Nebula AP140 Apogee U16M camera

[gregbradley]

I did a shake down run with my newish Apogee U16M camera and FLI filter wheel (finally got it going) and Astronomik 50mm square LRGB filters.
I am happy that there is no hint of reflections with these filters and with the mask I installed in the camera sent to my by Apogee at no cost. These large chip camera have had problems with reflections so I chose the filters carefully. Baader also seem to have a nice set of filters.

I used my AstroPhysics 140 F7.5 EDF scope with a 4 inch Takahashi flattener which is designed for the Tak FS152 but is a marvellous piece of optical gear and works really really well on the AP.

I snuck this image between clouds and the Wimbledon final! The blue caught a bit of clud coming back in though. So not totally clear conditions as there was a bit of high cloud around some of the time.

About 1 hour 40 minutes, 10 minute subexposures and -25C camera temperature. Guided with an Astrotech 66ED piggybacked and STL11 with remote guide head (couldn't get the ST402ME to run!! Oh well one thing at a time).

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/99869025

Greg.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Looks great Greg. Nice colours

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Nice subtle colour there Greg.

[jase (Jason)]

Excellent Greg. A nice target for a quick shake down. I note a few hot pixels between the individual R,G,B subs - not something I would expect based on the quantity of data and assuming dithering between subs was active. Look forward to seeing more with this set up. I've looked long and hard at the 16803 chip, but I'm waiting to see what SBIG bring to the table in this space with the STX. I'm a sucker for self "on axis" guiding. Well done.

[gregbradley]

Hi Jase,

They wouldb't be hot pixels. In fact the chip is incredibly clean and free of defects. But it does show up cosmic ray hits a lot hence the blue streak in the image and some of those large blue dots. They may also be RBI and Apogee is bringing out a fix for that and it will be free. In the meantime I need to do darks before I do any imaging. I got some weird looking darks.

STX with all the extra guiding abilities and the improved cooling could be an excellent camera. I'll probably get one too.

Greg.

[jase (Jason)]

Hi Greg,
Cosmic ray hits could occur regardless of filter. I guess I was expecting the combine function to remove such defects/anomalies. Regardless, a fine "shake down" image. RBI...hmmm possibly, but don't think so. Keep them coming.

Cheers