This is first light for me for a couple of things. Firstly is my ZWO071mc. A significant step up from my entry level DSLR Canon 350d. As with anything new there is quite a learning curve. I think I’d pretty much gotten to the limits of the 350d and I’m now I’m right back at the start of a dedicated astro camera.
Coupled with the ASIair ( already part of my setup ) I really have no reason any more to physically “ look “ through the telescope. This leads onto the other changes in my setup. My camera now faces straight up/down out of my Newt focuser. With the various adaptors, MPCC and the focal point required, this positions the camera virtually on the RA axis. The difference this makes to the balance cannot be understated.
Whilst tinkering and testing during the day I discovered there is a lot of light getting into the tube and bouncing around on the flat black paint. This lead to my next change. After much research I decided to flock and baffle my OTA. I feel like I learned a lot through the process and all things being equal I think it made a reasonable difference. At least enough to justify the time and effort that went into it.
So after all that babbling, here is my first effort with this new setup. It was of a relatively faint region under full moon and although it has its issues I’m pretty happy with the result.
120x180sec @ gain 90
ZWO 071mc @ 0 Deg
8” f/4 Imaging Newtonian
Guided HEQ5 Pro
I’m looking forward to testing it all out on some objects I already have versions of to give a direct comparison but so far I’d say I’m happy.
I started listing the NGCs in the title then realised how many there were and went for the general term. Not a great surprise given its some 160,000 light years away !
Ryan
That’s a really good first image well done !!
It’s really a quantum leap going from a DSLR to cooled OSC
The latest 071 is a great camera as they have resolved the previous dew issues and frosting issues with the sensor
Are you using the Ascom driver to control the camera through your capture software or native driver ?
The 071 has the lowest dark current at -5C so maybe try that next time
If using Ascom driver, Gain 90 is Unity which is a safe setting but you do limit your dynamic range a fair bit with only an 18000e well ( full well depth is 48,600e which is the highest dynamic range on the camera )
Just a suggestion maybe try Gain 50 next time or be ambitious and push the camera to Gain 0 or HDR and see what difference it makes ?
I’m using the software on the ASIair to run the camera. I thought I’d just stay basic to start with with 90 gain. With my DSLR I always used ISO400, one stop down from best signal to noise to gain better dynamic range. This cameras dynamic range is just phenomenal by comparison. My next target with be one of the brighter ones so I plan to try gain 0 and play around with the cooling later. Thank you for the advice.
You must be very happy with that.
I think I am photographing that region at the moment...have been exploring using just HA and landed on a nice region.it could be the objects you shot..I tried not to look just wanted to know there was HA and will discover something type trip..so without really looking I am grabbing an hour or two at 400 gain just to see what is there...still in the small observatory and have not set up roll off gear as I have been in Sydney...not serious as I don't think it will stay clear for long.
Anyways great work.
Alex
It’s an amazing region of space. Between there and tarantula you could almost point anywhere and capture something interesting. It suits multiple focal lengths too. Wide field shows so much but there’s also a lot of interest to be found going deep on something like NGC1955, NGC 2014 or NGC 2020. God luck with your capture and I look forward to seeing what you get,
Wow I've never seen this area before...looks like some bizaare bacteria under a microscope or deep sea jellyfish :-). Be keeping a close eye on your work as another recent ASI071mc pro adopty.
As I said I had a great deal of fun with Ha set at a high gain not worried about quality but to see what is around this region..lots of objects I can not recall seeing before..
And I tell you my mount was managing rather respectable five minute unguided runs ..it likes the region as well I guess...big surprise...managed a little more last night..just left the camera running and dumped 2 .5 hours of black screen ( clouds) but managed about 40 minutes after going thru...can't wait to see what the final stack shows up.
Alex
As I said I had a great deal of fun with Ha set at a high gain not worried about quality but to see what is around this region..lots of objects I can not recall seeing before..
And I tell you my mount was managing rather respectable five minute unguided runs ..it likes the region as well I guess...big surprise...managed a little more last night..just left the camera running and dumped 2 .5 hours of black screen ( clouds) but managed about 40 minutes after going thru...can't wait to see what the final stack shows up.
Alex
Close to the SCP is always a good region for guiding as you are covering a lot smaller distance per degree of rotation. Having said that, 5 mins unguided is pretty impressive in any region of sky.
