First light FLI Microline 8300 camera

[gregbradley]

Well yet another weekend of rainy weather and cloud. I stayed at my dark site another night and I was blessed with a perfect night last night. Totally clear all night with good seeing.

I was itching to use my new FLI Microline 8300 camera (8.3 megapixel).

This camera seems pretty hot.

It slams the cooling down 55C below ambient temps. It was about 17C and it went to -40C in about 4 minutes or so - alright!!

The chip gives virtually no noise at that sort of temperature. The 15.8mb images download in about a second. The fan is super quiet. It is compact and light. It has a very nice shutter and sealed CCD chamber with inert gas. It has an RBI fix (residual bulk image - afterimages of bright objects that can plague some CCDs mainly the 09000 chip).

It has no lines, patterns and a super clean chip that seems virtually flawless.

It gives my setups better image scale with a primary purpose of imaging galaxies.

Its nice!

Here is first light with an AP140, Tak 4 inch flattener (most likely doesn't need it the chip is smaller than a DSLR in size), FLI digital focuser (nice!) and FLI 50mm square filter wheel with Astronomik type 2 filters.

I have concluded that I prefer the Astronomik filters the best as long as you can work out a way to mount them. They are only about 1mm thick and normal filters are more like 3mm. They don't come with spacers or packers (except the 50mm round). I worked out a solution with bent carboard washers holding the down.

LRGB 15 15 15 15 (Luminance 1x1, RGB all at -40C, darks, flats and bias, CCDstack with the new u-beaut aligning tool and Photoshop CS4.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/106563547

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Sounds like the camera is a keeper..? :thumbsup:

Those cooling specs are aaaalmost as good as my big brick ProLIne :eyepop:

Does that chip actually need the RBI fix though? Did you use it?

I agree you woudn't need the flattener for that chip size, less glass, less weight and less possibilty of internal refections etc then

I guess you will need a long FL telescope now??? :rolleyes: the native AP is too short....wonder what Greg will buy this time :doh: :lol: the Baader extender that AP sell looks good though - cheapish option..?

Overall the image ain't ya best dude but those stars are characteristic APO at least.

Mike

[gregbradley]

Yes the camera is a definite keeper. I used the flattener more because I don't have an AP adapter!! Anyway the Tak flattener guarantees stars to the corners. Camera performed beautifully right out of the box.
I didn't notice any RBI and I have never seen in it my Apogee U16M.

Hehehe, the BRC should have enough focal length - perhaps not enough for Fred but enough for me at the moment as I don't want to have to get into 12 hour + epics but F5, 4 hour shots. I travel to me dark site and clear nights have been a rarity this year (have you noticed its been cloudy/rainy practically every no moon weekend for nearly a year now??).

To go longer focal length I need a beefier mount probably. I am happy with my current setup.

Greg.

[Bassnut]

OK, the FL suits the cam, and the FV aint bad on this one, but a bunch of stars for a 1st light?. And star colors are white or blue, a bit duocromatic :P. Do the cam justice Greg, a dim nebula perhaps :D.

And, epics?, are well, epic. The one toy you have avoided is the RED one, you really must submit to the ultimate truth.. Epics are a doddle with the RED one, you know you need to take the final, definitive plunge, all needs is courage, BALLS, Greg :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Looks like a nice camera, but also looks like the KAF8300 also shows microlens vertical diffraction spikes :(

I'm still juggling between ordering a back illuminated or 16mega pixel beast for 2009...no prizes who from :)

[avandonk]

My next camera is going to be......... a modded Canon 5D Mark II. With the fridge it will be ? We shall see!

Bert

[gregbradley]

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the balls comments. I checked my balls and redid the processing on this one - sorry about that chief.:lol:

I have to normalise the LRGB before colour combine to get the colours otherwise I get a super bright red or green background that has to be desaturated and it bleaches out the colours.

Anyway this is far superior.

I also took a few galaxy images as well Fred of which one turned out OK and the other a reasonable luminance.

I'll post them soon.

The camera is sensitive but the small full well depth leads to overepxosing brighter stars much more easily than the Apogee U16M which has relatively deep wells.

Still, I like it.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Hi Peter,

Where do you see the diffraction spikes? I noticed on some other images that bright stars can form a bit of halo which I put down to the smallish well depth.

Don't most of these new Kodak chips have microlenses?

Yes QE versus FOV.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

A 5D Mk11 seems a very desirable camera with 22mp and super high ISO settings. Could be a winner.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

And, epics?, are well, epic. The one toy you have avoided is the RED one, you really must submit to the ultimate truth.. Epics are a doddle with the RED one, you know you need to take the final, definitive plunge, all needs is courage, BALLS, Greg :thumbsup:[/quote]

I was considering one but with the dollar gone 3rd world I think that will have to wait.

Besides the NJP does a good job. Its the travel time, the poor weather for most of Aussie for the last year (those big fronts that come in from the Indian Ocean and sweep across the continent strangely almost every no moon weekend - surely the moon must have a significant influence on the weather?).

This last year I have been to my dark site about 10 times and out of those 10 times x 3 days average = 30 nights and out of those 30 nights probably only 5 or 6 were good. Last 2 years that was more like 22 days out of 30 were perfect.

Greg.

[jase]

Nice work Greg. Not going to say much else as I think you really need to push the cam a little harder. I saw your luminance image. Looks impressive. As Fred indicates, go for some dim rarely imaged targets to see the results. The BRC at a fast f/ratio should deliver the photons to the wells at blistering speed. Look forward to seeing more as you get things dialled in.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Jase.

47 Tuc wasn't the primary imaging target but thought it was well worth a shot for a quick look at its performance on both a bright object and a galaxy which is a risk with smaller aperture. Especially after 3 nights of waiting for some clear skies!

I am having a bit of trouble with flats with both the U16M and the ML8300.

It seems sometimes I am better off without flats.

I'll have to review how I am doing them - basically dusk flats, at least 3 seconds (with a mechanical shutter it needs to be at least 3 seconds or the shutter shows up in the flat). Median combine usually 3 flats and subtract a bias. I go for about 20,000 ADU or thereabouts.

I am removing the MMOAG from the imaging train of the BRC as its prism seemed to influence flats negatively. Will know when I use it again next.

Cheers,

Greg.