Replacement STXL11002

[Paul Haese]

After nearly 12 months of trying to fix my previous STXL11002, I finally receive the replacement yesterday.

I am hoping this one works better than the previous one. Everyone at SBIG has their fingers crossed apparently. I have been told it underwent rigorous testing prior to leaving the States and therefore should not present any problems.

First to install it and then start doing darks. Weather is looking good this week for some clear skies. Maybe even start a new project. If it works I will be looking at getting an AOX in the near future.

I will keep SBIG and you updated on what transpires from here on in.

[marc4darkskies]

Watching closely Paul. Good luck!

Once you start using an AO-X you'll never look back!

[Paul Haese]

Well so far so good. Darks look ok so far.

I have included a sample dark and each looks similar to this.

Interestingly I cannot see any column defects. Perhaps I got a class 1 sensor??

[blink138]

i have not commented but i have followed your saga paul and i do hope it is ok............ and sbig could have done this for you for the good will alone which would be very nice!
pat

[gregbradley]

That certainly is a very clean sensor. When they have them they aren't really column defects which has an exact definition. They are the fact of a hot pixel that gets dragged along during the vertical readout process.
I think column defects refers to having multiple hot pixels in the same vertical column.

Greg.

[stevous67]

Mine looks like that, but the fun begins when you start taking light frames.

Good luck,

Steve

[Bassnut]

Thats very clean indeed!. I dont have any column defects either, but on a 40min dark sub, lots of hot pixel and ray strikes. How long was your dark sub?.

[Paul Haese]

That frame is 30 minutes Fred.

One problem has shown up though. The stars in my 30 minutes test images last night had some blooming. The Australian distributor is looking into the problem.

In the meant time I need to continue to fine tune the guiding and flattener distance.

[Bassnut]

If your getting blooming, perhaps you got a NABG chip, massive bonus !!!!!.

Mind you, if the stars are really bright, 30mins is a bit long, dont even ABG chips have a problem with that?. I have no experience with ABG chips.

[Paul Haese]

Didn't have any issues with the previous sensor in that regard Fred. Not huge blooms but small ones. So it is ABG. I will try 20 minutes and see what transpires.

[gregbradley]

I've never seen blooming at any exposure length up to 1 hour with a 9 micron pixelled ABG Kodak sensor. They seem very good with that. There is no NABG KAI11002.

As you say its just the adjustment for the ABG on the board. Wouldn't it just be set to maximum or is there some downside to having at maximum? (reduced sensitivity).

Greg.

[Joshua Bunn]

My KAI11002 blooms in 30 min exposures, sometime much less on brighter stars. I believe setting it to maximum (reducing the blooming) decreases the sensitivity.

Josh

[Paul Haese]

As I understand it, turning too much will reduce sensitivity significantly. It just seems to need a small tweak or two.

[gregbradley]

Yes I figured that would be the trade off. Too much ABG and it may cut in prematurely reducing well depth?

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Yes, I had to be careful about how much to turn the adjusting pot and also not to touch other metal parts on the board.