ST10XE first light

[rmuhlack]

After a couple of years learning the ropes with a DSLR I have recently taken the plunge into the world of mono CCD deep sky imaging. Armed with a ST10 I have been slowly getting used to the new tool over the weekend - regulated deep cooling, filters, taking flats without the benefit of a metered Av setting... :) A little bit of a learning curve but nonetheless an interesting and enjoyable new challenge.

Last night was "first light", and given the presence of the moon later in the session as well as the NABG sensor of the ST10 I decided narrowband was the go. The 'first light' target of choice was the emission nebula NGC6164.

What took me by surprise is just how much more sensitive this camera is compared with the DSLRs i have been used to - even on just a 2sec bin 3x3 plate solve frame. After the first 10min Ha frame came down I was amazed to see more detail there (in a single sub) than with hours worth of dslr data. 10mins subs were enough to even cause a slight bloom on the central star - and thats with a 6nm Ha filter !! incredible sensitivity :eyepop:

Anyway, here is the first light work-in-progress image.

Details:
Vixen VC200L with f6.4 reducer
SBIG ST10XE, temp = - 25C
6nm Ha: 28 x 600s

Preliminary processing with Pixinsight 1.8

Hi res: http://www.astrobin.com/full/185697/0/

:D

[Peter Ward]

Welcome to to dark side :)

ST10's have excellent QE hence I am not surprised you were taken aback by the camera's sensitivity.

I can see a teeny bit of 2 through 8 o'clock elongation in the stellar profiles, that said, you've captured some superbly faint structures.

A great start ! Stick with it :thumbsup:

[rmuhlack]

Thanks Peter. Collimation of the VC200L is better than it was earlier in the year, but could still do with a tweak. Really should get a Tak collimation scope so I can get it dialed in (the secondary has been centre spotted to accomodate the tak col scope)

[rustigsmed]

Hi Richard,

Congrats on the new camera! And that is a seriously great photo. BTW i have spent a fair bit of time on this subject lately (it is one of my favs), yes the camera is sensitive, but yes it is also at -25! the main thing i can see is the perhaps the well depth, youve got the faint outer stuff (which i got with a dslr) but i think the big difference is the cleanness and the dynamic range ... the middle part is wonderfully fluffy without any blowouts particularly next to the bipolar outer regions.

Looking forward to what you can do with the new camera! Great stuff as usual!

Russ

[cometcatcher]

The detail inside the nebula is amazing.

You've done incredible work with a DSLR, now we will see your full potential and some mind blowing future images I'm sure.

[Paul Haese]

Richard this is a tough object to image. It is quite faint and a real pain to process out to colour. You have captured some nice detail there and some further sharpening will aid the image greatly.

My recommendation is to image for longer though; 20-30 minutes will give you significant increases in how the data will process out. Particularly in narrow band.

You will find imaging with a mono camera to be a real interesting pursuit and will allow you to image things you would have struggled with using a DSLR. Congrats on the acquisition.

[Placidus]

Extra good.

[clive milne]

That's not too shabby at all Richard!

fwiw) I'd recommend trying the camera on your Newtonian (with the paracorr) The results I was getting through an 8" f5 were indistinguishable from those Peter was getting out of his 5" f8 AP.
The resolution was at a level where faint star images that were directly centered on a pixel looked like tiny crosses (due to charge diffusion) That's about as good as it gets.

Incidentally, I recently came across a couple of instruction manuals that came with the camera, I'll send them over if you want them?


It's good to see it up and running again,
best
c

[multiweb]

That is an excellent shot, Richard. You'll enjoy your CCD no doubt. Flying start. :thumbsup:

[rmuhlack]

Thanks Russ. There definitely is an improvement in dynamic range, which I guess is to be expected when compared with a DSLR at ISO1600 (which is what I used to use previously as that ISO had the best SNR for my cameras).



cheers Kevin. Now that I have some new gear, i'm 'champing at the bit' to push the boundaries I can tell you!



Thanks Paul. Now that you've published your image I'll defintely be using that as a reference when progressing my project. TBH I'm not sure how well my mount (a NEQ6) would go with substantially longer subs given that there would be about ~14kg with scope/camera/guider...I've now collected some 15min darks so I'll give that a go when I move to OIII.



Thanks Mike/Trish :)



thanks Clive :cheers: The sensitivity of the ST10 is incredible. I think the NABG sensor will necessitate some care with broadband imaging to manage blooming - maybe some HDR capture, perhaps (as recommended by the Pixinsight team) rotating the camera 90 degrees for half of the integration time to capture real data in the bloomed areas...?

The focuser on my newtonian at present is not really up to carrying a heavier camera, but I have another f4 imaging newt that I may upgrade in the future to accomodate the new camera. Re manuals, I'm guessing they are the same as the ones on the SBIG website? if so then i'm already set with the soft copies (thanks anyway :) )



Thanks Marc :D

[rmuhlack]

A question for those who have imaged this area in narrowband - how much SII is within this FOV ?

[Paul Haese]

You might be surprised. Peter.M is using a HEQ5 with a TV 101NP with camera etc an doing 30 minute subs successfully. Your mount is a bit bigger and might well be capable of doing the job. I guess some testing will show you what can be done.




I doubt there is much SII in this region. I seem to recall a conversation with Martin Pugh about this and I think he said there was non present. Looking around the net there does not seem any images with SII in them. One way to find out is to do a sub and see what shows up.

[IanP]

Yesterday I took a couple of 900s shots in S2 and there was absolutely NOTHING :shrug: in them, but there is something in O3 and of course in Ha :D

[RickS]

Great first light, Richard. You got a surprising amount of the outer shell.