My first go at the new camera

Peter.M · #1 21-12-2011, 07:00 AM

My previous images were plagued with thermal noise, so I took the plunge and bought a QHY9 mono. Apart from the hardware conflicts, all has gone well so far. This image was taken with 5 minute exposures all binned at 1x1. 2 rgb and 5 luminance frames. The core is blown out so sorry for all the trapezium lovers out there, but I like the accurate portrayal of relative brightness.

It is worth noteing that I cannot use the MPCC at the moment due to bad spacing, and no flats were used because I have no way of taking them (exfso made box is on the way). I am enjoying the chalenge of monochrome imaging, and hope you all like my progress.

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #2 21-12-2011, 10:56 AM

Wow Peter!

That's Huge, smooth and lots of dust showing.....very nice...

(and no, thats not a euphemism....

)

Great start, inspiring me to get out there when the rain stops.

Well done...!

Cheers

Chris

bmitchell82 (Brendan) · #3 21-12-2011, 11:34 AM

Thats a nice little shot of the big bird.

A few things to have a look at. you have a green cast though the back ground. are you using gimp or PS?

in any case look at your histograms and either in levels or curves back off the green channel this will move the back ground to a more blacky grey colour. Though do remember though that area there is mass's of dust that has a browny red tinge to it so your background wont be really black in any case. Here is a shot of M42 that i did a fair while ago with the 10" and QHY9.

Im glad that you are getting used to your system

many good things will come of it!

Brendan

Exfso (Peter) · #4 21-12-2011, 03:05 PM

Brendan, that 3D thing is amazing, once I got the distance correct.

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #5 21-12-2011, 03:13 PM

Very nice detail,thanks for showing

Peter.M · #6 21-12-2011, 04:21 PM

Thanks guys, on the whole I am happy with it. I do notice the green cast also Brendan, I think I must have balanced it with the vignetted section. I look forward to eliminating my coma and vignetting with extra bits and pieces.

I am still having an issue with my computer/camera/mount where If I plug the camera into the computer ( even on its own USB port ) It kills eqmod. This is a major annoyance because I usually focus on an alignment star and then slew to the target. This is the reason I went for M42, because I could find it manually. I think next time I take it all outside to image I will just do my fine focusing adjustments on some stars in the frame when I dont need eqmod, this can be annoying because of the exposures needed to see my masks spikes.

RobF (Rob) · #7 21-12-2011, 09:01 PM

Great start on M42 Peter. You'd have to be happy with that. I like you're slightly wider field of view for F4 - would be nice to have.

Are you running EQMOD with the shoestring? Sounds funny that the camera kills it. Pulse guiding through a direct connection might be a worthwhile pursuit sometime (using ASCOM) etc?

bmitchell82 (Brendan) · #8 21-12-2011, 09:33 PM

Are you plugged into mains power if you are pull it out and run on batteries. I use a dell pc and it kicks eqmod off with in minutes of plugging the power in.

Peter.M · #9 21-12-2011, 11:58 PM

Using both shoestring heq5 usb dir cable and mains power. It really sucks, right now im shooting some ngc1097, and I had to do the alignment, plug the camera in, and then frame manually, which isnt easy. Also Rob, when i get my MPCC working that frame will be much bigger, its probs a 70% crop there.

multiweb (Marc) · #10 22-12-2011, 11:14 AM

Great shot on axis. With the proper MPCC spacing you'll have a great field.

RobF (Rob) · #11 22-12-2011, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter.M

Using both shoestring heq5 usb dir cable and mains power. It really sucks, right now im shooting some ngc1097, and I had to do the alignment, plug the camera in, and then frame manually, which isnt easy. Also Rob, when i get my MPCC working that frame will be much bigger, its probs a 70% crop there.

Why not use pulse guiding direct through the USB connection then rather than ST4 guide port?

strongmanmike (Michael) · #12 22-12-2011, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter.M

I am enjoying the chalenge of monochrome imaging, and hope you all like my progress.

That's coming along very nicely, I like the colours and there is some good details despite the coma/image tilt

Mike