My first image 'The horse Head'

[scagman]

Hi all,

Here is my 1st attempt at imaging. Its not much but I am very happy with it.
After many nights of trying to work out alignment and guiding, I finally got it all working together. So I started playing with maximDL a bit, trying to work out how it worked. After clicking on a few things I was able to get it taking a few short test images. I thought I would try taking a few images and see what I get. I pointed the scope towards the HH, and set MaximDL up to take 6 x 300sec exp., taking a dark frame too, hit the start button. 10mins later the first image pops up on the screen, it black, nothing, ahh, so I hit stop, and packed up for the night as its nearly 1am and time for bed.
Tonight when I got home I thought I would have a look at the image and see if I can play with it and see if there is anything there at all. So opened up MaximDL draged the image in and hay presto it's there, a picture. I was amazed that there was anything there, then to see the HH I was truly amazed. If only I had of left it alone last night and got some more data to play with.

Anyway I happy with the result,(yeah I know its not very good but there).
1 x 300sec exp
1 x 300sec dark.

Equipment below.
All comments welcome.(good,bad or indifferent)

[jjjnettie]

:) Congratulations!
I hope you get a chance to get out and ride that Bronco again, real soon. :thumbsup:

[Poita]

Which camera are you using?

[vanwonky]

I don't care if the image isn't very good. It is your first and that makes it very exciting. Is that cropped of full frame?
Cheers Dave

[mishku]

Heeeey!! Looks good! Well done :)

[Poita]

The image has the look of incorrect debayering about it, are you using a colour camera. http://cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/Convert_RGB.htm

Nice shot really, extreme close up!

[multiweb]

John, this is a terrific picture. Even if the framing is off and I reckon you missed the debayering step the data is truly outstanding at this FL and the stars tight as. Not a small feat by any standard. Looking forward to more of your pics. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Poita]

I agree, an outstanding effort, look forward to seeing more.
See if you can debayer the image, I'd like to see the colour!

[scagman]

Yes so do I, looks like might not be for a few more days thanks to the clounds.



Meade DSI II



No this is full frame. Its not a very big chip, its only 5.59x4.68mm.



Yes it is a colour cam, I know nothing of debayering, will have a look at the link you provided, thanks.



Thanks very much.

I'll have ago at debayering and repost the image.

Thanks again all for the kind comments.

[jenchris]

On such a small chip, that is great - well done!

[alistairsam]

Well done John. it looks like it needs debayering but being a colour cam I don't know why it'd need debayering.
looks like your guiding is spot on.

I had the opportunity to visit John's place and play with the G11, goto, autoguiding. the guiding was really good.
just to show what this beautiful scope is capable of, here's M83 we took that night with a canon 1000d with his scope. just a stack of 2 frames, no darks, so noise is evident.
John, hope you don't mind me posting this, but that's a very nice setup you have, I'm sure there's some nice images due to come.
hope to visit again.

I'd suggest reprocessing your HH again with a different software to see if it makes any difference.

[Poita]

A single chip colour camera would need debayering, a mono camera has no bayer array to require the effect to be removed. John has a colour camera, so will need to debayer (or demosaic as Nebulosity calls it). See explanation from the wiki below.

Basically if you follow the guide on that link, you should end up with a nice colour image.

[alistairsam]

Yes of course, didn't think that through.

[scagman]

Hi Alistair, not a problem. I've been waiting for you to post that image somewhere, I too was interested to see what you got and must say very nice.Just PM when you wish to come again

I've attached a debayered image and stretched it a bit more. I was wondering why it wasn't in colour in the original but put that down to lack of subs.

I didn't think much about the size of the chip when I was looking for a cam, new it was small, low pixel count etc, but thought it would only mean I wouldn't be enlarging them and that wouldn't be an issue. Then I heard about CCDCalc. and had a play with that. This I do not recommend once you have purchased your camera. I have attached a couple of screen images of CCDCalc with my scope and camera(DSI II) and my scope and a D70 as an example compared to 35mm. Is there such a thing as chip fever:lol:.

I need to get a focal reducer maybe an .5x, this would bring me down from 7.5 to 3.75 but haven't seen any that are for a 127mm refractor, anyone used one or have any suggestions.(lot cheaper option than a new cam:D)

[alistairsam]

yep, all you need is a reducer and a dslr or ccd and you'll be singing.
a good cam makes a huge difference.

[Poita]

Hooray, the colour is there.
The noise will drop off with more subs, you probably stretched it a little far for a single image, but even a few seconds tweaking shows the potential. Amazing sharp tracking job at that mag, I'm impressed!

[scagman]

Thanks Peter for the comments. I like your tweaks to the image.
I thought I was over stretching it a bit.

[irwjager]

Bit late to the party, but I just wanted to say you got some nice tracking & focus there. Now you just need more subs! :thumbsup:
Did a quick repro in ST as well...

Cheers,

[scagman]

Hi Ivo, thanks, just need clouds to go so I can get back out there. It always amazes me how data can be pulled out of an image. Your repro looks good. I will have to have a look at ST when I get some more subs to play with. Does ST read fits files? I use Maxim DL to capture with and the images are fits files.