Atik 314E

[jaygpoo]

Dear knowledgable ones, I have just brought ba second hand Atik 314E in good condition. I have been using a QHY8L for sometime but wanted to try mono imaging . I also managed to buy a unwanted brand new  Atik manual 5 filter wheel. So using my 80mm ED pro I connected up and started my alignment. Locked on to capilla and centered/ focused. 2 more and I was set up to image something. I thought I would try M27 and skewed over . I took a 5sec preview and saw stars but nothing else. I took a 60 sec exposure expecting to see something as I have done with my QHY8L but again nothing. Now I know that the chip is very small compared to the QHY8L but the field of view app I was looking at was indicating what I would expect to see but was not. I moved the scope about but still nothing. I tried other objects but still no joy. So what am I doing so wrong. There is a display adjustment window but that did not bring anything to the fore. I have a x6 reducer which I then attached and got into focus expecting that to help but NO. Talking about reducers I can screw it to the camera front but then there is no way I can attach the filter wheel. If I attach it to the front of the filter wheel I can not focus. So back to the 314e. Any ideas on settings etc or can I use other software to operate the camera. It has a fan only cooling system with a warm up setting to end in. I was lead to believe that a few secs of exposure on easy objects would give me an image that I could then centre and start taking long exposures but all I can see is a very nice guide camera and thats not the impression of this make of ccd that I got from so many people. Jay

[riklaunim]

Small field of view means you have to hit the object pin-point with GoTo to see it on the camera. I usually align EQ6 on one (sometimes two if available) star that is close the object I want to photograph.

[jaygpoo]

All advise welcome . many thanks

[carastro]

Firstly are you sure your target was in the FOV?

IN order to see if M27 was there it is a good idea to use 3 x binning and a few of seconds looping as this should show up the nebulosity more easily, assuming of course you do indeed have the target in the FOV.  Being a much smaller chip that the QHY8L it might be possible that you missed your target.

You didn't say whether you were using a filter, if you are using a narrowband filter you'll need probably about 10 secs with binning.

N.B. Don't forget to go back to NOT binning once you are ready to start imaging.

Carole 

[jaygpoo]

Binning is not my top subject so can you try to explain what going from bin1 to bin 3 changes what I see in the display image. Jay and thanks for your time in answering.

[ChrisLX200]

Get yourself set up with a plate-solver (there are free ones like Astrototilla) then you can discover exactly where the scope is pointing at any time. Used in combination with a computer connected to the mount it will put the object onto the chip even if pointing is not accurate. 60seconds should definitely have shown M27 on your screen, no doubt about it. 5 seconds would have shown it easily enough to recognise. If you have saved the images you took that showed apparently nothing but stars then you can still plate solve them now and find out how far out you were.

ChrisH

[D4N]

Binning combines the readout from adjacent pixels, this greatly increases sensitivity at the cost of resolution.

I would suggest plate solving if you can, this will get you in the right place every time and remove the guess work.

I don't even bother doing normal star alignments if I am plate solving I just let Astrotortilla sort it out

/Dan

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[Scott]

Did you try stretching the preview? If you are using the atik capture software, under the display heading, slide the log slider....just another option to try

[carastro]

Did you try stretching the preview? If you are using the atik capture software, under the display heading, slide the log slider....just another option to try

Yes good thought.  Also viewing in negative will sometimes show up nebulosity clearer but the log slider will need to go also in reverse.

Carole 

[Davey-T]

There should be plenty of stars around M27, try syncing and focusing on something unmistakable like Albiero, use finder scope to check with Artemis Capture set to looping 1 sec 2x2 on the quick exposure button then GOTO M27 and up the exposure to 10secs on the quick exposure looping tab, M27 should show up as fuzzy patch, try different filters.

On the display tab I've got mine set to Auto Stretch, log 0, don't think I've ever altered it.

Dave

[jaygpoo]

So I have learnt something here as I have never heard about plate solving. I have looked but the free software programes need to be linked to other payable ones and you also need a star catalogue  from what I can work out. Haveeas  downloaded astrotilla but not sure what it needs to work with. I have nebulosity 4 .  Maxin DL needs a mortgage to buy as do other ones suggested.  Any ideas on linked software to run a plate solver. 

[Davey-T]

Wouldn't bother with plate solving until you've got taking a basic image sorted.

Dave

[D4N]

Astrotortilla needs a way to talk to the mount, this will either be directly with Ascom or indirectly via an Ascom hub like POTH. POTH is free and is installed when you install Ascom

The other thing it needs is a way to get images, at the simplest it can use a file open dialogue and you just point it towards the file you want solved or it can connect to any Ascom compatible camera.

Nebulosity 4 actually has an Ascom driver so that it behaves like a camera, you can download this driver from the stark labs website.

As for the astrometry indices these are free from astrometry.net, you can either download them manually or download them using the Astrotortilla install file, just select the option to install additional indices.

There are some good threads about setting up Astrotortilla on this forum.

/Dan

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[r3i]

An excellent tutorial on setting up AstroTortilla can be found here: http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/2013/08/tutorial-imaging-setting-up-and-using.html?m=1

I use Nebulosity 4 and the current version of AT supports Nebulosity V2 & V3.  To get V4 to work, the easiest way is to download and install the ASCOM Camera Driver for Nebulosity located here: http://stark-labs.com/depot/beta/Nebulosity%20ASCOM%20Driver%20Setup.exe then select ASCOM Camera in the camera selection in AT.

AT works really well but I don't always use it as sometimes it is just as easy to 'star hop' to the target.  I usually start my session by slewing to a bright star to check the focus, then if the target object is nearby I star hop from there.

[ambro]

You can platesolve online http://nova.astrometry.net/uploadand sync telescope manualy.

[jaygpoo]

Dave, I have been imaging with my qhy8L for ages but just wanted to try mono imaging and got hold of this atik 314e. its the small chip size that is causing me the grief as I am so used to the bigger fov . Thanks to all for your thoughts and I will factor them in to my evening sessions. Jay

[Pompey Monkey]

Astrophotography tool (APT) http://www.ideiki.com/astro/Default.aspx has plate solving using either of a couple of free plugins, with associated free star databases. It works very well with an ASCOM compliant mount, even if you images are slightly out of focus. I have a pier so my PA is very consistent and I never bother with any alignment as the plate solving will get me on target from the parked position within a couple of minutes

However, as others have said, just get your hand in by taking some images, even if they are of random parts of the sky (you'll be amazed at how many stars there are on a good image!). Then build up your repertoire of skills and utilities as you feel comfortable.

No point trying to run before you can walk etc.

PS Plate solving won't cure the lousy weather.

[jaygpoo]

Well I have down loaded the astro tortilla software and studied the tutorial as suggested and used the bin 2x2 as also suggested. The other night I saw a clear sky and set up to test the system out. I can tell you  that I had the plate software taking the image and starting its checking but the bad news is although my excitement at seeing the start of the plating process had to be seen the cloud came over and that was that. Ah well. It proves once again that these online chats do serve a purpose in as much as they fire the seed of excitement  in people who may have been almost at the point of giving up. My brain is awash with info due to you lot and I am going to spent the xmas break putting it to some use. Hope you all have a good one and CLEAR SKIES TO YOU ALL ..   Jay

[carastro]

Don't despair once you find your target you'll be really pleased with a mono camera.  

Carole 

[ollypenrice]

If you were pointing at M27 with this camera and gave it a few seconds in Bin 1 and a reasonable stretch in Artemis Capture it would be there shouting at you. I can only imagine that you weren't quite on target.

Olly