What would cause this with 2600mm camera?

10 replies382 views
Dan Kearl avatar
I am at a loss, same setup 3 nights in a row, first 2 nights excellent, third night images are way over exposed at same settings.
I am posting the Ha images, Oiii and Sii the same. The entire 3 hour session all the same.
300 sec images, 100 gain, -10c
Equipment:
Zwo 2600MM
Zwo 7 position filter wheel
Antila filters.
Askar 600 scope.
Darryl Ackerman avatar
High thin clouds will do that
Tony Gondola avatar
Clouds, fog, mist…
Alex Nicholas avatar
That's cloud… very thin, probably couldn't see it with your eyes, but that's cloud alright.
andrea tasselli avatar
It seems you have a bayer pattern in the second one, which is kinda odd.
Reg Pratt avatar
I've had this happen once with my 2600 and twice with my 268. Had to send them in for repair. As a matter of fact my 268 is at the repair center right now for this exact same issue.
Rick Krejci avatar
Hard to tell what overexposed is from stretched images.    What to the histograms look like from these 2 images?
Dan Kearl avatar
andrea tasselli:
It seems you have a bayer pattern in the second one, which is kinda odd.

Yes it does, I am afraid this was not a high cloud issue (there we're none).
I guess I wait for a clear night to find out but I am afraid it is the camera.
Darryl Ackerman avatar
Dan Kearl:
andrea tasselli:
It seems you have a bayer pattern in the second one, which is kinda odd.

Yes it does, I am afraid this was not a high cloud issue (there we're none).
I guess I wait for a clear night to find out but I am afraid it is the camera.

I have a pole master attached to the dec plate and take an image every 60 seconds so it's looking where my scope is. You'd be surprised at the high clouds that you cannot see are actually there. You can tell by obviously seeing the bright clouds that pass by but also by the varying intensity of the brightness from frame to frame. You may not see them, the weatherbug or whatever app will say there's none but it's very likely they are there.

Could be dew, high humidity, fog, I doubt it's the camera.

The bayer pattern could be from star alignment interpolation, if these are aligned images.
Bob Rucker avatar
One more possibility. If it was cold and humid and you did not turn on the camera dew heater the sensor could have frosted up. I'm a brand new 2600MM owner that just moved from the Arizona desert to ice cold central Washington. I just learned this lesson myself.
Helpful Concise
andrea tasselli avatar
Dan Kearl:
Yes it does, I am afraid this was not a high cloud issue (there we're none).
I guess I wait for a clear night to find out but I am afraid it is the camera.


*Hopefully it can be fixed without resorting to sending the camera away. Mine died on me just there and then.
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