Another QHY-9 first light

[Omaroo]

Well, I was too excited to get out there and try my new baby out - so...

1) No polar alignment whatsoever - apart from rough compass-augmented plonking.

2) PHD straining to keep the scope pointed somewhere near the target.

3) Only single 30 sec frames each of RGB, 45 on Luminance at -20 (only 38% cooler power). Will do another at -25 or so soon.

4) Sky-90's flattener hasn't arrived yet - so comets in the corners.

5) Rough focus - she'll be right!

Could I care? NO! I have COLOUR man! COLOUR!! Woohoo! This is my first combined colour image, and I'm tickled puce! :D

6) Rough processing (alignment and combining) in Maxim and re-sizing to 1024 px in Photoshop. No colour adjustment at all. As she comes. Quick 'n dirty with no regard to noise control or zone editing. LOL!

Here it is - no cropping, so all the corner nasties of the Sky-90 are left for your viewing pleasure. Please, please arrive flattener!! :)

[strongmanmike]

Woohoo, you're on your way mate :thumbsup:

Mike

[marki]

Set it up properly, point it at the HH and try a 20 min sub in Ha, it will knock your socks off:).

Mark

[bloodhound31]

Lovely and natural looking mate. Nice.

Baz.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Mike, Mark & Barry :)

Now to wait until tomorrow night to set it up all reeealll nice!

I'll even throw in some subs and darks to match. Should be much better - but now I know that the camera works. :thumbsup:

Now I just have to figure out setting its gain and offset properly and more or less by the book. Oh fun... ;)

[marki]

Try the method Doug (Hager) posted a while ago (in the equipment or camera forum I think?). Take you all of 2 minutes. Remember though if you change it for different objects you will have to shoot a new dark library for each setting. Best just to set and forget and get on with the fun of taking pics.

Mark

[Tandum]

Looks like the goods Chris, your underway.
Mines shooting a new library tonight with new settings.
4.5hours for a basic dark library :(

[marki]

Know what you mean Robin. Once I got my OS and gain settings right I put the camera in a nice dark spot and shot 10 subs for each setting to combine into a master. I have 30s, 60s,120s, 5 min, 10 min, 15 min and 20 min darks in both 1 x 1 and 2 x 2 bin modes. I started on sun morning and had time to machine a collar for an EQ6, have lunch, watch TV and cook a BBQ for tea before it finished :). Great pastime on a cloudy day.

Mark

[Bassnut]

Gee, you got that up and cranking quick ;-), nice work for a no-fiddle,no-dark 1st light stab.

[Octane]

My friend, I am so happy for you!

And, yikes, I had no idea the Sky90 had seagulls that bad...

H

[Omaroo]

Thanks Robin, Fred & Humayun!

Seagulls? They look like pigeons to me... :question:

Yeah - the Sky's need the flattener badly! Great visually, not good photographically without. The things running at f/5.6 already...

[jjjnettie]

Congratulations on first light Chris.
love that learning curve.

[telecasterguru]

Chris,

I am very envious of your new toy.

Data capture isn't as hard as it is made out to be once you have the concepts down pat.

I find that it is the processing that is the biggest challenge.

Great start and have a fun weekend.

Frank

[Omaroo]

Thanks Nettie and Frank :)

I've just discovered this morning, that in my haste, I hadn't even tightened the clamp on my forward leg after leveling last night. It was completely undone and loose. :lol:

Tonight looks as though it's going to be OK too, so I'll do it properly this time - and get some proper subs done. :thumbsup:

[spacezebra]

thanks for posting Chris

WOW! Good to hear that the Q is working well.

Cheers Petra d.

[Garyh]

I can tell you are fully stoked with your new toy!
I`m jealous!

[DavidTrap]

Looks great Chris. I'll have to wait until next year before I can join the CCD brigade - but I think I've gotten my fair share of new toys this year...

David T

[allan gould]

Looking really nice Chris. There is nothing like having a first attempt and getting it to work. From now on its getting all the really little things sorted out. Great first shot with promise of better things. Id love one of those cameras.

[telecasterguru]

Chris,

I meant to ask, what data collection software did you use?

Frank

[Omaroo]

Thanks Petra, Gary, David & Allan :)

Frank - I used a trial version of MaximDL v5. I tried the EZcap but really don't like it very much. It's a bit clunky and needs more polish. I'm going to fork out the US$500 asking price for Maxim, unless I find an alternative that works as well. I'm going to give Nebulosity2 a chance, but haven't been able to get it to recognise my filter wheel for some reason. ASCOM incompatibilities maybe?

[Octane]

Chris, I got MaxIm DL and have been playing around with the simulator in it until the new toy arrives.

I recall Alex (and others) mention that its guiding capabilities leave pretty much everything else for quids. I really look forward to trying it all out.

I'm a little confused how all the calibration tools work, but, in time will sort that all out.

H

[TheDecepticon]

Ypu've got the taste for it now! MaxIm is a very good package. I find I use bits of it more and more. Congrats on your first image.:thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Thanks guys :)

I'm in favour of learning curves that are approached much like you would a brick wall. LOL!

[multiweb]

ahh.... exciting times! :thumbsup: Nice first light.

[Omaroo]

Cheers Marc. Lots to get the noggin' around. :thumbsup:

[lacad01]

Well done Chris! Good to see the initial photons and the enthusiasm to get them :lol:

[DavidU]

Who's a happy boy eh' Chris?:thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Woohoo!! Back at the helm I see.. Good to hear it brother!

Looks like the colour balance of those filters is pretty spot on straight out of the camera.. perhaps a touch light on the red channel, but close enough I reckon!

Bet you can't wait for new moon, and hopefully a full night of clear skies! :)

[Omaroo]

Thanks Guys! Great to be imaging again - in any capacity. :thumbsup:



Yep Alex. :) The balance is surprisingly good - given that this is the first time I've actually had the pleasure of using a filter wheel and filters. I had visions of taking yonks to find how to balance them before I got any result at all. Looks like 1.5:1:1:1 will do fine until I take more objects to tune that a bit. I agree, the red could do with a tiny tad more, but that's not something I couldn't effect in Photoshop.

Clear skies would be nice. I could then start to get used to a relatively low-QE device and see where it takes me. In the meantime - all great fun! :D