M4 and NGC253

[allan gould]

Had some time last night before Ngc253 came up so I took 10x5min shots of M4 with the QHY8. Then when NGC253 came up I managed to get 3hr in 10 minute subs. This was using a Celestron 8" SCT at native FL of 2000mm and the QHY8 with no reducer etc.
I was pleased that the EQ6 with EQMOD and Guidemaster just kept guiding so well especially at that FL. I want to see if I can guide at 2500mm with my 10" SCT.
The other thing that has surprised me is that with no filters at all I am able to do 10min subs and eliminate all the sky glow from my suburban site in Brisbane. With the 20d I was only able to go 2-3min. The last thing is that with the Batinov mask I made, I'm able to nail the focus so well that there is only very little field curvature with the 8"SCT. I must have scored a really unique scope.
Some things just work - after years of trying!!!!
Comments welcome.

[peter_4059]

Thats a very nice pair of images Allan. The processing looks really natural and the guiding appears to be working well - I'm obviously envious of the 10 min subs! I'm surprised that the QHY deals with the light pollution better than the 20D as I thought it had a DSLR chip in it - must be a lot more to it than the hardware I guess. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with the 10". Upgrading to the EQ6 sure has opened up more options for you.

Peter

[telecasterguru]

Very nice images and the guiding and focus look to be spot on. The QHY8 is doing its bit and seems to suit the 8".

Frank

[allan gould]

Thanks Frank and Peter.
The M4 shot suffers drastically from the small size as at the native size its full of either blue or golden stars. Just looks lovely. I was surprised as I dont usually like doing globulars.
Next its going to be H alpha to get my toes wet.

[Moon]

Allan
That is a really good result for the Celstron 8" SCT and 10 min subs. Well done. Are you using an off axis guider?
All these good reports about the QHY8 make me want one even more...
James

[Hagar]

Very Nice Allan. Glad you can image so well from your home. You should have had the 8 out a long time ago....,

[h0ughy]

Done Well Allan

[Paul Haese]

Lovely image Allan. I like the colouring too.

[allan gould]

No I'm using a small 90mm maksutov as a guidescope and a watec 120N+ video camera. The whole setup is mounted using a Losmandy rail to the C8 scope. Found that with this setup I can get a guidestar every time with no flexture. I aslo us an X-Y shifter.
I was happy that for a second light I seem to have got to the meat of the QHY8 quickly. In fact Im prefering its simplicity over a DSLR.
Thanks for the kind comments Paul, David and Doug.
I had the camera for quite a while before using it. The reason was that I was impressed with Peter_4059's shots with the DSI II Pro camera. So I bought one and found that after I had conquered Meade's software, that I really liked the camera and had a ball messing around with it. You only have to see Peter's shots to see what can be done.
My ultimate is to combine the QHY8 and DSI into one photo and guiding at a FL of 2500. For that I think I'll have to get out the Losmandy mount.

[gregbradley]

Great shots Alan. Its nice when you get your setup into the sweet spot.
It can take a long time to get that all right eh?

Once you are there you can go into production mode!

NGC253 looks great but a little dark. Is the data strong enough so it can be boosted with more curves?

M4 looks very nice.

C8's can be a hot scope. There's a guy on the Astromart forums that has been posting fabulous images using an old C8 for several years.

Greg.

[allan gould]

Thanks for the comments Greg. Like the C8 as a good go anywhere scope but Im going to setup a 10" SCT and see what this can do. I believe that its all in collimation with an SCT.
I have to reprocess my subs to see if I can get a better stacking and therefore process more detail which I believe is in there.