I understand the concept of darks, flats, bias and I routinely take these when using my Nikon D800e modified, or D810a. These images on this link
http://www.astrobin.com/users/Nikonshooter/ I took this year (I just started doing astrophotography 15 months ago and I am struggling tring to figure things out - thanks to forums and tutorials online for my education).
When I bought the CCD camera (wish I had chosen mono now) I gave it a go and was disappointed with the camera's image quality and wrote it off as human error. Being new to astronomy and specifically astro-imaging....I was sure it was my failure to know how to properly use it. That may still be the case. I hope so. At any rate, I packed it back in the box and thought of selling it.
Recently while searching through Astrobin images taken with the Atik 383l color I was blown away by some of the outstanding imaging.
I have attached this effort which is M81, and is comprised of 50, 400 seconds subs, 25, 400 second darks (taken after taken subs, closed shutter and covered scope) 50 Bias taken at the fasted shutter speed ota covered and 50 flats, taken next morning shooting sky before sunrise covered with softbox cover. I used both DSS to calibrate, register, and debayer......and PixInsight's Batch processing script. The results of both DSS and Pixinsight were pitiful. I would sell it but I am not too sure I have a good camera or a bad one....and I wouldn't want to sell a defective one.
The image turned out so awful I came to the conclusion it is not worth fooling with and perhaps I have bought a lemon. The image below is the result of the Pixinsight batch and the only thing I did was a histogram stretch. I didn't bother to bring up the banding.
I have tried reading from these forums as much as I could before posting my issues.
1) I use AC power (from the house - I ordered the power chord using Atik's recommendation. It may all be my problems are stemming from electrical issues.....but I used a battery pack (Celestron) when I first got the camera and had the same RGB pixels and banding.
2) I am really unsure of how to set the temp correctly. So I use a target about 10 degrees below ambient - here in may lie my problem. I really need a tutorial (easy to understand one) on how to set the temp......I have no clue what terms like Delta are....easy peazy for me.
3) I use APT - Astro Photography Software to image. (I plan to use Artemis next time)
If you have any suggestions I would jump at trying them.
At age 71 I hate to waste a night of imaging trying to figure it out. I read reviews from may 383l owners that they are getting great images right out of the box.
Not me!