First Light QHY9

[Tandum]

Last night was clear and dry at 10 chain hill and perfect for a first light on my QHY9, Wheel and Filters. I was looking to see what sort of reflections to expect from this setup and how well it collects Ha.

First up is IC434. This image is 6x600sec Ha, 5x300sec L and 6x150sec RGB. That line coming from the star is across all the images including the Ha :(

Next up was Rosetta. Clouds cut this short around 2am and satellites ruined several colour subs while yacking caused an extra couple of Ha's to be shot :) It has 8x600sec Ha, 4x300sec L and only 2x150sec RGB.

Thanks go out to Peter for providing the venue and the weather :)

[Octane]

Robin,

Great job for first lights.

I can even make out Alnitak's companion at the 9 PM position. Rosette, in my opinion, needs more saturation. I understand, combining hydrogen alpha with RGB is a veritable pain in the rear.

Not sure why satellite trails would ruin your exposures -- kappa-sigma combine will interpolate any anomalous data.

H

[AlexN]

Great first light images Robin. I'd agree with H, the rosette is looking a little pale..

As I mentioned last night, I'd have probably shot more L and RGB data out at dark skies and then shot the Ha from home over 3 or 4 nights to get the most from your dark sky time, Shooting Ha from dark skies seems a bit too much like wasting time to me?

All up though, you've done really well, I bet you're happy to have the whole shebang up and running!

Alex.

[Tandum]

As I said Alex, I was looking for reflection issues with the filters and Ha response of the camera.
I did what I set out to do and it wasn't a waste of time to me thank you very much.

[AlexN]

Fair enough, probably should have read the post before rushing in to see the images... Very sorry.

[mill]

Nice images, but what is that purple ball in the middle right of the HH?
Looks like a reflection because i never seen it in any other picture.
Could be wrong tho :(

[RobF]

Great goin' Robin. I suspect there's a bit more colour and contrast that could come from the Rosette, but really they're both just wonderful for your first outing with all the new gear.

There was plenty of fruitful yacking - hope I wasn't to blame for any missed settings anywhere. Thanks for the stacking tutorial too :thumbsup:

[TrevorW]

Very good

[Hagar]

Nice first lights Robin. Looks like you might have a couple of reflection goblins there but I am sure you will overcome your problems. The streak does look like a classic download delay problem with bright objects.

[Tandum]

Cheers H, I got some sleep and restacked/replaced the image but when you get up close there are lines running top to bottom. The strange thing is they are not vertical so probably not a colum defect. I saw them coming out in the raws last night as it was capturing and assumed it was satellites but maybe not? Still theres' only 5 minutes of each colour in this :)

Yes martin that is some sort of reflection off something. There was also a large blue circle around the star which a bit of Ha knocked out. If your going to get reflections you'll get em on the horse :)

Probably Rob, I was more interested in the raw files than what they produced :) I also see there is a deconvolve function in maxim under filters which seems to work.

Cheers trevor, a long way to go yet.

Doug, do you know how to fix it? I had the camera on it's own cable but had download speed on normal instead of low, no usb during read was on plus clamping set on, whatever clamp is?


We also resolved the flats issue with this camera. The first image attached is what I was getting as a flat using my light box and RobF was getting something very similar using the T-Shirt method. We think it's a shutter artifact. Turning my light box down using a dew controller output and upping the exposure time from .1 sec to 1 sec produced the flat in the second image, which is what we are used to seeing. These images are stretched to hell of course to show the pattern. Wierd eh ...

[RobF]

Yeah - I'm going to try putting a big pot in series with my battery to pull my lightbox brightness right down. Agree that anything less than 1 sec exposure for flats just isn't right - shutter speed seems to become an appreciable fraction of exposure speed. T shirt flats at late twilight and similar experiment with sheet in soft light with >1sec exposure much better.

[dugnsuz]

Very nice images - I'm sure you're happy with the camera's potential Robin.
Great stuff
Doug

[bluescope]

Two good images to get started with Robin !

