Hi group! I have purchased an SBIG Aluma U694 this summer. I could not try it immediately due to collimation problems on my 10" F/4 Newtonian reflector. These problems are still not solved, but meanwhile I could nevertheless use some of the test frames that I captured to obtain decent results, at least at the center of the field. I can say that I am very satisfied with the camera and self-guiding filter wheel. It performs flawlessly, its cooling capacity is impressive, and the images are very clean. The only surprising thing is some amp glow, but appropriate calibration easily takes care of it. I have a question regarding the "free" version of MaxIm that I got with the camera, and with which I control it. Since apparently I don't have the privileges to post on the MaxIm DL forum (why?), I'll post it on the SBIG forum. But here I simply want to share two (slightly cropped) images with you. The first one is the core of the Heart nebula (IC 1805), with the star cluster Melotte 15. It is made of 32 x 600 sec. fames of Ha and 26 x 600 sec. of OIII through 3 nm Astrodon filters. A total of 9 hours and 40 minutes. More details are given at the bottom of the image in the frame. The second image is the result of a short set of 73 x 30 sec L and 10 x 60 sec each RGB frames of NGC 869, the western member of the Perseus Double Cluster. Hope you like these images! Daniel
Very nice. Off to a great start with your images! To get registered for full software support, you need to follow Step 2 here: https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/pages/TechSupportHowTo/ Just FYI, MaxIm LT is not "free"; it's is "included".
Thank you Doug! Yes, I know MaxIm LT is not free... it was just late evening and I didn't remember how to express it! Anyway, it's a great value for the overall price. I have built my experience in CCD imaging with the old CCDSoft, whose overall style is close to MaxIm. So most important features were immediately familiar to me. Now let's wait for a better weather... Daniel
