QHY8 - My First M42

[ejcruz]

This is my first post in IIS, I'm still very new to CCD imaging have been doing mainly macro photography so this is a big learning curve - it's definitately a different ball game to marco. Purchased QHY8 last month and have been experimenting since.

My setup, scope WO FLT 110 f/7 Triplet, SkyWatcher 70x500 for Guide,
HEQ5 Pro (GOTO) mount, camera QHY8, QHY5 for guiding, Nebulosity2 for capturing, PHD for guiding, ImagesPlus 3.50a and CS3 for prosessing.

This image:
1x2min,1x5min,10x15min (total of 2H 37min)
Ba'ader Fringe Killer+Moon & Skyglow filter
Gain: 01 with Offset: 110
Camera temp was ~ -25C
Stacked and processed in IP and masked using CS3
Taken on 30/11/08

http://mywebsite.bigpond.net.au/ejcruz/AP/slides/CV_Final5.JPG

Comments welcome.

Eddie

[xelasnave]

Welcome to iceinspace from me Eddie.
You should be happy with your efforts you have a wonderful image there.
alex

[Omaroo]

That's a truly great first go Eddie. Fantastic detail :thumbsup: It may be a little colour saturated for my taste, but that's me. Welcome by the way! :)

[AlexN]

Awesome work for a first go!

Have you done any astronomy/astro imaging before this? If not, thats one hell of a setup for a first timer! :) Sounds awesome.

[ejcruz]

Thank you for your kind comments.


AlexN - I've played around with an unmodified 40D over the last 6 months, the high spring/summer temps where causing increased grain so I decided to bite the bullet and go with the QHY8. The image was taken from my backyard (Toongabbie NSW) heavy suburban light pollution.

Eddie

[Hagar]

Hi and welcome Eddie. Very nice image with loads of detail.
Just read your camera settings and was a little surprised at the offset setting. I have played a lot with Neb2 and qhy8 and found the offset of about 60 to 70 gives me a nice histogram towards the left hand side which allows the full dynamic range of the camera to be used.
Lowering this may go somewhere to reduce the very black background you have. The black point seems quite clipped.

[ejcruz]

Hi Doug thank you for the kind comments.

Your right with the offset setting of 60 to 70 moving the histogram towards the left for a more dynamic range - I notice that during my experimentation, I'm using the TVDM drivers which defaults to offset 110 (QHY drivers defaults to 130) under Neb2, because this is my first attempt I decided to use the default setting. I did notice that the image is predominately green when streched the brightness, not sure if the filters are causing this green cast, will attempt Orion again without filters to see if the green persist - just waiting for the clouds to clear.

Cheers
Eddie

[Tandum]

Looks like a fine first image to me eddie.
I wish I could fit all of M42 into field here.
Keep em coming :)

[Lester]

Very nice Eddie.

[iceman]

Hi Eddie and :welcome: to IIS!

Thanks for posting your first post with a lovely image. It's a little too black clipped for me but still very nice and loads of nebulosity.

[batema]

Great shot. I love the sound of the camera operating at -25. Could you or someone direct me to a site that sells camera QHY8. I have found them on the net but can not find how much they are.

Well done

Mark :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Fine first image Eddie :thumbsup: You'll find that Gain:1 and Offset between 60-70 will get you the best results. The green cast can be caused by light pollution but also because the camera has 2 green pixels for 1 red and one blue in the bayer matrix. If you use the clear nose piece you'll get a green tinge even under very dark skies. But you can fix that by offsetting channels.

[ejcruz]

Thank you all for the kind comments and much appreciate the advise, will work on the black clipping, need to find my gray card to do some offset experimenting. I found this thread http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=37951 so I'll try to do the same.



Mark - I purchased my ccd from this site:

http://web.aanet.com.au/gama/

Cheers
Eddie

[multiweb]

Yeah I posted that ... and I bought my QHY8 from the same place too :lol:.
I bought two nose pieces UV/IR (has a slight pink reflection) and clear (has a slight green reflection). You can tell which one you have by looking the reflection on the glass on a 45deg angle or so.

The card came with premiere CS3 I think but you can color calibrate when you process your subs. It's close enough. I use CCD Stack. For the white/gray balance I select the core of a white star non saturated and it does a pretty good job working out the ratios. I also select the background to set the colors offset.

[allan gould]

Great first effort and for some reason liked the colours. Probably as its different from what you normally see produced. Anyway in the eyepiece its all grey.;)

[Hagar]

Hi Eddie. The green cast is one of the problems with the QHY8. As you are probably aware there is twice as many green pxels as the red and the blue so a little adjustment is usually required to the final image. I often end up after the adjustment with too much ed and still a little extra green left in the final image. My fault, I should know better.

Craig Stark has some great information regarding the QHY8 in his Neb2 manual as he uses a QHY8 himself. His info on setting and forgetting the offset and gain is invaluable.

[dcalleja]

Eddie
Welcome to IIS - great image and a great camera

[ejcruz]

Thank you