Hello.
Please see attached an image I recently took on Apogee Alta F16000 using Ekos.
The lower half of the image is filled with ugly artifacts. Since the image captured for focusing does not seem to contain similar defects I suspect they occur during long exposures like this one which is 5 minutes long. I am not ruling out the possibility of sensor defects but I have not had a chance to look at the sensor itself because the camera has a mechanical shutter. The previous owner of the camera used Maxim DL 5 for imaging with this camera. I have not yet used Maxim DL with this camera to find out if similar artifacts emerge. If anyone out there has any idea please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help.
Takashi

Did you use flat correction frames?
What was the camera temperature? This could be icing.

It would highly unlikely that the Apogee Linux SDK introduces such noise. I'd recommend you test it with other software to confirm.

Thank you for your replies.
Tonight I tried imaging with Maxim DL 5 on Win7 with everything directly connected to the main Win7 computer. Every device is connected and recognized by Maxim DL 5 alright including the OK3 focuser but now the focuser does not work! When I captured the above images with Stellarmate I used the same Win7 computer for focusing and the OK3 focusing software worked! Now I am in a Catch 22 situation. Since the focuser does not work, I cannot confirm with Ekos if the defects are caused by icing or from other causes. I have no idea how I can get the OK3 focuser working again on the Win 7 computer. Does anyone have a copy of the OK3 focuser controlling software? The previous owner misplaced the original software CD packages and so there is no way to reinstall the software. I wonder if there is an archive of old astrophotography software.
Ekos works fine with the Apogee camera and the FLI filter wheel except for the OK 3 focuser. ASA10N is a laser sharp fine instrument. I would love to capture images with is fine instrument. ASA stopped making small aperture telescopes for amateurs and seems to be uncooperative regarding inquiries about their old telescopes.

Hello.
I just tried using OK3 focuser alone on the Win7 computer. It worked!
I don't know why it does not work if I use the Apogee camera and the FLI filter wheel together with the focuser.
In any case it's good news.
Takashi

After the last post I had two occasions to image with the same setup.
On the first occasion the sensor looked clean with no hint of artifacts or icing.
On the second occasion there was a small smear that looked like icing in the lower left corner.
For some reason, a vertical line appears only in the frames taken with Halpha filter. The frames taken with clear filter do not show such defects.
I have no idea what that could be. In any case, the sensor of the Apogee camera seems clean.
Takashi