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Getting to know my Atik 460 colour camera

Helen

By Helen
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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Helen

Helen

Posted
Posted

Over the past few weeks I've been experimenting with the Atik 460 colour camera on a WO FLT123 (with a 0,8FR). I've had a load of fun! At this stage I've gone for relatively short runs as I've been a bit like a kid in a sweetshop! I'll settle down to image one or two targets a night, and hopefully weather permitting do some multi-night runs too. But so far I've been impressed by the quality of the scope and the sensitivity and ease of use of the camera. I've put an IDAS LPR filter in the imaging train as my light pollution is reasonably bad (not inner city bad, but valleys villages bad), and generally kept my subs to 300s. I did try a few 600s and even 900s but found the background level rose significantly and the shorter subs gave a nicer result when processed. I've found OSC processing surprisingly easy (famous last words perhaps!) with DSS doing a great job. I've only used flats and no darks/bias so far. I'm not sure whether either will make a difference given the low noise of the chip? Views?

So here are my first shots - taken over the past month or so.

The Cocoon Nebula - Caldwell 19

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Andromeda Galaxy - M31

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Triangulum Galaxy - M33

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Iris Nebula - Caldwell 4

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I'm really looking forward to the winter season now!

Helen

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Stu_2011

Stu_2011

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Great shots, really good

Now I'm confused, I'm about to buy the 48ex (similar chip in technology but less pixels) and was all set on OSC for ease of use. Then after some advice on here I changed my mind to mono with filters but these pictures are making me think again??

Thanks

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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ncjunk

ncjunk

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Looking good Helen!

I always end up looking at loads of objects as well :D

I prefer my mono camera to my OSC but with the OSC I can get a pic together with whatever I have. Bit hard with a mono if clouds roll in before the blue channels done.

is the caldwell 4 very low down?

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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They look great, Helen. In testing the 460 we used a bias master as a dark but processing OSC becomes more complicated with any kind of darks and flats because they must be applied before stacking and debayering. Maybe if you can set up a dither routine and combine using a Sigma clip then you could dispense with darks, but flats will become more important when you spend longer on a target in order to tease out the faint stuff. (Flats allow you to separate this from vignetting, bunnies, etc.)

Olly

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Nice images Helen! So we can get an idea of the noise characteristics in comparison to a typical DSLR, can you tell us how many subs were used for these images?

Think of the noise levels in the reading room of the British Library and compare them with those at the start line of a grand prix!

Olly

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