NGC3603 region with QHY 8

[seeker372011]

somebody got it wrong upstairs because we actually had a Saturday night close to new moon -and no cloud or rain!!

anyway here's my results from last night

unfortunately not the greatest image-target too poorly framed and therefore right in the zone where coma is most apparent

I got excited by seeing all the extended nebulosity and didnt check for coma at full res-well hopefully that's a lesson learnt

ED80
QHY8
Baader 7 nm H alpha Filter
William Optics 0.8 Focal reducer
CG5 autoguided PHD
Nebulosity capture and preprocessing
8 x 15 minute subs-2 hours total exposure

all I can say is that I was really tired after Friday night's imaging session-yet to process that data, and hopefully thats better quality- and just wasn't careful enough framing the image.good ol' operator error

anyway enough excuses, here it is


larger image-should you care to look at- is at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91784720@N00/2463399125/sizes/o/


Narayan

[seeker372011]

oh BTW there's nebulosity that stretches all the way to the left of the image-but I dont know if that's visible in the Fickr image thanks to whatever compression Yahoo applies

[Gama]

You have done well to capture the nebulosity using such a narrow filter on the color camera.
Its amazing how many people are doing narrow band work now using a color camera. Sensors have become so good, that DSLR's or OSC are able to do it easily, well, a little work may need to be done.

You can see the gradual focus shift as you move from the bottom left to the top right. Shame, cause you did well on the rest.

Theo.

[seeker372011]

thats it Theo--when I rotated the camera to position NGC3576 in the right of the frame after taking a test shot I must have somehow got the camera a fraction off square to the optical path-this created massive coma ...must have been a fraction of a millimeter at best that I was off square but thats all it takes I suppose
well I suppose you learn from these things-I wont b in such a hurry to rotate the camera to reframe next time :)

Narayan

[Alchemy]

got some faint detail there, wouldnt mind doing some narrowband suff myself. i shot that object a while back on dslr, thought it was good then i saw this http://www.rdelsol.com/Nebula/NGC3576.html

im going to have to revisit it now having seen your shot and the faint stuff you got ,i reckon its worth a try.

clive

[Astrod00d]

That's a great image, Narayan. I haven't tried 15-minute subs with the QHY8 as yet, what gain/offset were you using?
The clouds have returned tonight, I hope they go away soon, I'd like to spend more time under the stars with the QHY8 before the moon gets up.

Cheers,

Rob

[seeker372011]

wow :) :)

Actually Mike Sidonio also posted a ripper image on this forum some time ago.

still you cant be put off by all these great shots by other people you gotta give it a go yourself!

[seeker372011]

I used a gain of 20 and an offset of 135 this time

Gerhard over at Cloudy nights reckons the Nebulosity default gain of 1 is correct..and he produces absolutely stunning images

Narayan

[Astrod00d]

Yes I've seen Gerhards' images, they're amazing and one reason I got a QHY8.
Gain of 1 should provide the best dynamic range. I'll give it a go at some stage. My guess is a gain of 1 will require longer exposure times, I'd better make sure I've got the polar alignment and guiding dialled in...:)

Cheers,

Rob