Rosette Lum with ST8300 + ED127

[AlexN]

Heres the other "image" I managed on saturday using Peter's ED127.

This is a mere 30 minutes of luminance (that took the better half of 2 hours to capture between the clouds) 3x10min subs bin 1x1 were taken over an hour and a half apart, the image has been cropped a little to remove the lines where the two frames did not line up right...

Stacked in DSS, 10x10min darks, processed in Photoshop CS4..

All in all, not a bad image, I'll try to capture some colour data this weekend with the 80/480. the resolution difference will make it difficult to do, but it may just be worth it! :)

Thanks..
http://www.pbase.com/image/121079604/large (150kb)
http://www.pbase.com/image/121079604/original (875kb) - 50% resolution.

[Octane]

Alex,

Looks very promising.

I just paid for the 7800 today. Will be driving up to Sydney to pick it up tomorrow.

This puts my plans for a cooled camera back a bit. :cryface:

H

[AlexN]

the 7800 will reward you with a fair bit of happiness H.. They are pretty epic... And for someone who take absolutely stunning photographs like yourself, the Epson is something I would consider a necessity, rather than a want... :)

I would almost trade a cooled camera for your ED127 mate... One night playing with one of them has set me on the war path. I have to have one!

[StarGazing]

Very nice Alex, love the texture in that image. Great work.

Alex :thumbsup:

[DavidU]

Awesome Alex ! I'm just waiting for a 127ED quote from Gillman.

[AlexN]

Thanks Alex - I was surprised to see the sort of detail present in only 10min subs.. but then, this camera is fairly sensitive compared to what I've been used to..

Dave - PM me when you get the quote... let me know what my saving target is :D

[StarGazing]

Your welcome Alex, I get a bit jealous with these images coz I never get to see it that way through the Eye piece :sadeyes:.

Keep up the great work, Alex.

[strongmanmike]

Top shot

:clap: ;)

Mike

[TrevorW]

Ditto from me

[Omaroo]

Alex - STOP IT!

[Octane]

I'm also very pleased that you took a sufficient number of dark frames, too.

Most people would be tempted to just take one or two if they only captured 30 minutes of data.

Well done, dude. Looking forward to the finalised coloured rendition.

Glad you found the ED127 a goer. It's almost surprising that they're as cheap as they are for what they're capable of producing. I've had enough of the "advanced" focuser that came with it and am saving for a motorised Moonlite. That should top off a very reliable piece of glass.

From memory, the 8300 is an APS-C sized chip, so, if I was to image the Rosette with my 40D, I should end up with a similar field of view, yeah?

H

[mill]

If that is what i can expect from the 8300 chip then WOW!!!!!!!
That is one sharp looking image Alex :thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Mike - Cheers mate, should be a winner with some colour data.. Hopefully this weekend.

Trevor - Appreciate the comments,

Chris - ... :P Teeheehee!!


H - I have built up a dark library over the past week or so during the cloudy nights, I have 10x 5,10,15.20min darks B1x1 and B2x2 15x30min darks B1x1 and B2x2 all at -10c. During winter I'll do another library at -20c... This way I've always got ample darks for any image provided I stick to exposures that are multiples of 5 minutes...

Yeah the ED127 is glass gold (which makes no sense at all, but im going to run with it anyway) :D

The 8300 is smaller than a DSLR sensor, though not by much... 4mm diagonal or there abouts from memory... The difference is there is a fair bit cropped off one edge of this shot as the 3 frames were fairly out of wack... Should be fairly close though.

[dugnsuz]

Cracking start to the 8300 journey Alex.
The crop hints at the quality we can expect from this camera.
Very nice
Doug

[multiweb]

:eyepop: The details in the neb are amazing. What a shot! :thumbsup:
What's your image scale on this pic Alex? And is this the full field of the camera? What's the WxH in pixels?

[RB]

Beautiful detail in there Alex.
Wonderful shot, well done.

:thumbsup:

[Lester]

Very nice Alex. Looking forward to the colour version.

[Hagar]

Great image, Colour will only add to the finished product. When I first looked at the image I thought how long till a 127 is on order.

