Atik Infinity

[Chris]

My reading of what Jo is saying is that the camera itself is NOT limited in the exposure it can use.  If you want to take 30 minute exposures with it you can.

What is limited is the live view software. It doesn't seem unreasonable to limit live view to 2 minutes,  that's quite a long way from live, even almost live.

If you want to acquire traditional long exposure images with this camera you can.  I guess it will use the usual controllers for that.

Chris

[Astrojedi]

Thanks Chris. I am very interested in purchasing this camera as I really do like the overall experience but I would like someone from the company to confirm that there is no 2 minute limitation.

I live in a highly light polluted area and going deeper beyond the brighter DSOs or teasing out subtle detail means using narrow band or light pollution filters. When using filters sometimes I can go to 3-5 minutes for the first sub (subsequent subs may be shorter).

For many of us unfortunately dealing with light pollution is a reality and experimentation is the name of the game. I think it is a little short sighted for Atik to assume that everyone conducts astronomy from dark skies such as the ones in the live broadcast video.

Maybe another demo with narrow band filters may help folks understand what to expect with a 2 minute limitation.

 

[Carl]

Guys I'm not sure your understanding what the camera is for. Video astronomy is live view or near live view and not imaging. It's purpose is to be able to see in seconds for openreach etc. The software is live stacking short exposures instead of long exposures then stacking and processing later. So you don't need anything near 2 minutes or cooling. As far as I can read the camera will work with Atiks normal software and let you expose for as long as you wish.

[JimH123]

I really like the concept of this SW.  Is there any chance that a version of this might be released using a more advanced CCD, i.e., one with a larger sized CCD with more pixels, with cooling and without the 2 min restriction?  If it were to have the same auto stacking ability, it would be quite a product.

[Jo]

There's a definitely a chance - it's something we'd really like to do but there are a few techincal/performance barriers we need to break through first. I don't have a realistic time frame I can give at the moment, but hopefully we'll crack it later in the year!

[bwa]

Any chance the software could be used with other ATIK cameras?  I think it would be great with my ATIK 428Ex!

bwa

[Jo]

It's something we'd like to explore but software-wise we've been focussed on the restructure of our drivers and DLL, so we haven't had much time to dedicate to it. Hopefully it's something we might be able to look into later in the year!
Jo

[JimH123]

There's a definitely a chance - it's something we'd really like to do but there are a few techincal/performance barriers we need to break through first. I don't have a realistic time frame I can give at the moment, but hopefully we'll crack it later in the year!

There are a few easy improvements I would like to see made to the Atik Infinity SW:

1)  Would like to enable/disable a cross hair cursor on the screen.  I find that I makes sense to do my mount alignment directly on the screen and to not mess around installing an eyepiece in the scope for this purpose.  As a temp solution I have tied a vertical and horizontal string on my laptop screen to represent a cross hair cursor and with this I do the alignment.  When done, I just shove it out of the way.

2)  Would like a night vision option for the screen.  It is too bright and knocks out my night vision.

3)  I have trouble sorting out the FIT files.  Perhaps it should ask for a name when turning on and to use that as part of the base name. 

4)  In playback mode, I should be able to delete FIT images I don't want to use or keep.

5)  Put a clock on the screen. 

Thanks

[bwa]

It's something we'd like to explore but software-wise we've been focussed on the restructure of our drivers and DLL, so we haven't had much time to dedicate to it. Hopefully it's something we might be able to look into later in the year!
Jo

I would have hoped for sooner.  Considering StarLight Live works with their full line of cameras and is in its third release, I've purchased an StarLight Express UltraStar camera.  I do like the footprint of the Infinity better but software/control rules!

bwa

[Jo]

Unfortunately we only have so many resources and they're currently focused on creating high performance cross-platform drivers! But of course I can understand your point, and StarLight Live and the Infinity software do have slightly different focuses.

I'd be interested to know which features StarLight Live offers for the Ultrastar that Infinity doesn't offer for the Infinity? Are you going mono and multi-spectral?

[bwa]

Unfortunately we only have so many resources and they're currently focused on creating high performance cross-platform drivers! But of course I can understand your point, and StarLight Live and the Infinity software do have slightly different focuses.

I'd be interested to know which features StarLight Live offers for the Ultrastar that Infinity doesn't offer for the Infinity? Are you going mono and multi-spectral?

Jo,

About a year ago I asked, "Any chance the software could be used with other ATIK cameras?  I think it would be great with my ATIK 428Ex!"

Any progress in this direction?  You had indicated something might happen by the end of 2016?  It has some impact upon whether I sell an ATIK 428Ex and go with a competitor's product!?

Thanks

bwa

P.S.:  I now have both the mono and color Infinity cameras but adding / subtracting future cameras will depend upon the ease of use and the Infinity software is the best there is!!