M7 Lum- first light test SXVR-H16

[richardo]

The new Starlight Xpress H16 camera has rolled up and am very happy with it.:D And about time for a new camera!
Very light, more compact than the old design, weighs only 400grm, has two stage regulated cooling and downloads are super quick. Well, I guess this is because it's only 4.1 MP.. not like some of you folk with mega mega pix cameras:P
I am using my 1 1/4" astronomik filters and have some vignetting to the corners and also the camera has an adjustable face plate to get the chip perfectly orthogonal to the image train... this I still haven't got right as yet as you will notice.
Am have trouble with the way the MPCC sits into my Moonlight draw tube, even with a compression ring and three locking screws, have to get it spot on. Wish they would hurry up with a full screw in setup with coma corrector and draw tube for us fast newt users.

Could it be that the vignetting would cause out of focus stars to the corners???
I haven't really a clue about these things.:shrug:
But will be taking flats when I get some real time out.
Weather here since the camera has rolled up has been quite pitiful. Been ducking out in between rain showers. Typical:rolleyes:

Here is the lum image, it's only a meager 11.5 mins worth of 30 sec exposures.
The FOV is 51.2x51.2 min @ 1.5arcsec/pix.. no darks taken. Sigma combined.
http://www.baytop-observatory.com/ccdimages/Wrkinprogress/M7LnewtH16.jpg
Image size is near 1mb

Thanks for taking a look.
All the best for now
Rich

[strongmanmike]

Maaaaaaaaaate FINALLY some good sky realestate :cool:..I'm really happy for you :thumbsup: long time coming but better late than never ;). Look forward to your impending works. Hopefully you're able to get out more with your new beast than I have managed with my big black brick :sadeyes:. Your first image is a real tease, enjoy the ride.

Are you still using that home made FW?...if you can get your hands on a 50mm FW (or maybe just an internal wheel?) then I have the solution to your vignetting and out of focus corners, great filters at a great price:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=61465

:)

Mike

[gregbradley]

Beautiful camera. The 4.1mp chip is a delight and there are many awesome images on the net from that one. Starlight Express make an awesome camera and seemed to lead the way to these almost "noiseless" cameras.

Tilt seems minimal, looks like a tad on the bottom left but it could also be vignetting of the stars. Out of focus at corners would mean the field is not flat. That to me would indicate that you are not 100% at the correct metal back distance for the chip from the MPCC. All correctors have a metal back distance. Metal back distance is the distance between the last metal edge of the corrector to the plane of the chip. It then requires a correctly made screw adapter to match that distance for it to work correctly.

Correctors have a tolerance as +/- in mms. That may be down to about 5mm accuracy required and shorter for faster scopes.

A squared off bottom to a star is perhaps vignetting which is not the same as out of focus. I have seen that myself when imaging at F11.2. That would be solved by having all openings large enough to not cramp the light cone including the filter size or distance from the chip.

I see with the 8300 chip for example you can use 1.25 inch filters but not on faster scopes where the light cone is at a sharper angle.


Greg.

[richardo]

Hey ho Mike,
yes finally a new camera. At last.:D
Been a long time coming. This year so far has been devoted to upgrading astronomy stuff.
I bought the SX filter wheel at the start of the year which has been great. Before that I had a Atik manual filter wheel and it was about three years ago I was using the home made job.
Yes I saw your filters and stuff for sale.. but I'm lucky enough to be able to borrow a friends 50mm Astrodons...

I'm really sorry Mike you haven't had a chance to get out and I know how you feel having such a brilliant ccd sitting doing nothing.. collecting dust..
Hopefully the weather and chance come your way.
I always look forward to your images and commentary.. always a good laugh... worlds strongest & funniest astronomer:D




Thanks Gregg for the heads up!
I've quite a few different spacers I've tried, I have the MPCC around 55mm +- a few mm from the screw flange to the ccd window, but it does make it hard to judge when I'm not overly certain that I have the h16's face plate orthogonal to the train. The vignetting added to the mix as you suggest just makes things that little harder to judge- another degree of error.
I'll have to work on this.

Thanks guys for your comments!
I'm really enjoying this camera with only a few hours testing.

All the best for now.
Rich

[multiweb]

New toy hey? Good to see you're having fun. Top Lum. Very detailled. Looking forward to more. :thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Very nice clean lum. Should make for a great image when RGB is added.

Well done.

[telecasterguru]

Rich,

Great image, great camera.

Frank

[richardo]

Thanks very much Marc, Doug and Frank,
still sorting the bugs out.
Not so much the camera just focuser issues and correct MPCC spacings and ....not to mention the user:rofl:.

Certainly is nice to have a new camera though guys!

Thanks for taking a peek and your nice comments.

All the best for now
Rich