25 replies to this topic

[joeytroy]

So my ASI533 arrived yesterday! I was so excited to get it however was super cloudy (darn murphy) and that mean old moon was right on top of Orion when I set up last night. I was able to shoot for 3x300s for a total of 15 minutes of exposure before the clouds shut me down for the night and no dithering so there is some hot pixels of course. However for 15 minutes on a dark nebula I am pretty excited, I can't wait till I can get 6+ hours on M78

 

 

I must say I didn't think configuring the camera would be so easy and just love the cooling feature! Was super easy to get to all dialed in at 101 gain and -10c. What a difference not hearing it take images like a DSLR, I was like did it take picture??? Where is the click???  . Anyway it looks like I will need to complete my endeavour next week as Wednesday looks like the first day clouds will be out my area.

 

Updated rig

Edited by joeytroy, 24 January 2021 - 09:56 AM.

[Madratter]

Congrats!

[DeanCN]

congrats on the new camera! Nice rig pic too.  Out of curiosity, have you

tried USB cabling the EAF and the ASI(?) guide cam to the ASI533 for less

cable feeds off the mount?

[Lucas.Maguire]

Nice shot! Glad the 533 is pleasing you like me as well!

[joeytroy]

congrats on the new camera! Nice rig pic too.  Out of curiosity, have you

tried USB cabling the EAF and the ASI(?) guide cam to the ASI533 for less

cable feeds off the mount?

Dean,

 

Thanks! I was thinking of changing the feed however I did clean it up some more and tested rotation of the RA/DEC all over the place and the cables seem fine. Since power still needs to feed to the EAF I figured might as well leave the USB cable dropping down to the Air with the power. One thing I wanted to do was leave one of the ports on the ASI533 for the 64GB USB stick that was included with the Air so I don't need to keep taking out the small MicroSD card. Worried of losing that but I do have a backup of course just one less thing to mess with. Also if for some reason I need to get a due heater (I doubt it as it's dry and not too too cold in NM) I still have a free port on the Camera and if it needs USB3 I can always switch out the 120mm guide camera to the ASI533 from the Air and then due heater to the USB3 port on the Air, or even use the 4th 12v port on the Air. Honestly it just just get any easier with this setup! It just works so well and now that my fits files are 18MB compared to 48.3MB on my old Nikon DSLR it loads the images much faster when using the ASI Air application from my iPad and will also be easier to integrate with PixInsight! Only thing I have left is some filters so I can fake narrow band https://www.cloudyni...ith-osc-images/ and my rig will be complete!

 

 

 

 

Edited by joeytroy, 24 January 2021 - 01:14 PM.

[DeanCN]

yes, those micro-SD cards seem really fragile: now I boot my pi from an SSD.

One other option might be to mount the ASIAir on the dovetail front under the EAF.

Thanks again for sharing your rig pics and reminding me that I needed to update my

equip profile to include my ASI533!

[dx_ron]

On my regular (non-Air) pi I keep the OS on the SD card, but I keep a USB flash drive in one of the USB3 ports and all the images are saved there. Both much, much faster than writing big files to the SD card, but also much, much easier to take out to copy the images to my desktop computer.

[MeenSeen]

Joey,

 

I hope you have an upcoming video....

 

Why did you go with the 533 vs something like the 183 Pro?

[joeytroy]

Joey,

 

I hope you have an upcoming video....

 

Why did you go with the 533 vs something like the 183 Pro?

I was looking at the 533 vs the 183 for a long while. The bottom line is the 533 is the better camera hands down https://compare.astr...ing-camera.com/. After learning about the full well capacity https://allans-stuff...apacity-matter/ and also zero amp glow that was one of my big decision points.

 

With the RedCat 51 the 183 is the better paired camera if you base it of arc seconds which is 1.98. With the 533 it's 3.1 arc seconds which is considered undersampled

http://astronomy.too...ccd_suitability

 

When using my Nikon D5500 I was at 3.21 arc seconds with the RedCat so it was an improvement moving to the 533 at 3.1. As long as you dither and Drizzle in PI you can correct the undersampling which I posted about on my website https://joeytroy.com...zzle-my-nizzle/

 

The final straw for me was also the FOV. Some people may or may not like the square sensor however for most the objects I am excited to shoot they look great to me, so that was the final tipping point https://telescopius....scope-simulator. I may run another video on it in time, weather is trash right now so I am not going to get out for a while, maybe this Wednesday but will see.

Edited by joeytroy, 25 January 2021 - 03:35 PM.

[CCD-Freak]

I chose the ASI-533MCP for all the reasons listed above and I like the way most objects are framed with the square sensor.

I have found that you should use a UV-IR filter with the ASI-533 even when imaging with a reflector. 

 

Total exposure time is the key so shoot lots of subs.  I used to think it was not possible to image dark nebulae with an OSC camera.

 

B-150  300 x 60"  Gain = 100 -5°C through a Sharpstar 150mm Hyper Newt  No filter  (should have used UV-IR filter)

 

 

I have been very happy with this camera.

 

John

CCD-Freak

WD5IKX

Edited by CCD-Freak, 27 January 2021 - 11:33 AM.

