QHY8L First Light at Coonabarabran

[Ross G]

Hello,

I upgraded from a DSLR to a QHY8L ccd camera December last year.

My first proper imaging session was 3 nights at Coonabarabran in March.

I have a long way to go with my processing, especially with colour and saturation. However, I am happy with these images...what do you think?

WO M110 refractor
Heq5Pro mount
QHY8L ccd
PHD guiding with WO 66mm guide scope
WO FFII focal reducer
Televue 2x Powermate

Processing with DSS and Photoshop

Thanks for looking.


Ross.

[h0ughy]

for a first go they are quite a treat! a tad green in some but like you my processing need work - lots of practice. you setup looks like its matched well. be great to see what you get in the future, and the repros

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Ross, I'm speechless mate. What a set! That HH is incredibly deep, superb Eta and the rest just awesome. The processing is very good too. I bet you're happy with that lot hey? :) Very productive night. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[iceman]

Great body of work! I agree with Dave about the green tinge, but this work laptop screen is terrible for viewing images so it could be me ;)

[atalas]

Number 3 HH for me....nice work !

[Ross G]

Hello all,

Mike, David, Louie, thank you for your advice and encouragement.

Marc, I am very happy with these images. It is your freely available and excellent advice and your constant praise and encouragement that has been of great help.

Colour is a big problem for me. Everything else is relatively easy in comparison! I could do 10 different colour/saturation versions of an image and then the next morning be happy with none! Maybe monochrome Ha is my calling!

I am very happy with the upgrade from a DSLR to a CCD. I am getting colour in stars that used to come out white with the DSLR and the noise is so much less. I have a long way to go, but I am feeling confident.

Thanks.

Ross.

[multiweb]

Mate, it's your dedication and perseverance paying off dividends big time now. You're well on your way. Well done. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Some great images there.

The green tinge in the background is quite common in astro images. Noise is often green. Especially if there was any light pollution around.

Try this free plugin from Rogelio Andreo:

http://blog.deepskycolors.com/archivo/2010/04/26/hasta-La-Vista-green.html

It essentially does the job of the Tony Hallas green pixel gun but is all automated. It can tart up a greeny image very nicely. Got watch overdoing it as sometimes it can degrade an image slightly. So definitely do a copy first and use the plugin on the copy in case you want to backtrack.

The first HH is the better, the 2nd is a bit oversaturated.Also a bit too much magenta. The first HH only has a bit of background green which the above should handle.

The Eta has a background colour problem. I see this sometimes on my images occassionally. I am still not 100% sure what goes on with that sometimes but if you split the RGB and processed them slightly differently and recombined them later it may cause that.
With my images it usually means the green or blue component is noisy or had some high cloud in it or moon.


Greg.

Greg.

[RickC]

Ross:eyepop::thumbsup:
what a fab :D collection of images
I've noticed that some :shrug: have picked up on a little green, don't
worry I can show you some real green :shrug: :thumbsup: :screwy: :lol: :rofl::help:
and I've found a good fix........
:hi:
see you in Coonabarabran

[telecasterguru]

Ross,

I am very impressed.

Fabulous work.

Frank

[DJ N]

Excellent stuff Ross. Very impressed with the images. Just wondering if you recall what length subs?

Cheers,

Daniel

[Ross G]

Hi Greg,

Thank you for your advice. I tried the plugin and wow! Comparing before and after images, the difference in the green was very obvious. It has improved all my current images from the trip.

I see I have a lot of reading and experimenting with colour ahead of me.
I have attached my Eta C shot after applying the plug in.

Richard,thanks for the " boo boo faces". I know it must have been very difficult for you!
See you in Coonabarabran where it definitely will be very green and also very dark.

Ross.

[Ross G]

Thanks Frank.

Thanks Daniel. I used 6 subs at 10 minutes each.

Ross.

[Hagar]

Very nice collection Ross. You have to be happy with images like these.

Well done.

[richardo]

Great job on all counts here Ross.
You're climbing the dedicated ccd curve very quickly indeed.
Well done.
As others have pointed out, yes the dreaded green monster... ah it's such a fine line.
Also, while you're going, start taking flat fields, this will definitely help with uneven field illumination with your chip.

On a whole you've done extremely well.

Rich

[Ross G]

Thank you Doug.

I am happy with them.
It was such a big step moving up from a DSLR. Things I took for granted like a viewfinder, SD card storage and battery power were no longer there.
I now had to deal with FITS files, flats, bias and dark frames.
However, to see the low noise and star colours in these initial photos more than makes up for the loss of convenience and makes me want more.

Thanks.

Ross.

[Ross G]

Hi Rich,

Thank you for you encouraging comments.

Yes, I can see learning to use the CCD is going to take my astro photos to a new level.
I did take flat and bias frames. they did even out the illumination as the field flattener I used had a lot of vignetting. However, they did introduce an unfavourable colour cast. I am currently trying to work out what I did wrong.
However, even at this early stage I am getting better photos than with my DSLR.

Thanks.

Ross.