35 (.5 arcseconds/px) total RMS so I am pretty happy with that. Seeing conditions have only been average at best.

The next big looming challenge is processing the data when I started getting some.

Clouds continuing to be an issue here in Brisbane. (for 6 six weeks now)

[RickS]

Good to hear you are making progress, Brett. I haven't even considered dragging the scope out. The weather has just been too unpredictable.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Spookyer]

Yes Rick, clouds have been a feature of the weather every day for 8 weeks I reckon. I have been finding it difficult to get patches of clear night sky long enough to get a 20min sub to do my testing with the new camera setup let alone collect big data on targets.

Its gotta settle down sooner or later. Hopefully for the next new moon.

[Spookyer]

Just to update I have been enjoying more success getting things running now. I have also just got my new Focus lynx focuser working as part of the team. I am still getting SBIG errors occasionally and SGP crashes every now an then but overall I am pretty happy with how that side of things is going.

My two big challenges are processing the data I am starting to get and of course getting rid of these bloody clouds that have been a feature of the Brisbane weather since later December.