Tj,
I am very glad you brought that subject up.
Is there a way to optimise the Gain/Offset settings for a particular CCD - the linked article addresses offset by taking bias shots and looking for the singnal "floor" if I am reading it correctly but the English is not crash hot. There is no mention of GAIN settings at all. In the case of the 145m I have set the gain to 400 (there are 1024 levels available). I did this based on the two attached graphs which show me S/N ratio increases with gain to at least that level.
I would love to confirm my interpretation, what is the best setting to use? I guess I will be trading some dynamic range for sensitivity if I go too far? What is a good rule of thumb 3/4 of max? Half?
Should I set it perhaps based on the sky glow level - eg set an exposure length I can track well to routinely like 240s and then adjust the gain to get the sky glow histogram showing nicely and then set the relevant offset?
Any advice welcome.
