QHY8-first light-finally-the gabriela mistral nebula and gem cluster in H alpha

[seeker372011]

well its been three weeks and finally last night I got to have a real go with the new camera

so here it is ...my first ever cooled CCD image with my new QHY 8-and that too with my even newer Baader 7nm H Alpha filter from OPT which arrived a couple of days ago

larger image
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91784720@N00/2444689812/sizes/l/

as it turns out the session was greatly curtailed-first my powerpack died and I had to replace it , then I had trouble with focusing my guide camera, and by the time I was set up polar aligned and ready to image there was cloud-it did clear after midnight-may be 20 minutes after I packed up so there you go.

so while it wasn't a really full on satisfying session I got 50 minutes of data-even though at least twenty minutes was through cloud.


Details

target :NGC 3324 and region
scope ED80
optics-William Optics 0.8 reducer, Baader 7 nm H Alpha Filter
Mount CG5 autoguided
location-Winston Hills
capture software-Nebulosity
Processing-Nebulosity and Photoshop

comments and suggestions welcome...this is new ground right here
Narayan
__________________

[davewaldo]

I'm guessing this was the link......

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2410/2444689812_f22d47faff_b.jpg

Great detail in that image... I'm sure your going to get some awesome shots with it.

[dugnsuz]

Very nice detail in the image despite your troubles.
Had to cut and paste your link, looks like a html stuff up!
Here's the one I looked at...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91784720@N00/2444689812/sizes/l/

Cheers
Doug

[allan gould]

Really great shots - you must be happy with the new camera!

[Astrod00d]

That's a great result, particularly for a cloudy night in Sydney!
What gain and offset did you use with the QHY8 and the ED80?

Cheers,

Rob

[seeker372011]

gain was 20% and offset was 130-the auto offset didnt work in nebulosity for some reason..the shadows were clipped so next time I will need to fix those setting

my subs were 10 minutes long
Narayan

[renormalised]

Given that was only 5 x 10min subs, that's very good!!!. Even better when you consider what you said the conditions were like. Keep up the good work!!!.

[Alchemy]

looks like its quite a sensitive camera, shoot more :thumbsup:

[JohnH]

Binned?

[seeker372011]

no I shot at full res..I tried to upload to Flickr at 50% so roughly 1500 x something and yahoo reduced it further to just over a 1000 pixels x something

narayan

[Ric]

Lovely image Narayan, so sharp and detailed.

The new camera looks like it's working a treat.

Looking forward to more of your Ha images.

Cheers

[netwolf]

Great first shot there especially under the conditions mentioned, lots of nice detail.

[Gama]

Gees guys,
You did better than me when i done my first shots from the QHY-8.

What i like is the amount of detail and sensitivity you got using the 7nm Filter.
Considering the QHY-8 is a one shot colour, and how well it done by creating an image with H.a light only, it is a good camera test.
Try increasing the offsett by 5 or 10 next time Narayan. That should bring the image to a better dark grey.

Theo

[Gama]

I had a little play with it. But at 400K it aint got too much data..
But, i played with it for 5 minutes to bring up some detail that was there, but was not enhanced much. You have the big files Narayan, try playing a little more with it and squeeze as much info out as you can..

Theo

[netwolf]

Wait a sec thats right this is a OSC camera how do you do black and white with this?

[Gama]

Just place the H.a filter on, then exposue as per normal.
Then depending on how you wish to do it, process the image.
I would convert it to color by the debayer function, split the image into RGB, then dump the Green and Blue and convert the red into a mono/Grey scale image. Then off to photoshop or what ever to add and play with enhancement.
Finito. Image in black and white.

Theo.

[seeker372011]

yes

i do exactly as Theo has pointed out-been following the same method with my DSLR

with my Astronomik-Canon I used to get a fair bit of leakage into Green, with Baader QHY almost no leakage in green or blue channels


I will give it another go Theo-I was worried about overstretching