Eta Carinae with 60Da

[dmurton]

First light for Canon 60Da. Dodging fog and cloud, and poor polar alignment did not help.
40 x 10sec @iso6400, with darks and flats removed.

Regards

David

[MrB]

Nice work David.
Now if only I could get my hands on one.

[2stroke]

Not bad :) Did you have a IR filter in place? Kinida looks like you piggybacked with a 300mm lens but left the IR/UV cut on the lens, no offence. Any chance of posting a raw?

[gregbradley]

Yep that is pretty good for lots of 10 second shots.

A good and promising start.

I think that is the first time I have ever seen a DSLR shoot an astrophoto at ISO6400 before! No excessive noise. Now that is impressive.

Greg.

[dmurton]

I was pleasantly suprised, my local camera store ordered one for me on Tuesday, it arrived Wednesday. But, after ringing around, most camera stores weren't interested in anything chasing up anything 'unusual', and 2 places I rang in Melbourne flat out told me there was no such camera.



No IR filter in the image train, only modified filter than is fitted by canon. Was using a william optics Megrez 72 with focal reducer, with an effective focal length of 345mm. I was discussing with a few of the guys here who have modified their own cameras, they mentioned that their shots are very red, almost too red, where this seems a 'pink'. other reason may be the short exposures perhaps.

I'm at a dark sky site for the next few nights, with patchy net access, but will post a raw frame next week. I also forgot to mention that there is no post processing on the image, only stacking, dark sub, and flat etc, not tweaking in PS.



Thanks Greg. I only took it out of the box on thurday night, and first light was the first power up as well. I've never tried 6400 before for astro work, but this body seems quieter than my 5dII.

However, I was using my backup mount for this test, polar alignment was poor with no guiding. I'll put it on my other mount tonight, hopefully better results to follow.

[spacezebra]

Hi David

I received mine yesterday from our local camera house. They were great - they followed it up straight away. Hoping for a clear night tonight. The results look great - see you at Border Stargaze (we will compare notes)!

Its great that I did not need any extra cables etc... So Im pleased that I can get started straight away.

Cheers Petra d.

[stardust steve]

This is the first image i have seen with this new release camera and im liking it.
I can relate to camera places not knowing their own stock. I went into a well know chain of camera stores in Adelaides southern area. Asking for a T-ring adapter to suit an EOS 500D only to recieve a blank look from the staff and getting show a UV filter as a is this what you mean?:screwy::shrug:
From the look of this image at the amount of data, good noise level at 6400, etc etc makes me want one now :lol:

[dmurton]

They are great, I haven't even upacked the battery or charger yet. I got about 2 hours of decent seeing last night, hope for more tonight, I'll really give it a good test.

Am hanging out for Border Stargaze, it will be my first. everyone I've met says it is fantastic. Look forward to meeting you and comparing notes.



As you can imagine, I have no complaints with it, I seem to be praising it some much, I think I should hit canon for commision!

David

[MrB]

Most of the modified camera's are using the Baader ACF or BCF filters(or none at all) which claim a 98% transmittance figure at Ha, which is also claimed by Baader to be 5x the trans of the standard Canon filter.
Canon claimed it's 20Da had 2.5x the trans over standard, and the 60Da has 3x the trans over standard.
I think that could be the cause of the very red images.

According to this graphic (http://www.365astronomy.com/images/Canon_350d_baader_acf_comparison-graph.jpg) I found on the interweb, the Baader would have ~4x trans (98%) over standard(25%).
Would be interesting to see the curve for the 60Da's filter, guessing it would have approx 75% trans at Ha

[spacezebra]

Battery is charged, setting the camera - love the twist screen, oh I need an SD card.

Cheers Petra d.

[CapturingTheNight]

Hi David
Looking good for a first light. Well done :thumbsup: Can't wait to see more images from these cameras. I would love to see someone do some landscape astrophotography with one one day so I can compare it to my standard 60D astrolandscape shots.
Cheers
Greg

[bmitchell82]

I had a fully open Canon 40D and I never had a issue with too red. 99% of the time is colour balancing issues where peoples eyes or monitors are up the duff.

