[Repro added] M83 - First light with new QHY9M CCD camera

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Hi there Everyone,

It's been a while since I have posted anything. Truth is I had an awful experience with an overseas vendor who I sent a DSLR to be modified with cooling and filter mod. I was told a eight week turn around which turned into 6 months with no joy so I demanded a refund and my camera returned (which had not even been started#. I could go into it a lot further as the whole situation was an awful joke which nearly turned me off for good but that's a story for another time. As I sold my other modded DSLR I couldn't image for all this time.

Anyhow, Happy to say I regained my motivation and I decided to buy myself a QHY9 mono and some Baader LRGB filters and finally cross over to CCD imaging. As usual with new purchases I had to wait a week or two before the clouds went away but finally got a cloud free night last Saturday and was able to capture 3 hours #RGB 60:60:60) of M83. I created a synthetic luminance as I find my light pollution is so bad my true luminance washes out very quickly.
I am very pleased with the camera.

As always comments and critique welcome
Thanks For Looking,
Lucas

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Wow Lucas!

That is simply excellent for a first light!

Such details and colour rendition of the star forming regions, it is excellent.

I can't fault it (not that I am wanting to), my first instinct was WOW!

And it is beautifully processed! Fantastic work.

Well done!

Cheers

Chris

[Octane (Humayun)]

That is a wonderful first result.

I would think about upping the blue in the galaxy, though.

H

[whzzz28 (Nathan)]

Looks good!
You forgot to mention the scope you took it through though

[alpal]

Hi Lucas,
That's a great image with your new camera.
I like the tasteful use of saturation.
Too many images have over bright colors but yours is not over cooked.
I would also be interested in the technical details of your telescope & guiding.

cheers
Allan

[gregbradley]

Fantastic image.

Greg.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

That's great, Lucas-you have captured so much fine detail

[E_ri_k (Erik)]

Great first light! What scope did you use for this?
Erik

[allan gould]

Excellent image Lucas and so sorry to hear about your bad experience but you have done yourself proud.
Allan

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Lovely first light Lucas! Some great detail in there and overall very pleasing to look at!

You've understated the colours - which is fine of course - but I agree with Humayun and I'd go for a bit more vibrancy.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

A great first light indeed and I agree fully with Marcus

Mike

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Bloody Hell that is a cracker!!!!

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Great first light Lucas. Well done.

[naskies (Dave)]

Wow that detail is superb! How bad is your light pollution - did you image this from within Melbourne?

[Rod771 (Rod)]

Top job!

Very well done Lucas

[PRejto (Peter)]

That's fantastic! How did you do this in only 3 hours in light pollution? What scope?

Anyway, many thanks, and great work!

Peter

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Originally Posted by Screwdriverone

Wow Lucas!
That is simply excellent for a first light!
Such details and colour rendition of the star forming regions, it is excellent.
I can't fault it (not that I am wanting to), my first instinct was WOW!
And it is beautifully processed! Fantastic work.
Well done!
Cheers
Chris

Thanks heaps Chris. I am glad you liked it!

Originally Posted by Octane

That is a wonderful first result. I would think about upping the blue in the galaxy, though.
H

Thanks for the comments H. I will have a crack at trying to get a more vibrant blue kind of feel out of the galaxy in the next day or two.

Originally Posted by whzzz28

Looks good!
You forgot to mention the scope you took it through though

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Lucas,
That's a great image with your new camera.
I like the tasteful use of saturation.
Too many images have over bright colors but yours is not over cooked.
I would also be interested in the technical details of your telescope & guiding.
cheers
Allan

Thanks Nathan and Allan. I am using an APM 130mm F6 Triplet APO refractor on an NEQ6 Pro. For guiding I am using a TSOAG9 off axis guider (which I had left over from my DSLR days) with an orion starshoot camera. I control the QHY9 with Nebulosity 3 which can also talk to PHD guiding software so I can dither my subs also. Each Filter was 12 x 5min subs.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Fantastic image.
Greg.

Thanks Greg. Your tips have certainly been helpful.

Originally Posted by Larryp

That's great, Lucas-you have captured so much fine detail

Thanks Larry. Hope to get less clouds soon!

Originally Posted by E_ri_k

Great first light! What scope did you use for this?
Erik

Thanks Erik. See my reply to Nathan and Allan for scope details.

Originally Posted by allan gould

Excellent image Lucas and so sorry to hear about your bad experience but you have done yourself proud.
Allan

Appeciate the comments Allan. No one likes a bad experience but I guess things happen for a reason and I am very happy with the QHY9.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Lovely first light Lucas! Some great detail in there and overall very pleasing to look at!
You've understated the colours - which is fine of course - but I agree with Humayun and I'd go for a bit more vibrancy.
Cheers, Marcus

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

A great first light indeed and I agree fully with Marcus
Mike

Thanks for the encouragement Marcus and Mike. As per my comments to H I will have a crack at some added vibrance soon!

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

Bloody Hell that is a cracker!!!!

No worries Graham! I am really pleased with it.

Originally Posted by peter_4059

Great first light Lucas. Well done.

Thanks Peter. BTW you have inspired me to overhaul the NEQ6 Pro. I have the gears and belts arriving soon and my mount is nervous!

Originally Posted by naskies

Wow that detail is superb! How bad is your light pollution - did you image this from within Melbourne?

Thank you Dave. Yes I am within approx. 15km of the CBD. Also, I am looking out over my backyard and I can count about 50 sodium lamps from the container park which is about a km away so it's pretty bad.

Originally Posted by Rod771

Top job!
Very well done Lucas

Thanks Rod!

Originally Posted by PRejto

That's fantastic! How did you do this in only 3 hours in light pollution? What scope?
Anyway, many thanks, and great work!
Peter

Thanks Peter. I use an APM 130mm F6 Triplet APO refractor. The individual colour filters sort of act as light pollution filters as they only let 1/3 of the light spectrum in. Then I made a synthetic luminance from the RGB colour stacks.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Very successful first light with the camera Lucas and a great image at any time. Lots of delicate detail and nice processing. Interesting about the colour balance - the info tab in PS shows the background sky at a good level and perfectly balanced between RG and B, and yet we'd normally expect the galaxy arms to be more blue as a couple of people have said. The core and HII regions look just right.

[LucasB (Lucas)]

Originally Posted by Rigel003

Very successful first light with the camera Lucas and a great image at any time. Lots of delicate detail and nice processing. Interesting about the colour balance - the info tab in PS shows the background sky at a good level and perfectly balanced between RG and B, and yet we'd normally expect the galaxy arms to be more blue as a couple of people have said. The core and HII regions look just right.

Thanks for your feedback Graeme. This may be a little under processing on my behalf so I have done a little repro to hopefully rectify this.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Excellent

Mike