[AlexN]

Martin - The small pixels really help catch the finer detail hidden away in targets like this.. That and very steady seeing really made this and my Eta Car detail levels really pop... I was worried because I'm only cooling to -10c that noise levels may be a little out of control, but as it turned out, with proper, careful calibration, the images come out very clean, and stand up to quite a bit of processing..

Doug - I've only taken 2 images so far, this lum and the LRGB of Eta Carine, but in both cases I've been immensely impressed with the detail captured, I think the seeing on the night was actually particularly good, allowing me to make use of the small pixels in the ST8300.. Great optics helped out a lot too..

Marc - Thanks, The image scale is 1.17" per pixel... This image is NEARLY the full field of view from the image.. I only cropped out about 140 pixels from the top, and 25 from the side. Full image size is 3352x2532 pixels.. This has been cropped a little and then resized to approx. 50% size.

Andrew & Lester - Cheers guys..

Doug - Thanks, Not too long I wouldnt think... I have 2 thoughts at the moment, a 2nd hand FLT-132 or the 127ED + 3" FT.. The 127ED + FT is about 1/3rd the cost of the FLT132.. So I think the ED127 will be ordered before too long.. Maybe 3 months or so..

[telecasterguru]

Alex,

Once again this is a very nice image and really shows an enormous amount of promise. No, more than promise, it has delivered the goods.

From my side, I went out yesterday and bought a Losmandy G11 mount and a Canon 5D Mark II and if the weather clears up they will be all hooked up somehow with my ED127 this weekend.

I ended up deciding on the 5D as I am enjoying doing macro as well now.

I am going to be very interested to see how the camera stacks up on the new mount with the ED127. I think they should go very well together. We will see very shortly.

Keep up the good work and clear skies for the weekend.

Frank

[AlexN]

Frank, From what I saw, I'd assume the ED127 will have a flat field over the 5D, I only say this because I had pinpoint stars even through the off axis guider, where as on my TMB/LOMO 80mm F/6 the stars in the OAG are fairly warped... The ED127 seems to have a nice flat field..

Congrats on the G11 too! :) Should be a real beast...

Best of luck with the new rig mate, I'm sure you'll do well with it..

Thanks for the great responses again everyone... All very much appreciated..

[Octane]

Frank,

I've tried the combination, and, whilst the resolution is mind-blowing, with the standard ED127 focuser, there is a horrible amount of vignetting, that even critical flats can't really fix.

What you'll end up with is the almost the same field that a 1.6x crop sensor will give you, really.

H

[gregbradley]

Great shot Alex. That shows an amazing amount of detail there. I like how you captured the "twister" so nicely.

Slight amount of sag from somewhere with bottom left stars a bit elongated. Did you use a 2 inch nosepiece or a screw on adapter?
A screw on would probably handle that minor issue. Something has a small amount of slop in it, not much just a tad.

The 8300 is the best chip in the current crop of chips around that size I reckon. There is a 10100 but only in colour which is a shame.

How much do ED127's cost? China is flexing its muscle now eh? and soon it will be the Tak of China emerging.

Greg.

[AlexN]

Thanks for that H.. I remember you posting the Eta Carine shot that you took with yours... If you upgraded the ED127 to a bigger focuser you might get better results.

Greg - Thanks mate.. Yes, the focuser on the ED127 didn't like the 2.8kgs of camera/cfw/flattener/OAG/guider that I had hanging out of the focuser.. and there was a touch of slop... I was using 2" push fit connectors, I would like full threaded connections, however the focuser on the ED127, and on my 80/480 do not have threads standard... Thats definitely an upside of the Tak focusers... everything is thread on, and very rigid..

I was very happy with the twister as well.. Selective sharpening did a lot to bring that and some of the other detail up nicely..

I agree the KAF-8300 is as good as it gets at the moment, great pixel size, great QE, a decent sized sensor and relatively low noise (compared to a KAI-11002M) They are fantastic... The 10100 looks like it would be amazing too, except it being colour only is a real shame... However, its the only colour camera that can do binned colour images.. You can bin the sensor 2x2 and still get a colour image... This does it wonders, as you could use the camera with 9.25 micron pixels binned 2x2 and get a colour image, then on nights of magnificent seeing, go back to bin 1x1 with 4.75 micron pixels... I don't remember exactly, but I don't think Kodak even make a monochrome version of the 10100.. That said, the KAF-8300 rules the roost, especially for these wider field scopes..