[zxx]

Dean,

 

Thanks! I was thinking of changing the feed however I did clean it up some more and tested rotation of the RA/DEC all over the place and the cables seem fine. Since power still needs to feed to the EAF I figured might as well leave the USB cable dropping down to the Air with the power. One thing I wanted to do was leave one of the ports on the ASI533 for the 64GB USB stick that was included with the Air so I don't need to keep taking out the small MicroSD card. Worried of losing that but I do have a backup of course just one less thing to mess with. Also if for some reason I need to get a due heater (I doubt it as it's dry and not too too cold in NM) I still have a free port on the Camera and if it needs USB3 I can always switch out the 120mm guide camera to the ASI533 from the Air and then due heater to the USB3 port on the Air, or even use the 4th 12v port on the Air. Honestly it just just get any easier with this setup! It just works so well and now that my fits files are 18MB compared to 48.3MB on my old Nikon DSLR it loads the images much faster when using the ASI Air application from my iPad and will also be easier to integrate with PixInsight! Only thing I have left is some filters so I can fake narrow band https://www.cloudyni...ith-osc-images/ and my rig will be complete!

 

 

 

 

Your pics of your rig are scary with no counterweights.

[jerr]

Nice color match of you rig. Congrats!

[joeytroy]

Your pics of your rig are scary with no counterweights.

I leave the counter weights in the porch. It saves me some weight moving it back and forth from my office. We dehydrate jerky in the porch from time to time so I don’t want to leave all the equipment in there with the humidity it creates.

Edited by joeytroy, 27 January 2021 - 01:55 PM.

[CoHPhasor]

 Joey, that rig is sexy.

The cabling?
I entertained grabbing a Redcat/Spacecat, but I have a fire-breathing monster I'm going to try to tame instead.

 

 I hope you get some nice clear skies and beautiful, long exposures!

[joeytroy]

 Joey, that rig is sexy.

The cabling?
I entertained grabbing a Redcat/Spacecat, but I have a fire-breathing monster I'm going to try to tame instead.

 

 I hope you get some nice clear skies and beautiful, long exposures!

Thanks! I was going for cheap and functional I have thought of tearing down the EQM-35 and making sure it all matches with the black and red but not sure I want to spend the time on it specially since it sits outside in the dark  I am hopeful tonight will be the night as there is not a cloud in the sky. Funny as the night before it snowed but melted all yesterday. Got to love the weather in NM.

[CCD-Freak]

Your rig would look great sitting on a GEM45......

 

 

(^8

 

John

CCD-Freak

WD5IKX

[JamesTX]

Nice setup 

 

 

[joeytroy]

Your rig would look great sitting on a GEM45......

 

ioptron_gem45_mount_2.jpg

 

(^8

 

John

CCD-Freak

WD5IKX

John,

 

Are you trying to split my marriage?     

[Jared]

John,

 

Are you trying to split my marriage?   

Always remember, the correct number of mounts to own is 'N-1' where 'N' is the number of mounts that would result in a separation.  Same calculation for optical tubes. And cameras. The trick is balancing the three.

[joeytroy]

Always remember, the correct number of mounts to own is 'N-1' where 'N' is the number of mounts that would result in a separation.  Same calculation for optical tubes. And cameras. The trick is balancing the three.

Jared,

 

hahah nice! I will need to remember that 

[CCD-Freak]

So......N+1 is where you get in trouble.  I will have to remember that. 

 

 

John

CCD-Freak

WD5IKX

[joeytroy]

Finally finished M78 with 5 hours of total integration.

 

[CCD-Freak]

The link does not work now. ??

 

I hope you are still loving the ASI-533MC-Pro. 

 

I did this image of M78 using the ASI-533MC and a 150mm F2.8 Hyper Newt  but processed the data as mono in Astro Art 7.

 

 

 

[joeytroy]

I deleted it and reposted it due to reprocessing. Still loving my 533!!!

https://www.astrobin...users/joeytroy/

Edited by joeytroy, 14 March 2021 - 10:33 PM.

[acommonsoul]

Dean,

 

Thanks! I was thinking of changing the feed however I did clean it up some more and tested rotation of the RA/DEC all over the place and the cables seem fine. Since power still needs to feed to the EAF I figured might as well leave the USB cable dropping down to the Air with the power. One thing I wanted to do was leave one of the ports on the ASI533 for the 64GB USB stick that was included with the Air so I don't need to keep taking out the small MicroSD card. Worried of losing that but I do have a backup of course just one less thing to mess with. Also if for some reason I need to get a due heater (I doubt it as it's dry and not too too cold in NM) I still have a free port on the Camera and if it needs USB3 I can always switch out the 120mm guide camera to the ASI533 from the Air and then due heater to the USB3 port on the Air, or even use the 4th 12v port on the Air. Honestly it just just get any easier with this setup! It just works so well and now that my fits files are 18MB compared to 48.3MB on my old Nikon DSLR it loads the images much faster when using the ASI Air application from my iPad and will also be easier to integrate with PixInsight! Only thing I have left is some filters so I can fake narrow band https://www.cloudyni...ith-osc-images/ and my rig will be complete!

 

 

 

 

One thing I have learned in this ever expensive hobby. is that one's rig is never complete. New stuff fever always kicks in lol.