:thumbsup:

[Tandum]

Yeah doug the Ha sensitivity looks great. These two are just a half dozen 5minute subs each. Baader 7nm filter.
My bad ... 10minute subs.


Cheers Steve, just need a dark site now :)

[dugnsuz]

They look fantastic Robin
Doug

[StarGazing]

Great shots Robin, keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

Alex.

[CoolhandJo]

Nice shots. Great to know the camera is working well by getting such great images even though under your test conditions!

[Hagar]

Don't know what the reflection would be as I don't have this model camera as yet. It could well be the usual reflection back onto the IR filter. I always used an IR filter out at the end of the camera adapter. One of the problems which seems normal with most cameras using filters. I did find that Baader seemed to have the best AReflective coatings on their filters. I am going to talk to an optometrist friend about AR coatings and find out what is possible.

Your flats issue I can shed some light on. Tha fact that all the 8300 CCD based cameras have to use a shutter for downloading the image quite hampers the minimum shutter time. From memory the minimum shutter time was something around .12 of a second. When taking flats using my EL sheet I had to use a couple of sheets of white photocopy paper to allow shutter times arount the 0.5 second to capture my flats with this sheet. It is one of the draw backs of having a shutter.

[richardo]

Two great test images here Robin!
Always interesting with new gear to find out what works and what don't!
As I've found in the past when imaging this particular area/ object, Alnitak can cause some interesting artifacts/ light rays across the overall image.

I presume you used the FS102 ? Do you have the flattener?

All looks promising.
Look forward to more of your images with this setup.

Have fun!

Rich

[zipdrive]

great 1st light! looking good:thumbsup:

[Tandum]

Cheers Guys, the cameras not bad value for money at the moment and they all have their little problems. These are off the TAK at F6 although I haven't set distance from the reducer yet but close enough :)

Doug, I was asking how to fix the line artifact. I was expecting reflections :) I'm not sure if these ones are reflections from the nose piece glass. It still shows a dohnut around the star but only in Blue/Green, Red is ok and Lum is just barely visible. I'll try without the nosepiece from home and then try and cobble in an LPS filter. Here's the stacked RGB&Lum shots, I've butchered them to show the reflection. It's way more obvious in this LRGB image without Ha to calm it down.

[spearo]

very nice!
love the detail
you can see the benefits of Ha and L frames for sure
I can wait to master these myself
frank

[Omaroo]

Great work Robin :) Very nice indeed! 'Tis the season for new cameras, and I can't wait to what everyone gets from their new acquisitions after they get used to handling them for a little while. :thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Hi Robin , The clamp function was originally to remove the dark shadow present after a bright star so my sugestion is try turning it off and see if this improves your shadow problem.
The no USB also stops all USB transfer other than the image during the download so it should be on.

[marki]

Not too bad for a first light Robin. Leave the clamp off and turn on no usb during readout as Doug said. For the lines make sure the S video cable is plugged into the regulating box with the EMC ring closest to the box. I get those lines as well if I plug it in the other way round.

Mark

[Tandum]

Thanks guys, now I have some baseline data from a dark site I can fiddle at home and try to sort out the problems. Not too pleased about having to get a nosepiece with a 2" threaded end custom made for the wheel, but you live and learn I guess. If you need one for a qhy9 wheel let me know ASAP.

[marki]

Robin, you should have got the 2" nose piece with the wheel? Not sure what you are talking about.

Mark

[Gama]

The nose pieces that come for the filter wheel are originally from the QHY-11 and have the filter thread on the opposite end. This is what Robin is saying.
I do believe they are getting the filter threads put on the other side of those nose pieces. Once i get the newer versions, i'll have them available to anyone that may need it for their filter wheel.

Theo.

[marki]

Thanks Theo, now that I look at it I see what you are talking about. I always assumed there was a 48mm thread in the nose piece. Will need it when my reducer turns up.

Mark