PixInsight is OK with the ZWO ASI294MC Pro After All!

[@JoesAstrophoto]

Great info! Thanks for all the hard work you do to help the rest of the community Kurt, it's greatly appreciated!

[@AstroQuest1]

Thanks Joe, same to you. I always take a peak at your videos. - Cheers Kurt

[@jimb7931]

I had a ZWO guide camera that had some dust on the sensor so any camera could have dust on the sensor. ZWO had some instructions as to how to remove the cover and carefully clean with alcohol. Problem solved but check with them.

[@AstroQuest1]

Hi Jim, I am not concerned with the dust donuts. I have cleaned my other camera's numerous times. There are dust donuts on there but I am talking about the red tint. This is some sort artifact on the Panasonic sensor that is known about but it passes the tolerances. I am O.K. with it since it calibrates out.

[@jimsastro7990]

Thanks Kurt very informative !

[@AstroQuest1]

My pleasure Jim! - Cheers

[@jlecomte0719]

Mystery solved, thanks Kurt!

[@AstroQuest1]

Thanks Julien!

[@DonSimon0210]

Thanks for this video. I also use the 294mcpro camera. When taking your “dark flats”, are you shooting those as darks or bias in your ASI software. Thanks again.

[@AstroQuest1]

Thanks Don, I shoot them as darks! Cheers

[@mikelockwood2104]

thank you sir !

[@AstroQuest1]

Thanks for the comment Mike.

[@Mistr_A]

Glad you got it sorted Kurt, yes the 294 mc sensor under certain conditions with HA or Dual band filters can exhibit that pattern.

[@AstroQuest1]

Yeah you got that right. The smaller the Ha-band pass the harder it is the worse it gets. Fortunately it calibrates out with flats - at least for me. - Cheers Kurt

[@jamesbasile6978]

Thanks for the info on this. What was specifically different about the flats from August as the ones in July? I also have the 294MC Pro, and I haven't had too many issues with flats. I did extensive reading up before the camera even arrived, and I don't think I ever attempted < 1 second flats with this camera, though. What I did to extend the exposure time was put simple car window tint (the stuff that comes on the roll) on my light board (similar one to yours.) This gives me about 6-7 second flats, and I haven't had an issue.

[@AstroQuest1]

Great idea with the window film James! I might get some and try it next time. The difference was I took them outside during the morning on one set, another set I took them against a white wall, with and without whit t-shirts, basically all different things. It was not till I got the drawing board until it was successful. I must mention, those flats did work with DSS, just not with PI. My conclusion is DSS is more forgiving with flats. - Cheers

[@boaty1968]

I had some issues this week Stacking some data from my zwo533mc after a bit of fault finding turned out I had to normalise the flats for OSc which is a option to tick in ASTAP , my flats are 3.3 sec now after dimming my light source with a 8” Newtonian, my flats look the best they have ever done , getting flats right is the biggest issue for many , glad you solved yours kurt.

[@AstroQuest1]

Thanks. There is something on that sensor though but fortunately it will calibrate out with good set of flats.

[@AZ4RunnersRealm]

Great follow up!!

[@AstroQuest1]

Thanks!

[@AstroQuest1]

Just got some more info with regard to the camera. There does in fact seem to be something on these sensors which becomes more visible with Ha filters. See Link: www.cloudynights.com/topic/661685-word-of-warning-asi294mc-pro-and-opt-triad-and-nb/ - Fortunately my new flats are able to calibrate the red tinted substance or whatever it is out.

[@AstronomyGuides]

Hey Kurt... what did you do specifically though to improve your flats? I have issues - still dust bunnies ! Did you just keep taking sets of Flats and trying to stack until the final image was better? or was there a 'key' checkbox, or change of process that helped? Thanks again !

[@AstroQuest1]

Yeah those dust bunnies. What I did was just adjust everything so the ADU was somewhere in the vicinity 30,000 (+/- 10,000), gain was the same as the lights - for me it was 120 using ASIAIR , and the exposure was between 1-6 seconds. You will have to adjust your light source to achieve that by adding a white t-shirt and possibly white paper between the light source and telescope. - Good luck

[@AstronomyGuides]

@@AstroQuest1 ah right. Forgot you had an astro camera. Im still on a DSLR... thats my next upgrade :)

[@nocturneastro2539]

Nice discovery, glad you have it sorted out. Although I am kind of traumatized with using pixinsights to stack. I used the original method and that felt like I needed to clean up my place after hosting a party of 30 people. (In regards to the amount extra files and crap it created)

[@AstroQuest1]

Thanks. I only PI for stacking because it is convenient and you are right about it making a lot of extra stuff. I think I like DSS the best and it is much quicker. Cheers Kurt

[@nocturneastro2539]

@@AstroQuest1 same, I saw very little difference between stacking in pixinsights and DSS. And DSS is far simpler without the annoying clean up.