Hi: I just purchased an STF-8300m camera...I took it outside for the first time tonight to create bias and dark frames at -20C. There is a horrific amp glow in the left upper corner with 10 min dark frames. I checked..this is amp glow not light leak, having tried with the cover on and entire scope covered. Also, Nebulosity allows you to close shutter..so I tried that, it's still there. I tried dark frame image capture using SkyX Professional, most recent build, as well as Nebulosity 3.2..it's the same with both. Both have a setting regarding fast readout...which was not selected on either during the testing. Is there something that can be done about this amp glow? Shouldn't the drivers direct the camera to have the amplifier on only when image exposure is complete? I had just downloaded all drivers last week, and checked again tonight and it says my drivers are up to date. jeff
You are almost certainly going to need to send in a raw fits file. There was some discussion of a file upload process here quite recently. Chris
Jeff, the STF-8300 controls its CCD Vdd itself, so any application has no influence on this setting. For other cameras, driver lowers the CCD's Vdd, which reduces amplifier glow, for exposures times >= 3 seconds. You can download my STF-8300 dark frame, exp = 600 sec., temp = -20 C and check it with your one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hw39oo8npbzht89/stf_8300_DF_600_2.fit?dl=0 Jan
Hi: thanks for the replies...Jan, your dark frame was what I was expecting to see, as I had seen with dark frames from my ATIK. I loaded my dark frame to dropbox..see link below. I took multiple frames, they were all the same. 600 sec exposure, -20C. You'll see the bright left upper corner https://www.dropbox.com/s/k7320bsraanix6u/Dark_neg20_SBIG.00000003.Dark.fit?dl=0 jeff
I tried to update the firmware to 2.45, ga to 2.16, the first few frames looked fine, no amp glow, then after 6 exposures at 600 sec -20C, the amp glow was back. this is completely unacceptable to me. I've talked to others with the same chip..there is no amp glow in their setup. I'm afraid that this is a defective camera. I think I need to get a replacement. It sounds like there is nothing else to try? jeff
