ASTRO: First light Atik 383: NGC 4274 area

Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip). The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which unfortunately
had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in a deer park
with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least night
temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only hinted at
in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a H-EQ5
Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB (2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan

You're going to have a lot of fun with that big chip! Can't wait to see
more.

Stefan Lilge wrote:
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip). The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which unfortunately
had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in a deer park
with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least night
temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only hinted at
in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a H-EQ5
Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB (2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan







--
Adriano
http://www.edmar-co.com/adriano/

34°14'11.7"N

"Stefan Lilge" wrote in message
...
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip). The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which
unfortunately had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in
a deer park with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least
night temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any
mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only hinted
at in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a
H-EQ5 Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB
(2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan


very nice Stefan

Can your camera read more pixels than are actually on a line? So can you
tell it to read 3500 pixels from a line?
if so we can get it to overscan and I can walk you through how to do a
photon / dark transfer curve characterization

you will measu
1) read noise
2) full well
3) camera gain
4) photo response non-uniformity
5) dark signal non-uniformity
6) linearity

no special tools or calibrated light sources are needed.

If you can do this, it would be great to add to my collection of other
8300-based cameras. I have measured the U8300, ML8300, QSI583 and today am
working on the ST8300 from SBIG.

The ATIK383 would be a nice addition to the list

rdc

On 4/21/2010 3:13 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip). The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which unfortunately
had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in a deer park
with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least night
temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only hinted at
in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a H-EQ5
Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB (2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan




That covers a lot of real estate very nicely!

How does its dark current compare to your Sony chip cameras?

BTW, the wolves I hear howling aren't fenced in nor the black bear that
took out my neighbors bird feeders she forgot to take in.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Richard,

I would be interested in this, but I did not find an option in the drivers
or software to read the overscan area.
Also I have to send the camera back for repairs as the shutter does not work
reliably any more, so I will probably not have the camera at my disposal for
some weeks (which is a pity as I am going on a two week astro trip to the
Austrian mountains on May 8).

Stefan

"Richard Crisp" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
m...

"Stefan Lilge" wrote in message
...
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip). The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which
unfortunately had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging
in a deer park with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At
least night temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any
mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure
time for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only
hinted at in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a
H-EQ5 Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB
(2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan


very nice Stefan

Can your camera read more pixels than are actually on a line? So can you
tell it to read 3500 pixels from a line?
if so we can get it to overscan and I can walk you through how to do a
photon / dark transfer curve characterization

you will measu
1) read noise
2) full well
3) camera gain
4) photo response non-uniformity
5) dark signal non-uniformity
6) linearity

no special tools or calibrated light sources are needed.

If you can do this, it would be great to add to my collection of other
8300-based cameras. I have measured the U8300, ML8300, QSI583 and today am
working on the ST8300 from SBIG.

The ATIK383 would be a nice addition to the list

rdc

Rick,

five minute darkframes have three ADU higher background than bias frames
at -20degrees, so I would say that dark current is neglegible. The Kodak
chip has a lot more "warm" pixels than the Sony chip of my SXV-H9 camera
though, but they usually can be taken care of with a hot pixel filter in
AstroArt.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
On 4/21/2010 3:13 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip). The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which
unfortunately
had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in a deer park
with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least night
temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure
time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only hinted
at
in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a
H-EQ5
Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB (2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan




That covers a lot of real estate very nicely!

How does its dark current compare to your Sony chip cameras?

BTW, the wolves I hear howling aren't fenced in nor the black bear that
took out my neighbors bird feeders she forgot to take in.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

With all the subs you take I'd think dithering and a sigma stack would
remove the warm pixels without needing a filter.

Sorry about the shutter issue. What does it use, a leaf shutter? I've
never had an issue with the rotating shutter in the STL and it gets a
lot of use all night long most clear nights when the moon isn't too
strong. At least it is under warranty.

Rick



On 4/23/2010 11:06 AM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Rick,

five minute darkframes have three ADU higher background than bias frames
at -20degrees, so I would say that dark current is neglegible. The Kodak
chip has a lot more "warm" pixels than the Sony chip of my SXV-H9 camera
though, but they usually can be taken care of with a hot pixel filter in
AstroArt.

