Quantix CCD Imaging

I recently purchased a used Photometrics Quantix Scientific Grade KAF 6303E CCD Imaging Camera on Ebay. The camera required a shutter, shutter housing and camera mount to get it into working condition for astronomy use. These were scavenged from a second incomplete camera.. The Quantix is extremely sensitive and has a full well capacity of 85000 Ke- and gain of 4.5e-/adu. Constant cooling to -30 degrees celsius is easily obtained.. I run the camera acquisition software on a desktop PC via Remote Desktop from a laptop. The laptop runs the guiding camera and mount control software. I use Micromanager for image acquisition, PHD for guiding and Skymap Pro for mount control. The mount is a Skywatcher HEQ5Pro, connected via Eqmod to the laptop. The guidescope is a standard Skywatcher 8x50 finder with adapter for a QHY5LII guide camera. A very strong, focuser is required for this camera,as it is quite large and heavy.

Eta Carinae/Keyhole Nebula

Running Chicken Nebula