Recommended Settings

It's hard to recommend the ideal settings of a camera because they depend on your particular conditions and the target that you are imaging. However, here are some pointers to help you get started:

  • Dew Heater
    Unless you live in an arid area, it's convenient to have it ON.

  • Target Dew Heater Strength
    Depending on your weather, keep it off if you live in a dry place. If you live in a humid area like Florida, raise it to 4, but remember that this will use a lot of power, and your camera will warm up. A value of 1 or 2 is acceptable in most cases.

  • Offset
    200 is a good starting point for most.
    One of our customers calculated the ideal offset for their sky conditions on the AP08CC using bias frames in NINA and found the following:
    HDR: gain 100, offset 1500
    LCG: gain 100, offset 245 (preset 256)
    HCG: gain  100,  offset 450 

  • Conversion Gain (HCG vs. LCG)
    It depends on your target and the trade-off between how much dynamic range you want and how long you can make your sub-exposures before getting elongated stars or star trails. You can start by using HCG and see how it feels. 
    If you want maximum dynamic range, excellent tracking, and the ability to spend much time on a target, try LCG.

  • Ultra mode or Low Noise
    ON is preferred because it provides a higher signal-to-noise ratio at the expense of a lower frame rate. However, it should be OFF if you are doing lucky imaging and need a higher frame rate.

  • High Fullwell Mode
    ON is nice.

  • Fan Speed
    This setting is only visible in some of the native camera integrations (e.g., NINA). It should always be 1 while the TE cooler is running.

  • Gain
    Use 100 if you have excellent tracking, your target is bright, and you want maximum dynamic range. However, if your target is dark, your tracking gives you elongated stars, and you have no way to improve them, then raise the gain to shorten the sub-exposures until the stars are round. Keep in mind that this will reduce your dynamic range, but you will still be able to get decent images.

  • Temperature
    We recommend cooling the sensor down to just 0 degrees Celsius because below this temperature, return is diminished, and you'll be subjecting the sensor to thermal stress unnecessarily. However, if the outdoor temperature is below zero Celsius, you may want to cool down the sensor at a lower temperature to maintain a stable and known temperature value that you can match later when creating dark frames. We do not recommend using the camera with the TE cooler OFF because the camera can get very hot.

To better understand each setting, please consult the pages dedicated to each setting.


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