New Arrival - ZWO ASI294 MC PRO

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #1 29-03-2019, 05:43 PM

I am pleased to announce the arrival of a new camera who has now joined our family of imaging apparatus. Delivered safely at lunch time today and all parties are doing well. The ZWO joins its siblings (a QSI683 and a Canon 60Da) and I'm sure that they will have much to chat about as time goes on

I've purchased this little one to marry up with the Sky Watcher Star Adventurer mount to service as a convenient travelling rig which is easy to set up. The intent is to use higher gain and short subs to keep the exposure time down and image without having to guide. One less thing to worry about when on the road.

I've run up the Samyang 14mm lens (shown in the photo) with the 60Da on the Sky Watcher previously and can go to three minutes subs quite easily without any obvious star trailing. I hope to be able to use the 200mm lens as well but haven't had a chance to run this up yet so will be interesting to see how we go.

I've also purchased the ZWO holder ring and was testing the balance point as you can see in the photo with the wooden dowel. I don't know if it is by design but at least with this lens the DEC balance point sits pretty darn close to where the screw point is. Very convenient.

ZWO provide a good range of spacers in the box plus there were quite a number that came with the ZWO-EOS lens adapter so there are plenty of options to get the back focus spacing right.

Of course the inevitable happens when one buys new hardware and it has come over cloudy with storms forecast. I guess I will have to wait until someone else in NSW buys some new hardware and the clouds move off to their place

Will be happy to provide first light reports as soon as we get a chance.

Cheers,
Rodney.

Joshua Bunn (Joshua) · #2 30-03-2019, 01:48 AM

those two look like a neat combination, are you going to need to take a computer into the field?

regards
Josh

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #3 30-03-2019, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua Bunn

those two look like a neat combination, are you going to need to take a computer into the field?

regards
Josh

Good question Joshua and in this case the answer is yes. Using the DSLR I could get away with capturing data directly to the memory card but in this case I will definitely need to take a lap top to control the image capture sessions. The mount is good in that it does not need any computer control. As well as needing power for the lap top I also need to power a dew heater for the camera lens.

lazjen (Chris) · #4 30-03-2019, 10:04 AM

Not sure what you are using for your supply, but I'm putting together a similar style system as well and I'm using this: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Powertec...-/202591320787

I'll run the laptop off its own batteries most of the time, but if I need to, I will plug it into this power centre to keep it going.

Atmos (Colin) · #5 30-03-2019, 10:21 AM

Congrats on the new camera, the specs on it look great. Looking foreword to the first light

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #6 30-03-2019, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazjen

Not sure what you are using for your supply, but I'm putting together a similar style system as well and I'm using this: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Powertec...-/202591320787

I'll run the laptop off its own batteries most of the time, but if I need to, I will plug it into this power centre to keep it going.

Thanks for the info on the power options Chris. For now I’m using two x 17AH gel batteries and a 19v converter to power the lap top which seems to work well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atmos

Congrats on the new camera, the specs on it look great. Looking foreword to the first light

Thanks Colin, I’m expecting a lot of trial and error to find the best settings and processing workflow.

The_bluester (Paul) · #7 30-03-2019, 01:38 PM

I have had a 294 for a couple of months, I am on a bigger mount and guided so I have been going the other way with much longer subs and lower (Usually zero) gain. It is handy sometimes though to bump the gain up to maximum to do a framing or focus test with shorter subs.

I recently shot a couple of 20 minute subs with it and they looked pretty good.

tim.anderson (Tim Anderson) · #8 30-03-2019, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryderscope

Thanks for the info on the power options Chris. For now I’m using two x 17AH gel batteries and a 19v converter to power the lap top which seems to work well.

Thanks Colin, I’m expecting a lot of trial and error to find the best settings and processing workflow.

Hi Rod

I can thoroughly recommend the Powertech lithium batteries. One of them runs an EQ8, cooled camera and focusser for me all night. And one will power a substantial dew shield plus laptop, but not for so long.

Hope to see you at another CWAS observing night soon.

Tim

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #9 30-03-2019, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_bluester

I have had a 294 for a couple of months, I am on a bigger mount and guided so I have been going the other way with much longer subs and lower (Usually zero) gain. It is handy sometimes though to bump the gain up to maximum to do a framing or focus test with shorter subs.

I recently shot a couple of 20 minute subs with it and they looked pretty good.

Thanks for that Paul. It will be good to compare notes as we gain experience with this camera.

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #10 30-03-2019, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim.anderson

Hi Rod

I can thoroughly recommend the Powertech lithium batteries. One of them runs an EQ8, cooled camera and focusser for me all night. And one will power a substantial dew shield plus laptop, but not for so long.

Hope to see you at another CWAS observing night soon.

Tim

Good to hear from you Tim. This new set up will be a good one to bring along to one of the CWAS observing sessions actually.

tim.anderson (Tim Anderson) · #11 30-03-2019, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryderscope

Good to hear from you Tim. This new set up will be a good one to bring along to one of the CWAS observing sessions actually.

Monthly meeting next Friday at the Dish (Friday 6/4), next observing night at Cookamidgera is the next day, Saturday 7/4. We were meant to have an observing session at Sylvania tonight, but there are large, dark clouds hovering above.

Someone must have bought an astronomical device.

T

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #12 31-03-2019, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim.anderson

.... , but there are large, dark clouds hovering above.

Someone must have bought an astronomical device.

T

oops.

gregbradley · #13 03-04-2019, 08:28 PM

A very interesting camera. The specs on that sensor are amazing.

Sony really has some cutting edge sensors.

Greg.

The_bluester (Paul) · #14 03-04-2019, 09:15 PM

Assuming the weather is OK I am going to have a crack at gain 120 this weekend instead of 0. I am just in the process of shooting a darks library, though I doubt I would go longer than ten or 15 minutes or there will be saturated pixels everywhere.

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #15 03-04-2019, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregbradley

A very interesting camera. The specs on that sensor are amazing.

Sony really has some cutting edge sensors.

Greg.

Thanks Greg. I have gave the camera a run on Monday but the back spacing is out so will do some adjustments before I go out again.

Ryderscope (Rodney) · #16 03-04-2019, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_bluester

Assuming the weather is OK I am going to have a crack at gain 120 this weekend instead of 0. I am just in the process of shooting a darks library, though I doubt I would go longer than ten or 15 minutes or there will be saturated pixels everywhere.

Will be good to see how things go Paul. I ran off a range of test frames on Monday night using the 14mm lens, just keeping the exposure at two minutes and adjusting the gain in steps from 120 through to 350. I haven’t had a chance to fully evaluate the subs yet as I don’t have a feel for this camera and what a reasonable signal level is to use as a starting point.