I asked how much the ED127 cost, and it was around $1150 USD including delivery.. At that price, I think the scope is amongst the best bang for buck we've seen from an APO telescope... colour correction is great, its hellishly sharp... I have a comparison image that I'll post up later today... HST vs Mikes AP152 vs ED127 on the fickle finger in Eta Carine... The results really speak for themselves.. while the ED127 is no Astrophysics, its definitely a hell of a lot of scope for the money..

Cheers.
Alex.

[Garyh]

That is one cracker shot Alex!
Very impressed with what you have done with the 127 and your new camera!
Gary

[AlexN]

Thanks Gary, The 127 + KAF-8300 make a good pair... I might get a chance this weekend to test the 8300 in the 80/480.. Hopefully I can get something with similar detail, although I might have to shoot at something I'd hoped to avoid this season... Good old M42.. :D Hopefully not, but maybe.. :)

[RobF]

Wow! Stunning pic Alex. You can really stick your head into that one and have a look around :thumbsup:
I had to look twice - thought you must have been shooting Ha.....

[AlexN]

From what I understand Rob, a lot of the real fine wispy detail in there is actually OIII and SII wavelength light.. in an RGB shot, the rosette looks like a predominantly Ha region, as most of it appears as red. however in narrowband images, the OIII channel is very strong too, and SII shows a fair bit of detail as well...

I bet you're dying to get that QHY9 pointed at the rosette!! :)

[CoolhandJo]

I agree, the detail is definately there! Looks very promising

[RobF]

You bet!! :astron: :thumbsup: :P :camera:

I did run off some 30secs subs Sat night while I was trying out my "L Plates", but they won't come anywhere near those glorious 10min subs you've got there. You and Peter sure got the 127Apo singing!

[Paul Haese]

Alex, nice shot. Looking forward to the colour.

What program are you using to stack your images? I cannot see much noise in your image.

What temperature are you running at? I usually work at -15c to maintain a good amount of head room.

[DavidU]

Alex, I'm still waiting to hear from Gillman.

[AlexN]

Paul - I'm using DSS to stack the images, 10 darks were subtracted from each light frame before the lights were stacked...

The image was taken at -10C.. Some selective noise reduction was used to clean up the image here and there, other areas were selectively sharpened... It took quite a long time to process actually.. Trying to get the detail to come out without incurring the wrath of the noise gods...

No worries David, Keep me apprised.. :)

[pmrid]

Hi Hamuyan,

mind if I butt in? The Ed127 Alex used is mine so I claim some connection to this thread. I am planning to put a modd'd 20D on this scope and seeing your response to Frank about his 5D wondered why it might be that the focuser would cause vignetting? This ED127 is fitted with what Gilman called (als sold as) their upgraded focuser for astroimaging. Make any difference to the vignetting?

Peter

[AlexN]

Peter - The 5D has a sensor 1.6x the size of the 20D or the QHY8 that you're used to... 35mm diagonal. And given that the focuser tube is 2" (50mm round) I dare say the inside of the focuser tube would clip the light cone somewhat. If you were to put a 3" FT focuser on it you may.. MAY get rid of the vignetting.. but I don't know that for sure obviously.

I will say though, with a chip the size of the KAF-8300, you do not need to worry about that. I did not take flats and did not notice any vignetting in the images..

[spearo]

Great detail
well done
frank

[Bassnut]

The detail is just stunning Alex, very impressive.

[Omaroo]

Damn you Alex - you've done it now. I've ordered one too. I've sent the email...

Thanks very much.... :lol:

[Rigel003]

I've just caught up with this photo, Alex. Absolutely amazing! Great capture and processing. You must be very pleased with the new camera. Looking forward to more.

[Octane]

Peter,

Alex beat me to the reply. He's spot on.

I also have the "advanced" focuser. I think all they mean by that is that it can carry a larger load and is rotating. That's about it, I think. I'm saving my pennies for a 2.5" Moonlite. I'm not too fussed if that won't illuminate the entire field on a 35mm frame, as, I have plans to jump into the CCD world. So, with an APS-C size chip of the 8300, which is very similar to a standard 1.6x crop Canon, you don't have to worry about vignetting. Feel free to refer to the images I've posted lately taken with the ED127 and 40D. No vignetting.

H