Opticstar DS-145M - First Light - M8

[JohnH]

Rough and ready shot of part of m8 with the Opticstar DS-145M ( see: http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astrono...=0_10_0_50_210 )

I used the DG Optics NBP filter on this occasion because of the nearly full moon. The camera was mounted at prime on the 127 ED, exposures were 8*240s. The camera seems to be performing well, I did use flats but not darks so there are some artifacts in the image - the horizontal and vertical bands - which I think darks would take care of.

Comments are more than welcome - I must say am pleased with the detail in the nebulosity - more than I have seen in any of my previous attempts at this target so the camera/scope/filter combination looks like it has plenty of potential.

I will need more fov so an FR is on my shopping list.

[Peter Ward]

Horizontal *and* vertical bands?

I can't say I've seen similar artifacts with any other CCD.

You might want to run some calibration data as the camera may be faulty.

[gregbradley]

Perhaps, but it looks like a pattern noise you can see in some DSLRs/CMOS chips when pushed too hard.

Does this camera have adjustable gain? It seems like it does in the promo for it. I'd hazard a guess the gain is pushed up too hard.

Plus the darks should get rid of it.

Greg.

[Garyh]

That looks very promising John!
Nice resolution!

[AlexN]

seems to have caught a lot of detail in the core of M8 which is pleasing. With any luck darks can remove the noise artifacts and you'll have yourself a top notch M8 image in your collection.

add some RGB filters in a filter wheel and you'll be set

[JohnH]

Yup it was cleaned up with application of darks, thanks guys! That will teach me not to be lazy. I hope I can get some RGB data soon (clouds and rain here atm of course...).

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by JohnH

Yup it was cleaned up with application of darks, thanks guys! That will teach me not to be lazy. I hope I can get some RGB data soon (clouds and rain here atm of course...).

Ahhh, now that's better

Looks good

Mike

[AlexN]

Oh... Oh yes.... thats a winner!

Top work mate, and in future, apply darks before posting

as i mentioned earlier, the core area is beautifully exposed in your image, showing a lot of the delicate folds of nebulosity.

You should be proud of that.

[iceman (Mike)]

That's nice, a pleasing result John. Great first light.

[JohnH]

Rain, Clouds, so I took the colour from a DSLR shot and applied it to the 145 image....I did not do anything clever in the combination and had to drop the resolution but you get the idea...

[renormalised (Carl)]

The second mono and colour shot are really nice

Lots of detail in both images

[Alchemy (Clive)]

youve captured some lovely detail with the camera and scope combo. gets in up close too, nice to see sharp stars from corner to corner- no coma here be great when you can run the color filters

cheers clive

[gregbradley]

A great first light. You've gotta be happy with that.

Greg.

[Jen]

Nice pics

[JohnH]

Thanks All,

Yes can say I am really pleased with this camera and scope so far, great sensitivity, resolution and contrast, itching to get a full set of subs - hope it stays clear tonight!