Here (http://brendanmitchell.net/?page_id=10&wppa-album=22&wppa-photo=22&wppa-occur=1) is a previous rendition of Eta carina and the 40D

[Martin Pugh]

Good colour!

well done
Martin

[dugnsuz]

Nice start - have fun with your new camera David.
Just imagine 40x10minutes!!!
All the best
Doug

[dmurton]

75% seems to be the figure I came across when I was researching the camera, 3 times standard at 656nm.



Hope you had more luck than I did last night, all cloud and rain.



I'm heading up north next weekend for a conference, I'll try and get some wide angle stuff done, and see how it turns out. I'll let you know.



Nice eta, puts mine to shame. I agree colour balance is a big issue, but wouldn't 'colour bleed' be an issue? For example, I was shooting the sun in H alpha, theoretically there should be little or no data in the green and blue channels. Red was not overexposed (was going for surface detail, not proms), there was a surprising amount of data in the green and blue channels. I'm thinking that with too much sensitivity in red, it might bleed over in to the other channels, washing out that data, meaning shorter exposures to compensate?



Thanks Martin, the colour hasn't been tweeked at all in PS or any other program, so I can't claim too much credit.



Thanks Doug. Imagine, 40x10 minutes - DROOL!!

[MrB]

Interestingly, I was just reading a site yesterday where someone had the exact same problem but with a Nikon. He bought a vanilla 60D and problem solvered. Perhaps you are right and it is an overexposure issue?
Anyway, have a read here and see what you think... http://www.astro-nut.com/ir-mod.html

[skysurfer]

Here a pic of mine (Feb 2010) with a 40d 7 subs each 30 secs @ ISO1600 Televue Genesis prime focus it has just the right red color....
With the 7d I have now I can shoot @ 3200 or 6400 as long as I taken enough subs ....

http://www.skysurfer.eu/skypics3/large/ngc3372-20100220-30s-stacked.jpg

[RobF]

What sort of temperature did you shoot at David? Very promising colour and image for 10sec subs. Looks like there is a lot of interest in your post too. We'll all be hanging out for more from the 60a's! Bring it on! More!

[dmurton]

I saw this site a while ago, has some great tips on capturing in H alpha, and through a PST (which is how I stumbled on to the site). However, it was a canon D60 (eventually replaced by the EOS 10d back in 2002/03), but the principle is the same. What I was thinking in the previous post is with a 'wide open' camera with no filter, and shooting colourful objects (nebulae etc), the extra red data may 'bleed' in the blue and green channels, 'corrupting' the blue and green data perhaps?



Nice. It shows more nebulosity than mine, which you would expect given the longer exposure. I wouldn't mind using that Televue instead of my WO!



I didn't adjust the temperature, it was litrerally out of the box, and on to the scope (with a short hunt around for a SD Card). I was using nebulosity 2.5 for capturing the images, so I believe the data is raw, and untouched by temperature settings (I'm not sure so I may be wrong).

I also took 40 x 10 second images of the Tarantula, which I haven't played with yet, I'll try and get them up tonight or tomorrow.

[MrB]

Oh duh! So it was haha... my brain must've just ignored the fact the 'D' was infront :rolleyes:


Looking forward to it :)

I've been told I should get my 60Da this Thursday... I hope so or there'll be some fightin'! :D

[RobF]

Yes, but what was ambient temp when you were shooting - 15 to 20 degrees or cooler or warmer?

Just trying to get a feel, as noise in pic pretty well controlled. In Qld DSLR noise is a big problem in the warmer months :)

[dmurton]

Hope you get it, I've been happy with mine. I just wish these bloody clouds would take a hike so I can try it some more.



Sorry, I misunderstood. It was quite warm for april down here, somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees. It was so warm, I was still walking around inshorts, T-shirt and sandals at 11.30pm.

If you or anyone else are interested, I'll take some darks at various different temperatures and ISO's. I can either post them or send them.

[dmurton]

Finally, had time to do this one as well, have been running around like a headsless chook this week. Images taken on the same night with the same rig. 40 x 10 seconds ISO6400, WO 72mm Megrez, WO Pflat3, Canon 60 Da. Crop of Tarantula.

[Ross G]

Very good photo for 10 sec exposures David.

Camera exhibits a lot of potential.


Ross.