My QHY8L has arrived at Basalt Ridge!

[cybereye]

Hello everyone!!

Woo-hoo!!!

My brand, spanking new QHY8L has arrived and I have several nights to play with it until the weekend. Then I hope to get its first light. Yes, one very excite camper I am!

Cheers,
Mario

[multiweb]

Good stuff! :thumbsup: I've had mine for over 3yrs and I'm still excited. :lol:

[Logieberra]

Nice one Mario!

I grabbed a QHY8 Pro a few weeks back. This post 'may' contain some useful setup info... it was darn confusing for me - moving from SLR to the CCD!

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=76006

A nice product. Enjoy!

[Osirisra]

I got a mine a few weeks ago and have only had a few mins light on it due to garbage weather and work etc. Still super exited as well and can wait to get a decent night to use it.

[cybereye]

I installed the drivers and tested the camera last night - inside the house though. Everything seems to work OK and ended up with Gain/Offset values of 1 and 113 respectively. However, I'm not that sure on the Offset value - do I just have a large exposure in order to over-saturate the image?

Anyway, after my son's trombone concert tonight - he's just started learning and we're really enjoying THAT learning curve! - I'll have a closer look at EZCAP which I'll be using for my captures.

Once I feel comfortable with that then it will be out to the backyard to take some images....:thumbsup:

Cheers,
Mario

[Logieberra]

Mario

Brendan has posted a darn good article on his site, for scientific CCD calibration: http://brendanmitchell.net/?page_id=213

Even with the crappy weather, a perfect time to take darks (not sure that you'll need them with that camera), and offset / bias frames.

I also spent some time looking at cable layouts etc. I ended up putting a metal rod protruding from the back to support the cable connection points.

I also looked for the 'fogging' issue (to be expected with a cooled CCD), and whacked a dew heater strap. Fixed.

Theo was very helpful as well, and gave me some other tips and tricks (insulate the camera to slighly raise the body's temp, use a heater strap, and run it @ -15 ideally). :)

Logie.

[multiweb]

Those are good starting values. Keep your gain at 1 then adjust your offset to get approx 500 to 1000ADU in your skycount (sky background). Mine is set at offsey 68. Most people I know are around 100. Depends on your camera. Once you've found the sweet spot leave it there.

[Manav]

Congrats Mario! I'm happy for you now lets hope we get some clear skies for a few months. BTW this also reminds me to test my new QHY9 which is still sitting in its original packaging gathering dust! :D

Logan - Did you use Brendan's guide with MaximDL?

[cybereye]

Manav,

Best get the QHY9 out and running!! Before you know it it'll be summer again and cloud everywhere!!!



Marc,

Using Ezcap, I re-did my gain/offset calculation using the guide from Brendan's website. I ended up with values of 13 for gain and 110 for offset which seemed to match closely, but not exactly, with the values derived for the QHY9 in the guide.

I think I understand the science behind the values but now I just want to get out and take pictures! I was going to do it tonight but it clouded over so decided not to. And as is the norm the clouds then dissipated. Tomorrow night however is definitely penciled into my diary!!


Cheers,
Mario

[rigeljames]

Hi, Has anyone delt with Cyclops in Malasia? Are they ok?
http://www.cyclopsoptics.com/deep-sky-camera/qhy8-l.html