[Repro added] M83 - First light with new QHY9M CCD camera

[LucasB]

Hi there Everyone,

It's been a while since I have posted anything. Truth is I had an awful experience with an overseas vendor who I sent a DSLR to be modified with cooling and filter mod. I was told a eight week turn around which turned into 6 months with no joy so I demanded a refund and my camera returned (which had not even been started#. I could go into it a lot further as the whole situation was an awful joke which nearly turned me off for good but that's a story for another time. As I sold my other modded DSLR I couldn't image for all this time.

Anyhow, Happy to say I regained my motivation and I decided to buy myself a QHY9 mono and some Baader LRGB filters and finally cross over to CCD imaging. As usual with new purchases I had to wait a week or two before the clouds went away but finally got a cloud free night last Saturday and was able to capture 3 hours #RGB 60:60:60) of M83. I created a synthetic luminance as I find my light pollution is so bad my true luminance washes out very quickly.
I am very pleased with the camera.

As always comments and critique welcome
Thanks For Looking,
Lucas

[Screwdriverone]

Wow Lucas!

That is simply excellent for a first light!

Such details and colour rendition of the star forming regions, it is excellent.

I can't fault it (not that I am wanting to), my first instinct was WOW!

And it is beautifully processed! Fantastic work.

Well done!

Cheers

Chris

[Octane]

That is a wonderful first result.

I would think about upping the blue in the galaxy, though.

H

[whzzz28]

Looks good!
You forgot to mention the scope you took it through though ;)

[alpal]

Hi Lucas,
That's a great image with your new camera.
I like the tasteful use of saturation.
Too many images have over bright colors but yours is not over cooked.
I would also be interested in the technical details of your telescope & guiding.

cheers
Allan

[gregbradley]

Fantastic image.

Greg.

[Larryp]

That's great, Lucas-you have captured so much fine detail:thumbsup:

[E_ri_k]

Great first light! What scope did you use for this?
Erik

[allan gould]

Excellent image Lucas and so sorry to hear about your bad experience but you have done yourself proud.
Allan

[marc4darkskies]

Lovely first light Lucas! :thumbsup: Some great detail in there and overall very pleasing to look at!

You've understated the colours - which is fine of course - but I agree with Humayun and I'd go for a bit more vibrancy.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

A great first light indeed and I agree fully with Marcus :thumbsup:

Mike

[graham.hobart]

Bloody Hell that is a cracker!!!!

[peter_4059]

Great first light Lucas. Well done.

[naskies]

Wow that detail is superb! :) How bad is your light pollution - did you image this from within Melbourne?

[Rod771]

Top job!

Very well done Lucas :thumbsup:

[PRejto]

That's fantastic! How did you do this in only 3 hours in light pollution? What scope?

Anyway, many thanks, and great work!

Peter

[LucasB]

Thanks heaps Chris. I am glad you liked it!:thumbsup:



Thanks for the comments H. I will have a crack at trying to get a more vibrant blue kind of feel out of the galaxy in the next day or two.




Thanks Nathan and Allan. I am using an APM 130mm F6 Triplet APO refractor on an NEQ6 Pro. For guiding I am using a TSOAG9 off axis guider (which I had left over from my DSLR days) with an orion starshoot camera. I control the QHY9 with Nebulosity 3 which can also talk to PHD guiding software so I can dither my subs also. Each Filter was 12 x 5min subs.



Thanks Greg. Your tips have certainly been helpful.



Thanks Larry. Hope to get less clouds soon!



Thanks Erik. See my reply to Nathan and Allan for scope details.



Appeciate the comments Allan. No one likes a bad experience but I guess things happen for a reason and I am very happy with the QHY9.




Thanks for the encouragement Marcus and Mike. As per my comments to H I will have a crack at some added vibrance soon!



No worries Graham! I am really pleased with it.



Thanks Peter. BTW you have inspired me to overhaul the NEQ6 Pro. I have the gears and belts arriving soon and my mount is nervous!



Thank you Dave. Yes I am within approx. 15km of the CBD. Also, I am looking out over my backyard and I can count about 50 sodium lamps from the container park which is about a km away so it's pretty bad.



Thanks Rod!



Thanks Peter. I use an APM 130mm F6 Triplet APO refractor. The individual colour filters sort of act as light pollution filters as they only let 1/3 of the light spectrum in. Then I made a synthetic luminance from the RGB colour stacks.

[Rigel003]

Very successful first light with the camera Lucas and a great image at any time. Lots of delicate detail and nice processing. Interesting about the colour balance - the info tab in PS shows the background sky at a good level and perfectly balanced between RG and B, and yet we'd normally expect the galaxy arms to be more blue as a couple of people have said. The core and HII regions look just right.

[LucasB]

Thanks for your feedback Graeme. This may be a little under processing on my behalf so I have done a little repro to hopefully rectify this.:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Excellent :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

What a great shot. Superb colors and details! :thumbsup:

[jase]

Lucas, thanks for sharing this real humm-dinger of an image! Welcome to the world of mono imaging. You're wise starting off with a straight RGB composite to get your feet wet. Good work on the synth lum too! Out of interest what give you the best result when combining the data, sum, average, median? I typically use sum to good effect. I'm really looking forward to see how you progress this this quality set up - some narrow band perhaps?

[alpal]

Lucas,



Hi Lucas,
Thanks for the info.
That APM 130mm is a beauty - a high end scope.

I like your new version.
The same always happens to me - reprocessing my data in some way.

As for Luminance - I understand the problem from a light polluted site.
I think I will try my 2" Astronomik CLS-CCD filter the next time.
In fact I could probably leave it in place & do all LRGB with it on.
It will of course mean longer sub-frames but with a cooled camera
the noise is not such a problem.

Best of luck - you've made a fine start - a wonderful introduction into
the higher quality of CCD imaging.

cheers
Allan

:)

[LucasB]

Thanks Mike. Fresh sets of IIS eyes to give you a nudge in the right direction is always very helpful.



Thanks Marc. I am glad you liked it!:thumbsup:



Thanks Jase. Your comments and encouragement are much appreciated. When combining the data I use Nebulosity which uses an adaptive stacking function which gives you best of sum and average. My understanding is that it will use sum unless saturation occurs at 65535 then it will use average. As for the future, I am looking to both LRGB and narrow band. I already purchased a 7nm Baader Ha filter with my LRGB set so I will need to invest in the OIII and SII filters for starters. Would probably like to get the dedicated 0.75X Riccardi reducer for the scope. The F4.5 and wider field would be very nice options.



No worries Allan. That's what is great about posting images here on IIS. People are always willing to give you some constructive advice for improving your images. Thank you and best of luck with your imaging also.

[Ross G]

Great first photo from your new camara Lucas.

I really like the "bluer" version.

Ross.