After days of waiting, I managed to have a first session with my new mono camera, a ZWO ASI 533MM. For the last 4 years I have been using my trusty one-shot-colour camera, an Altair Astro 294C, but I wanted to try a monochrome sensor.
When I swapped my eyepieces for a camera, I wanted to see colour, more detail and fainter objects. In the last 4 years of
The telescope is a CPC-800 on an
background extraction acted as a flat. However, there is a large dust mote bottom right that really requires a flat or cleaning (maybe next time). All the images are cropped and scaled in
In no particular order, here are some of my observations from the first night.
The bright cluster of stars is set against the dust clouds of its host galaxy (M31). The speed the image built up was incredible.
In December I observed M74, so I thought a cheeky non-scientific comparison between the colour and mono images would be good. The mono image was impressive from the first frame. A real joy to use for
The mono image (533mm) is 09 January 2024 18:44:26 (
The colour image (294C) is 09 December 2023 20:24:23 (
When I started
09 January 2024 22:13:28 (
09 January 2024 20:18:25 (
I thought I would try my hand at binning (2x2) on IC342. Wow! Swapping the resolution for increased SNR (I watched a video ) was amazing. Even faster image build-up. This is the only image I edited in
10 January 2024 02:40:03 (
In summary, wow! That was like purchasing a bigger telescope. The speed the image built-up compared to the colour 294 imager was incredible. No messing about with colour balance, just simple stretching of the image. Also, due to the size of the 533MM and the side entry USB cable I didn’t need to use a star-diagonal to get the 105mm of back spacing. A simple straight-through configuration that my CPC-800’s stubby little fork-arms can swing up to the Zenith.
The uncooled 533 sensor was also amazing. Really clean, no need to use darks, no banding. It maintained a temperature within 4 degrees Celsius of ambient. Last night the ambient temperature was around 0 C.
The mono
Have fun.
Pete