ASI 174MC Deep Sky Imaging issues

kmmathews

I have been trying to use my ASI 174 MC camera for deep sky imaging. When I take exposures greater than 15 seconds and the gain greater than 300+ I get a lot of hot pixels. I'm using Firecapture 2.4 and when I use the hot pixel detection function it indicated too many for the threshold level. I had my gain set at 400. Another problem is when I take a 60 second exposure the image is filled with the star and hundreds of pixels and the background is blue. Can some tell if I'm using the camera wrong? Should the gain never be set to 400? The camera performs well with imaging the moon. Thanks in advance

topboxman

I think what you are seeing is most likely normal. My ASi120MC-S also has lots of hot pixels even at five seconds. ASI cameras are not cooled so I am not surprised what you are seeing. I have seen other people's homemade coolers attached to their ASI cameras and their darks are much cleaner at longer exposure when the camera is cooled. ASI will come with cooled cameras soon.

Have you tried enabling dark subtraction in FireCapture?

Peter

kmmathews

No I have not I haven't learned all the features yet. I appreciate your reply, it is nice to know that the camera isn't broken. I'll let you know what I learn as I keep trying things.