Page 1 of 1

ASI2600MC Pro- Initial observations

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 10:56 am
by umasscrew39
Finally received my ZWO ASI2600MC Pro and was anxious to try it despite a lot going against me last night:
1- sky was poor/below average
2. I only have 1.25" filters on my C11" at the moment so I had to do a little cropping
3- my guiding stopped working and could not fix it so I did 45 sec unguided subs

The combination of the above only allowed me to stack 3 mins worth of 45 sec subs. However, the positives were:
1. The 64 bit version of SharpCap worked great
2. The image produced nice color with low noise (like my ASI533) despite the poor/below average seeing.

Gain settings: I tried 0, 150, 200. This image is from gain 150; offset 10 using a L-Pro filter. Gain 0 produces a nice histogram but at 45s subs you can barely see the image. Gains of 150 and 200 appear to work but the left side of the histogram is clipped off. So, I need to play with this some more. I have seen gain 0 used with 5 min subs collected and the images look great.

I need to sort out my guiding problem but if I cannot, I may just collect a lot of 45-60s unguided subs. I prefer to do 90s subs but I need guiding for that and even for 60s at times.

M82.jpg
M82.jpg (970.36 KiB) Viewed 1974 times

Re: ASI2600MC Pro- Initial observations

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:08 pm
by chongo228
Awesome....I ordered mine on Sunday.

Re: ASI2600MC Pro- Initial observations

Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:06 pm
by nexusjeep
I am impressed with mine as well but need to get more time with it to really play with the settings I think once I fully get to grips with it then it will be my main go to camera over the ASI1600 mainly because of the easier work flow. Hopefully you have a better night soon to have more of an extensive play with the new kit.

Cheers
Nick

Re: ASI2600MC Pro- Initial observations

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:56 am
by umasscrew39
Thanks both and agree in that it might be my go-to camera as well. Much easier workflow like you say. Just got my guiding back working so hoping for some good weather this coming week to use it some more. Once I get it tuned to my liking, I may try to combine some Ha data with it using the ASI1600MM but will see how things go. However, I think I am done with the LRGB workflow +/- Ha as I just don't get enough good nights to do this as much as I wanted to and PixInsight has a nice script that let's you add OSC data to Ha mono data. Also still need to switch over to all 2" filters but will crop for now.