Quickie Cat's Paw QSI683

[peter_4059]

Finally managed to get out last night with the new QSI. Unfortunately the skies clouded over early on in the session however I did manage 7x5mins on the Cats Paw. For only a handful of subs I'm pretty happy with the new camera.

I've also been trying out the new version of Sequence Generator and I'm very impressed. It has all the functionality I need and seems to be a lot more robust than the earlier versions. I managed to get the plate solving working today. If this continues to work it will make imaging over multiple nights a lot easier.

[Paul Haese]

Looks good Peter. What temp were you using? I generally use -25C and that produces very low noise subs.

[peter_4059]

Cheers Paul. I've been using -20C. I think the cooler has been operating around 50% so probably room to go lower.

[allan gould]

Peter, a really nice image for only 35min exposure. One question though - the diffraction spikes on your bright stars are double to the right but appear single on the other three. Any suggestions?

[peter_4059]

Thanks Allan. The double spikes are probably misalignment of the spider vanes. Not sure how to diagnose or rectify at this stage though.

[strongmanmike]

Looking good Peter, some good detail there and glad the new camera is making you happy :thumbsup:

Mike

[atalas]

Nice!

[troypiggo]

Nice mate! Glad you're happy with that Seq Gen and getting the plate solving working!

[Paul Haese]

Peter during winter you can go to -30 on a lot of nights, but I mainly use -25. This means I can run darks during the morning if I need to replace my master dark. Flats can also be run at that too.

[SkyViking]

Very promising image, and it's a great camera isn't it? The noise is exceptionally low I think. I use -30C and cooler is operating around 75%.
The one-sided double spikes could be caused by being slightly out of focus. Your image doesn't looks like it's out of focus though, but I have seen that effect on occasion with my own gear if focus is not spot on so maybe it's worth checking.

[DavidTrap]

Great start Peter!

My 583 was running at -20 at 50-70% over the last two nights. I should push it lower during the winter months. The better cooling on the 683 should help even more.

DT

[ozstronomer]

Lovely image Peter, that camera should produce some nice results

[peter_4059]

Thanks for all the feedback. I realised today that I was running the camera at -15C (must have got distracted during the set up). I will definately be trying lower temperatures during astrofest. I was also thinking a few more subs would improve the noise.

[RickS]

Very good for 35 mins of Ha, Peter! I do single Ha subs nearly that long :lol:

[Ross G]

Nice capture Peter.

Some great detail.

Ross.

[peter_4059]

Cheers Rick & Ross. This was actually Lum - not Ha.