Further experimenting with my new ZWOASI2600MC and ZWO Duoband filter under Sydney Bortle 8 skies last night
Not a good start , didn’t realise the power pack cord to my laptop was not push in home so the laptop was running on battery and of course I was set up , framed , focused , guiding and capturing M17 whilst inside watching the footy. Came outside an hour later and the Laptop was dead , mount still tracking but lost APT , Stellarium, PHD2 etc . I thought what’s going on here , replugged the power back in and realised what had happened “ dopey always check your power connections”
Anyway captured 2 hours worth of dithered guided subs and darks
Camera cooled to -10C
6” f6 newt on an EQ6-R mount
Orion 60mm guide scope with helical focuser and ZWOASI120MM-S USB3 guide camera
PHD2 guiding around 1 arc sec error
Stacked in DSS
Processed 3 different images in Startools V1.5
Linear RGB
Linear Mono
Linear Compose
One drawback from using a OSC Duoband Narrowband filter is that you loose star colours but at least you get good detail in your DSO.
Early days yet , so still experimenting and learning with this new camera , filter and capture software
A lot of detail on that target for 2 hours. So the camera and filter combo works
I had two hours of Ha and oiii last night and not that much yet. But I have the gain way down or it blows out. I will need three or four hours minimum on the 1600mono.
I find the OSC 183 has poor colour rendition and little saturation. Takes a lot more time and filters to get the colours compared to RGB.
Ps . I only forget to check the laptop plug a few times before I remember the routine.
Ray
Thanks
The real test for the camera and filter will be next week when the moons up
Many more test images to come to sort out the best settings and outcomes
I haven’t even got into changing exposure times , gain settings , off set etc...etc..
Totally different ball game these cooled Astro cameras compared to DSLR’s
Thanks so much Peter
Appreciate it
Apparently the sweet spot for this camera is between -5C to -10C even though the ZWO specs say the lowest dark current is at -20C
After using a DSLR for over 3 years I’m not use to having images with so little noise from my Bortle 8 location in Sydney
However after I finished M17 around midnight on Wednesday night , I decided to image a Galaxy with the Duoband filter ( not a good idea ) Chose NGC 253 Sculptor galaxy to see what affect the filter has on galaxies
Captured about an hour of data
Processed in RGB , Galaxy resolved with my 6” f6 newt and the new 2600MC well but colour had a greenish cast which looked horrible, couldn’t process the colours right to correct it
So no more narrowband mono or colour on Galaxies , I’ll just stick to Nebula and Planetary Nebula under heavy light polluted skies
Gotta get back down the coast , but bit busy at the moment with grandkids etc.. and sorting out my Dads deceased estate etc ..
A nice result for a couple of hours under Sydney LP! I like the third attachment the most - less intense reds.
My experience with dual band filters and star colours has been a little different to yours though. Rather than losing star colours entirely, I have found with the Optolong L-Enhance I typically would end up with coloured but unnatural star colours in my stacks, at least with the desired DSO colours. My way around this has been to blend a layer with star colours as I like them with another having the DSO as I like it.
