First Light, New Camera Test NGC1365

[PRejto (Peter)]

I wasn't going to post this (as I had my hopes dashed this cycle thanks to the terrible weather). But, it's something....

Anyway, 64 min luminance (8 subs/8 min each) with my PlayerOne Poseidon M (gain=0) on my TEC-180 with the BARADV. FL = ~ 2520mm @ .31 arc-sec

I was quite skeptical as to whether this would work. I did very minimal processing...just a very basic screen stretch followed by one pass of BLURX and NOISEX. For sure there is some distortion in the corners using the BARADV that shows up a bit more than my smaller chip camera (Trius SX694). But, Blur X does a fine job of correcting. The subs all measured around 1.7 FWHM so seeing was pretty decent on the single cooperative night a couple of weeks ago. The .jpg shows the entire frame.

If the weather ever decides to cooperate I hope to get more data and to post something worthy.

Peter

[TrevorW]

Great, plenty of detail, now to add the colour

[alpal]

Hi Peter,
wow - it's nice when a new system all comes together like that -
that's a top picture -
a high efficiency mono camera - IMX571 chip - up to 90% QE -
and the Barlow is doing well too at 2X mag.
1.7 FWHM is great seeing - I take it you're at a dark site at Rylstone?
I hope you can get some colour subs too.

cheers
Allan

[PRejto (Peter)]

Thanks Trevor and Allan,

Yes, I'm starting to get my head around this new CMOS camera, my first.

Of course, I do hope to get colour with cooperating weather. And yes, seeing can be quite good here at 2,000 feet msl. The problem with Rylstone is that it can be very humid at times....

I mostly plan to use the camera on my TEC140 but couldn't resist the experiment on the TEC180. I need very good seeing to guide this beast properly. The one time I tried in poor seeing I couldn't guide effectively, but I suppose that doesn't matter as this setup is only going to be useful in good conditions. I had to set the SX Ultrastar guide camera to bin 4.

P

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Looking good Pete, you look to be well on your way

TEC180...mmmmmmmmm

Mike

[Leo.G (Leo)]

That's a stunning image considering how our weather has been. I can't remember the last time I saw a clear sky before I went to bed in Lithgow.

[keller60 (Bill)]

Impressive depth.


I'm curious about the subtle mottling in the background. Is this a noise reduction or perhaps a fixed CMOS pattern artifact?



Regardless, the galaxy itself shows remarkable structure. Nice one

[PRejto (Peter)]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your comment. Given this is only 1 hour of data at a rather long FL, who knows? It could be the AI as the data certainly was quite noisy, I did dither so I doubt it's fixed pattern noise! It could be jpg compression a well!

I was pleased I could get this result so quickly; obviously I want a lot more data! The weather seems bent on denying that possibility!

P