Well.. I must say, after having owned this camera for nearly 3 weeks now, I am very happy to say that I've now put it to use.. even if only briefly..
I am utterly amazed at how much more sensitive this camera is in comparison to my old QHY8... This thing SUCKS the photons down...
2 images from first light night.
1. IC434.
9x120sec with 9 darks subtracted.
2. M83 (My first face on spiral galaxy.. Im stoked!)
10x120sec with 10 darks.
I found it rather hard to stop the camera from blooming, as seen in the IC434 image, even in only a 2 min exposure, the stars around the horse head bloomed a little.. (In a 0.2sec image of the trapezium, A B and C all bloomed by about 2 pixels..)
To give a quick idea of how sensitive the camera is, I pointed the scope to where I figured the horse head should be, took a 2sec exposure, and there was the horse head on my screen.. in 2 seconds. The QHY8 couldn't have done that in a minute...
Another thing that amazed me, was the ease of self guiding... Fan-Bloody-Tastic! it just... worked... No matter where I pointed the scope, in a 1sec exposure there was always a guide star or 3 in the field of view, tell CCDSoft to auto select one of them, click autoguide... Off it goes.. Very pleased...
@Focus - Perhaps the best thing ever.. (Those of you who know what it is, know what I mean I'm sure..)
All on the way mate!! I was considering breaking out the 13nm Ha for the horse head shot, but didnt want to introduce anything that could cause problems.. just wanted a nice, issue free first light, and thats exactly what I got.. (apart from having to come inside at midnight due to the massive influx of mosquitoes..) they bit me through my t-shirt, on my nose, on my eyelids, on my finger tips... you name it, they bit it...
Thanks for the comments, And I look forward to providing some NB nebula shots in the not too distant future.. (I also look forward to hunting more galaxies!! )
The NABG cameras are sensitive so they pickup lots, they do bloom though and this introduces it's own set of problems of course but not insurmountable.
Thanks Mike, The satisfaction is definitely a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.. The one satisfaction point missing is due to the incessant itching im currently undergoing
Next on the list.. M104, Cent A (Oh noes!), and NGC4565... Save those for another weekend... Would also definitely like to add some Ha to that horse head shot...
Great start! Yes, with the NABG and pixel size of the ST-9E you will gather the photon FAST. Let the stars bloom -- these are easily removed now days. I use CCD Stack or Maxim.
Not bad for 2 min subs Alex, and youll find Ha not hard to use with the ST9s hi QE..Yes, auto focus is a dream. If you think @focus is good, you should try FocusMax, much faster.....and free.
Thanks all for the great response... I must say I woke up today, had another look at those shots and simply can't believe i was able to obtain images like that with a mere 20mins of total exposure.. I can't wait to go deeper...
Fred & Gary, I'll give FocusMax a go, thanks for the tip,
Gary, The scope was C11 @ F/6.3 ~1756mm focal length, 2.31 arcsec:pixel
Dennis, I did my best to convey my excitement from the night.. everything from having the setup work from go to woah, right through to the extreme sensitivity of the camera...
Peter, Ho-Hum this experience was not. I can safely say I will be using SBIG cameras from now untill the day I croak if this is the kind of satisfaction they can bring... Self-guide convert for sure.. I'll be interested to see how it goes guiding through the 13nm Ha filter.. That will be the test.
Ken, Saving is right! Need CFW, Filters, AO-8 and off in the distant distant future, an STL-1001E
Thanks again for all the positive feedback guys.. Much appreciated.
Hi Alex,
Very nice for the first light, amazing detail in M83, will be looking out for more of your images as you become familiar with your new camera.
can feel the satisfaction 
