Hi All,
After several dramatic attempts to get used to the Gain and Offset settings on the camera I finally captured this image of Eta Carinae thru Hyperstar on my Celestron CPC 9.25 HD EDGE. I previously owned a Starllght xpress which does not require any user interface to provide Gain and Offset so it was a steep learning and painful curve but well worthwhile.
The Camera ZWO ASI071 is very powerful and with the right settings it can deliver great results, Sam from ZWO has been brilliant in assisting me and offering professional service to help me adjust the settings. It seems from what I can gather the Camera seems to like high Gain and Offset as I am having issues with my guiding so I need short strong exposures. I bought a new laptop to handle the volume and fast processor, which is required to stack the many exposures needed to create a smoother fine finish.
Here are my findings :
1. Gain set at 200
2. Offset set at 50
3. Temperature -15c
4. Hyperstar exposure was 60 seconds each
5. 120 Exposures taken
6. 120 Dark frames
7. 36 Flat frames
8. No Bias
Captured using NEBULOSITY 4, Ascom doesn't work so use the ZWO selection in the list, Stacked using Deepsky stacker with Median Kappa sigma method. Processed later with Photoshop CC 2017, Noel Carboni tools, Gradient xterminator, HLVG, Starshrink tool. I was trained to process these images with the guidance and services of Mr Terry Hancock in Colorado whom without I could have never reached this level.
http://www.downunderobservatory.com/
Any comments welcome
Apart from that the camera delivers brilliantly well. Cools down to required temperature within 2-3 minutes.
Notes:
If you want to extend the USB cable then keep the existing one and just add a USB 3 extension, as it did not like it when I replaced the Original USB 3 with a longer version. Also the computer definitely needs to have USB 3 as my old computer did not like it even if I dropped the USB mass speed down to 40. Hence why I had to buy the new lap top with fast (I7) processor.
High resolution TIFF file here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8yys6pvcmk...Final.tif?dl=0