Stefan

"Rick schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
On 4/21/2010 3:13 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip). The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which
unfortunately
had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in a deer park
with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least night
temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure
time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only hinted
at
in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a
H-EQ5
Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB (2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan




That covers a lot of real estate very nicely!

How does its dark current compare to your Sony chip cameras?

BTW, the wolves I hear howling aren't fenced in nor the black bear that
took out my neighbors bird feeders she forgot to take in.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".




--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Rick,

the camera has a rotating shutter which is supposed to give useful results
down to 0.2 second exposures. It worked well the first three nights, but now
it tends to stay open. Of course I could do a "manual shutter" by covering
the scope during readout ;-)

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
With all the subs you take I'd think dithering and a sigma stack would
remove the warm pixels without needing a filter.

Sorry about the shutter issue. What does it use, a leaf shutter? I've
never had an issue with the rotating shutter in the STL and it gets a lot
of use all night long most clear nights when the moon isn't too strong.
At least it is under warranty.

Rick



On 4/23/2010 11:06 AM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Rick,

five minute darkframes have three ADU higher background than bias frames
at -20degrees, so I would say that dark current is neglegible. The Kodak
chip has a lot more "warm" pixels than the Sony chip of my SXV-H9 camera
though, but they usually can be taken care of with a hot pixel filter in
AstroArt.

Stefan

"Rick schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
On 4/21/2010 3:13 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip).
The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which
unfortunately
had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in a deer
park
with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least night
temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any
mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure
time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only
hinted
at
in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a
H-EQ5
Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB (2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan




That covers a lot of real estate very nicely!

How does its dark current compare to your Sony chip cameras?

BTW, the wolves I hear howling aren't fenced in nor the black bear that
took out my neighbors bird feeders she forgot to take in.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".




--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

For decades in my film days I used an Exa camera body that had a shutter
that would open but not close. Since you couldn't flip the mirror prior
to exposure I used the hat trick both to open and to close the exposure.
Once capped I could advance the film which did close the shutter, and
drop the mirror of course. I don't want to go back to those days!

Good luck on the trip, at least you still have the old cameras I hope.

Rick

On 4/23/2010 7:01 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Rick,

the camera has a rotating shutter which is supposed to give useful results
down to 0.2 second exposures. It worked well the first three nights, but now
it tends to stay open. Of course I could do a "manual shutter" by covering
the scope during readout ;-)

Stefan

"Rick schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
With all the subs you take I'd think dithering and a sigma stack would
remove the warm pixels without needing a filter.

Sorry about the shutter issue. What does it use, a leaf shutter? I've
never had an issue with the rotating shutter in the STL and it gets a lot
of use all night long most clear nights when the moon isn't too strong.
At least it is under warranty.

Rick



On 4/23/2010 11:06 AM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Rick,

five minute darkframes have three ADU higher background than bias frames
at -20degrees, so I would say that dark current is neglegible. The Kodak
chip has a lot more "warm" pixels than the Sony chip of my SXV-H9 camera
though, but they usually can be taken care of with a hot pixel filter in
AstroArt.

Stefan

"Rick schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
On 4/21/2010 3:13 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
Last Friday I received my new Atik 383L+ camera (Kodak KAF8300 chip).
The
same night I went for a two night outing to dark skies (which
unfortunately
had mediocre transpareny and bad seeing). We were imaging in a deer
park
with two packs of wolves howling in nearby fences. At least night
temperatures fell below zero, so we were not attacked by any
mosquitoes.

First image was the region around NGC 4274 in Coma. As usual exposure
time
for RGB was not long enough to give good colours, so they are only
hinted
at
in this picture.
Distance between reducer and camera was 6mm too large, which led to
distorted stars near the edge. I'll take better care next time.

Taken with Atik 383L+ camera, Skywatcher ED120 plus 0.85 reducer on a
H-EQ5
Synscan mount, 7x15 minutes Lum, 1x15 minutes each for RGB (2xbinning).

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp3/4274colourgut.jpg

Stefan




That covers a lot of real estate very nicely!

How does its dark current compare to your Sony chip cameras?

BTW, the wolves I hear howling aren't fenced in nor the black bear that
took out my neighbors bird feeders she forgot to take in.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Hi Stefan

I saw your post about the shutterproblem in your ATIK 383. I have the same camera and my shutter doesn't close either. I'm curious to know what your experience was. Did they fix it or what happened?

Morten