Good morning everyone.
For some time now, I’ve been experiencing a strange issue during acquisition with ASIAIR PRO using the ASI678MC on long exposures. The phenomenon is particularly easy to isolate and observe by acquiring dark frames, so I’m sharing three captured in sequence under identical conditions and settings.
In the preview of the three frames—numbered 26, 27, and 28—ASIAIR’s autostretch fails on frame 27 and displays it completely black. However, if I open the FITS files with PixInsight or any other software, all three appear to be fine and none show any obvious issues.
I’ve done a detailed analysis of the FITS in PixInsight and I’m also attaching the report file. The only thing that distinguishes the apparently corrupted frame from the other two is a significant difference in the Minimum Position value. All other parameters seem to be aligned.
Still, the fact is that ASIAIR has recently been unable to automatically stretch images sometimes even at 60 seconds exposure and actually all the images over 120s, or it does so inconsistently and randomly: during acquisition, under perfectly stable and unchanged conditions, some images are displayed as fully black in the preview, while others are stretched normally.
I’m also attaching a screenshot of the ASIAIR screen showing some of the previews taken in sequence: as you can see, up to 60s the previews look normal, then from 120s onward everything turns black. Yet, the histograms look fine and when I load the files in PixInsight, I don’t notice anything unusual with STF.
This only happens with the ASI678MC, not with other cameras—for example, it doesn’t occur with the ASI533MC PRO, and for sure it did not happen until some weeks ago.
Has anyone ever observed a similar phenomenon or has any idea what might be going on? Maybe an issue of the last firmware update of ASIAIR? I’d mostly like to understand whether this is just a preview display issue in ASIAIR, or if the FITS files are actually problematic.
Thank you for your support!
Carlo
Dark_180.0s_Bin1_gain100_20250806-074448_31.6C_0026.fit
Dark_180.0s_Bin1_gain100_20250806-074748_31.8C_0027.fit
Dark_180.0s_Bin1_gain100_20250806-075049_32.0C_0028.fit
Statistics.csv
IMG_0200.PNG
For some time now, I’ve been experiencing a strange issue during acquisition with ASIAIR PRO using the ASI678MC on long exposures. The phenomenon is particularly easy to isolate and observe by acquiring dark frames, so I’m sharing three captured in sequence under identical conditions and settings.
In the preview of the three frames—numbered 26, 27, and 28—ASIAIR’s autostretch fails on frame 27 and displays it completely black. However, if I open the FITS files with PixInsight or any other software, all three appear to be fine and none show any obvious issues.
I’ve done a detailed analysis of the FITS in PixInsight and I’m also attaching the report file. The only thing that distinguishes the apparently corrupted frame from the other two is a significant difference in the Minimum Position value. All other parameters seem to be aligned.
Still, the fact is that ASIAIR has recently been unable to automatically stretch images sometimes even at 60 seconds exposure and actually all the images over 120s, or it does so inconsistently and randomly: during acquisition, under perfectly stable and unchanged conditions, some images are displayed as fully black in the preview, while others are stretched normally.
I’m also attaching a screenshot of the ASIAIR screen showing some of the previews taken in sequence: as you can see, up to 60s the previews look normal, then from 120s onward everything turns black. Yet, the histograms look fine and when I load the files in PixInsight, I don’t notice anything unusual with STF.
This only happens with the ASI678MC, not with other cameras—for example, it doesn’t occur with the ASI533MC PRO, and for sure it did not happen until some weeks ago.
Has anyone ever observed a similar phenomenon or has any idea what might be going on? Maybe an issue of the last firmware update of ASIAIR? I’d mostly like to understand whether this is just a preview display issue in ASIAIR, or if the FITS files are actually problematic.
Thank you for your support!
Carlo
Dark_180.0s_Bin1_gain100_20250806-074448_31.6C_0026.fit
Dark_180.0s_Bin1_gain100_20250806-074748_31.8C_0027.fit
Dark_180.0s_Bin1_gain100_20250806-075049_32.0C_0028.fit
Statistics.csv
IMG_0200.PNG
