Disaster!

Well I suppose it was only a matter of time before this happened but last night I managed to drop my ATIK16HR

At first I though I had gotten away ith it. Apart from a small dink in the paintwork it looked fine. I gave it a shake and nothing rattled, all good so far. I removed the coma corrector to have a look at the optical window. It was then I saw to my horror that the CCD chip had become unseated and was now loose inside the sealed CCD chamber :shock:

Anyway I rang Rui in ATIK instruments this morning and he couldn't have been more helpful. He asked me to send the camera back to him and assuming there is actually nothing broken inside the camera he will rehouse the CCD for me. Kudos to Rui for that.

Co-incidentally just yesterday I ordered an ATIK 16HRC, same camera but a single shot colour version. The idea behind this is to enable me capture colour data in one shot rather than through three separate filters as at present. Of course in theory taking the colour through filters is the way to go, in practice the weather in this country means that opportunities to get full LRGB sets are rare.

I'm confident that even with a slightly lower QE than its monochrome brother, The ATIK16HRC will be more than capable of caputuring the colour data I need in a single session and when combined with a luminance image taken with the monochrome cam, should lose little.

Anyway its off to hospital for my poor camera, but the good news is when it's discharged it will be joined by a lovely shiny new colour twin brother!

:shock:
Hi Dave, That is really unfortunate!

It looks like the people in ATIK Instruments are looking after you which is a great relief I’m sure, and I guess they are no strangers to coming across similar situations on more than one occasion.
Looking forward to any image postings you have Dave with the new Colour version, should be interesting to make comparisons and will it be easier to setup and image with.
Hope the patient will be well soon and returned to where it rightly belongs!

Clear skies
Mike

Well I suppose it was only a matter of time before this happened but last night I managed to drop my ATIK16HR

Dave,

If it makes you feel any better, you have company. About two years ago my CCD camera fell about two meters and I had serious problems as well. The cooling stopped working, the needle which allows the filter carousel to rotate broke/snapped in such a way that I had to replace the carousel as well as the back cover plate of the filter wheel. In other words, 500 euro damage including 250 euro for UPS (for a 2.5 kg package!).

Co-incidentally just yesterday I ordered an ATIK 16HRC, same camera but a single shot colour version. The idea behind this is to enable me capture colour data in one shot rather than through three separate filters as at present. Of course in theory taking the colour through filters is the way to go, in practice the weather in this country means that opportunities to get full LRGB sets are rare.

In fact you can be clever and capture your LUM with one camera and the RGB with the second (colour) camera and proceed with LRGB processing. This effectively reduces your work roughly in half since there two sets of captures (L, RGB) as opposed to four sets (L, R, G, .

I'm confident that even with a slightly lower QE than its monochrome brother, The ATIK16HRC will be more than capable of caputuring the colour data I need in a single session and when combined with a luminance image taken with the monochrome cam, should lose little.

I hope you are right. Part of the reason I picked up an ST-10XME (85% QE) is the fact that some objects like galaxies have very low colour signal and which means long total exposures. If your colour version has a lower QE, I hope and trust it will allow you to make it up with the triple signal capture.

Anyway its off to hospital for my poor camera, but the good news is when it's discharged it will be joined by a lovely shiny new colour twin brother!

Just don't use UPS for either leg of the trip. It cost me just as much with UPS than it did to fix the multiple damages incurred by my camera. In fact, I did the customs clearing myself and WITHOUT UPS ... otherwise, god help me.

OUCH! :shock:
Sorry to hear the news Dave.
As least you can have the comfort in knowing that your camera will be looked after in relatively better condition to what humans get in our hospitals - no queuing on a trolley overnight, speak to & discuss the "operation" with the "surgeon" himself and little danger of picking up anything unwanted illnesses while there.

of course the word "disaster" means "bad star"
I know I will drop my C11 sometime getting it onto the mount

of course the word "disaster" means "bad star"

Now thats interesting!


Sorry to hear about the bad alignment of the stars in your favour Dave!

I know I will drop my C11 sometime getting it onto the mount

With any luck you won't be carrying your scope still actually attached
to its tripod down the stairs and trip over
a handbag your wife convientiently left there because stairs are
just so the most commonsensical place to leave things with
big loops attached down on.

Dave,
Sometimes I think we do these things subsequently coz we
want an excuse to buy something better!

For me that would include among other things eyes in my knees.