New ASI585MCPRO tonight

[pmrid]

Just in time, the rain has departed and there are good prospects for a clear night to have a "first light" play with this new cam. There'll be some moon but that's OK. I'll just use an Optalong UV/IR cut filter.

The aim tonight will be to see where it works best with Gain settings. Unity Gain is 252 so I'll do a series there and then a series at 0 Gain.

Fingers crossed.

[Crater101]

Kind of interested in this camera myself mate, so I'll be looking forward to hear how you go. Good luck!

[VPAstro]

Same here!

[Camelopardalis]

From the specs, the read noise is horrendous at gain 0, so unless you’re shooting from a super dark site, then just stick to 252 and keep your subs short.

The 585 is the first interesting camera that is accomplished at both planetary and deep sky… most others before have had compromises on way or the other.

Have fun :)

[pmrid]

Well, best-laid plans etc! Clouds rolled in but I did manage a few subs at both gain settings and even with a small sample, I am pretty much convinced to run at 252 and keep subs down to the range of 60-90 seconds.

I'll come back when I can report a bit more fully.

In the interim, just a note about the sensor geometry. For those used to sensors that are square or nearly so, this one is a bit of a surprise. It is a rather long rectangle and will present some challenges with image composition.

PS. I just did a rough process on the few subs I managed to get early this morning. M42/3, IC 434 etc. As you would expect, Murphy's Law kicked in and it was apparent that I had a serious Halo problem due to a combination of 100% humidity and a leftover film on the objective lens. Damn!! I switched to a PlayerOne so-called anti-halo filter and it did absolutely nothing beneficial that I could see.

I'll try again.

[Crater101]

Interesting. I look forward to hearing more from you mate, but that's certainly a little food for thought. Cheers!

[Startrek]

Here’s a post on the ZWO forum regarding the ASI585MC Pro

https://bbs.zwoastro.com/d/18080-first-light-with-new-asi585mc-pro

It’s rather long winded between 2 chaps but you may get some tips etc…

I’ve had discussions about a year ago with one of the chaps ( Chen ) on the ZWO forum in regard to my 2600MM. He’s knows his stuff , quite a technical astrophotographer.

Cheers
Martin

[pmrid]

Thanks Martin. Not terribly encouraging is it. The upshot seems to be to use a gain of 150 and limit subs to about 60 seconds. I'll give that a whirl.

[Camelopardalis]

Without reading all 519 comments(!)… I looked at the specs instead.

Gain 150 makes no sense to me, as the dynamic range is less than at 252 when the HCG kicks in. Like the other Sony sensors with that feature, that is the sweet spot for DSO.

You could crunch the numbers to find your best exposure length, or just wing it so as not to overexpose too many stars…

[Startrek]

My experience with HCG
I image from City suburban heavy B8 LP skies and also at my Obs under Dark B3 skies
I have both 2600MC and 2600MM cameras and only use HCG ( medium gain 100 ) when imaging narrowband under both B8 and B3 skies ( 3min to 5 min subs ) With broadband imaging I use gain 0 or low gain in both Bortle 8 skies ( 30 sec subs ) and Bortle 3 skies ( 60 to 120 sec subs ) for optimal results.
I totally concur that HCG mode maybe a “sweet spot” on paper for DSO but it’s not always a one stop shop setting for optimal results.
The only way I settled on my gain was to image at both sites and experiment, took many months to get my gain and exposure settings set for optimal results based on different targets too.
Obviously if you image from one location , testing will be a much quicker process.
Cheers
Martin