M42 - first attempt with QHY8L

[RobertM]

Hi Carole,

It doesn't look to me like it's an interlaced readout problem as that would affect every other line rather than every 85 pixels.  Could it be noise of some kind getting through to the electronics ?  Maybe the duty cycle of a dew heater that you have on ?  Later electronic controllers use continuous pulse width modulation to control the heat rather than switching on and off in longer cycles.  You could test that by changing the heating amount and seeing whether the spacing between the lines changes.

Hope that helps
Robert

[Carole]

Thanks Robert, however I don't have a controller for my dew heaters, I use the Dew Not DH from Bern, and all they have is a hub which then plugs into 12V, so I have no means of turning DH up and down, and therefore they don't have a controller.

Also I just realised I have confused every-one including myself, these are vertical lines, as I rotated the image by 90 degrees.  So does this point to a different explanation? 
Carole

[Carole]

Just had another go with the processing, and I think this is better than the first one:

[RobertM]

I can only speculate that it's something that's happening regularly enough that its appearing multiple times during CCD readout.  It may be a result of that particular CCD chip which is in the cheaper one shot colour cameras or a fault with the electronics.  Can't you send it back to the supplier as faulty ?  It seems to me that some people really like their QHY cameras and some have nothing but trouble with them; I just hope you're in the first category.

Robert

[Carole]

It was 2nd hand Robert, so can't send it back.

I'll persevere and ask on the QHYCCD forum. 

Thanks

Carole

[Carole]

Lines problem:

When I was capturing M42 I did start off using Nebulosity, but could not find where the images had been downloaded to and since I couldn't even examine them I changed over to APT.  Subsequently Mike found them for me at the Imaging session and so today I took a look at them, there is a further 40 mins of 600secs subs.  However I was not able to stack them with the ones done in APT because the Nebulosity subs were marginally bigger than the ones in APT and DSS refused to stack them.  This also means I couldn't calibrate them either as all the calibration files were captured in APT.

So I stacked the Nebulosity light subs on their own, and as far as I can see there are no lines on the Nebulosity version. 

So I am hoping this points to the lines problem being due to the fact that I think I used the fast download speed in APT whereas I didn't with Nebulosity.  Something that a number of people have mentioned might be the problem.  To be honest I had no idea what the speed download should have been at the time so had to make a decision. 

Anyway, until I get another clear night I won't be able to completely prove this.

Carole

[Mac]

Anyway, until I get another clear night I won't be able to completely prove this.

Why? could you not image a tree at the back of the house or something?
you are only looking for the noise readout.

Why waste a clear night testing (we dont get that many) when you can test during the day.

Mac.

[Carole]

I could try that Mac.

Carole

[Carole]

Oh joy,

Just heard back from the chap I bought the QHY8L camera from and he says he used to get vertical lines too!!
Says just do longer images and less stretching so they don't show.

Well I am still going to have a bash at trying to resolve the issue maybe he didn't bother. 

Carole

[Mac]

Just heard back from the chap I bought the QHY8L camera from and he says he used to get vertical lines too!!
Says just do longer images and less stretching so they don't show.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_different_ways_of_buying_e/consumer_buying_by_internet_mail_order_or_phone_e/what_do_the_distance_selling_regulations_cover.htm

get you money back, your covered under the distance selling regulations for new and secondhand goods.
There is a time limit though so just check.

If he knew that there was a fault with the camera, which he clearly did, then get a refund.

here is the full regulation http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2000/2334/made/data.pdf

He was in breach of the whole contract if he did not inform you before you purchased it that there was a fault,
there for you can get a full refund, period.

Interpretation
3.—(1)  In these Regulations—
"breach" means contravention by a supplier of a prohibition in, or failure to comply with a
requirement of, these Regulations;

Information required prior to the conclusion of the contract
7.—(1)  Subject to paragraph (4), in good time prior to the conclusion of the contract the supplier
shall—
(a) provide to the consumer the following information—
(i) the identity of the supplier and, where the contract requires payment in advance, the
supplier's address;
(ii) a description of the main characteristics of the goods or services;
(iii) the price of the goods or services including all taxes;
(iv) delivery costs where appropriate;

Section (ii) above, you were not informed of the fault.

Contact them and see what they do about it.

Mac.

[MarkS]

Just heard back from the chap I bought the QHY8L camera from and he says he used to get vertical lines too!!
Says just do longer images and less stretching so they don't show.

Since it affected his setup as well, it really sounds like a fault with the camera itself.  Longer images or less stretching really isn't a solution - you'll always want to stretch an image as far as possible to retrieve the faint data.

Unless you're particularly interested in getting it solved it yourself which may or may not be possible and might well involve additional expense, I would ask for your money back.  

[Carole]

Thanks for the links, but they all seem to apply to buying over the internet etc.

I did actually go to his house and installed the camera on my computer and made sure it worked before buying it, so it's not buying at a distance or over the internet, but from my point of view there was no way of knowing this might happen after hours of imaging.

Plus I bought it early December and not had a chance to use it before now.

I found this on the internet:

However, if you're buying from an individual – which constitutes a private sale – the rules are slightly different. For example, the so-called 'implied terms' of the Sales of Goods Act only apply to title and description, not to quality. This means the goods must simply correspond with the description, and be legally owned by the seller.

"That means a dress can't be a size 12 if it was described as a size 18," says Stephen McGlade, a solicitor at consumer group Which?

However, if an item is advertised as "a three-year-old bike", for example, it doesn't mean it has to work, just that it has to be three years old. In this case, especially when the item has been well-used, the transaction remains a case of caveat emptor, or 'buyer beware'. "This, put simply, is why you pay a lower price for second-hand goods," .

Unless you guys know of any other links I haven't found.

I've E Mailed him and told him that he should have informed me before selling it to me. See if that brings any joy in the first instance.  

Carole