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460EX 1st Light whole night test


Ewan

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Hi,

After having owned my 460 now for about 2 weeks I managed to get out last night until 4 am.

Coming from a 314L+ which I still have to the 460 has made me appreciate why the 460 has a good following.

The body is nice & slim, not too heavy & my scope seemed to have better balance, maybe that may have been a fluke.

Not only have I now got the fov I wanted but processing images from the 460EX seem a lot easier than the 314, the low noise high sensitivity must play a major part in this.

Anyway I did a few test runs on various targets, M51, M81, NGC 3718 & M101, M51 was my last imaging run which lasted for just over 2 hours & I think the data is pretty clean for the low sub count.

All the images were Lum only.

Usual setup of:-

AZEQ6

AA 80EDT F6

Guide cam DMK""618

Anyway I hope you enjoy the samples & as usual all comments welcome.

post-11075-0-49819000-1427498035_thumb.j

post-11075-0-01274100-1427498049_thumb.j

post-11075-0-60404400-1427498097_thumb.j

post-11075-0-09373800-1427498107_thumb.j

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Nice set! Well done on the 460. This Sony chipped base camera really is a good workhorse for many :)

So far so good Sara, glad I opted for the Atik.

Thing is I really want to pop this on the SCT but having just bought a Quark I would have to keep swapping scopes over.

I guess I will wait a couple of weeks to try the solar & frac then swap for a few months to the bigger glass.

Did you notice if processing wise images seemed easier to process when you upgraded ?

Looking forward to capturing more data with it soon.

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Very nice images, I found it easier to process and control the noise, I think it just being the larger chip and smaller pixels was a large factor, the resolution you're viewing at even on the web is much better on the 460, it always felt too close to full resolution on the smaller chip even when I posted a fairly small pic.

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Very nice images, I found it easier to process and control the noise, I think it just being the larger chip and smaller pixels was a large factor, the resolution you're viewing at even on the web is much better on the 460, it always felt too close to full resolution on the smaller chip even when I posted a fairly small pic.

Apart from the Quark it's been the best upgrade so far.

The detail it can hoover up was astounding, even though the above were only test subs (each target was approx 60 mins total apart from M51) I will carry on with them I think.

Made a boob with M81 though thinking it was M82 as well.

Note to self is check first complete sub.

Thanks for the comments so far

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Great result from one night! It would take me a few nights just to get one of my images looking anything like yours!

I guess I'll have to get myself a better camera one of these days?

Thanks for sharing

Bryan

Thanks Bryan.

It was clear all night with a near half moon so choosing my targets for taking Lum images was a gamble as I find I get better guiding aiming the scope West, a couple of the targets were East or just past the meridian (further away from the moon glow) which made them near vertical.

I didn't have to adjust anything balance wise shooting East this time but I am not sure if that was due to seeing or the CCD shape but guiding was very flat.

I would still go with a mono CCD over a OSC because it is overall quicker as many have said before.

Although saying that I may have a crack at Andromeda next year with the 600D ;-)

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What I have learnt Ewan, especially with the 8" RC that I am using at the moment is that there is no substitute for lots of data. The more you have, the easier the processing becomes. I have been examining some data as I've gone along on my last target - The difference in noise between 37x1800s and 46x1800s was really very surprising indeed and made life much easier in the processing stakes. 

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What I have learnt Ewan, especially with the 8" RC that I am using at the moment is that there is no substitute for lots of data. The more you have, the easier the processing becomes. I have been examining some data as I've gone along on my last target - The difference in noise between 37x1800s and 46x1800s was really very surprising indeed and made life much easier in the processing stakes. 

Without a doubt your right Sara, I have to agree with John that the larger chip, pix size enables better resolution when processing & presenting your final images.

The 314L+ is a fantastic ccd but you will be limited as to your image sizes either on screen or print, I now 'feel' a lot happier with this new addition.

I tried a reprocess on the 'sample' M51 Sara inc the layer masking (not dabbled with it too much before but I have tried it out), indeed more outer dust is apparent than first teased out & for 145 mins exp so far I am very happy with it.

A few fuzzies showing up + more noise but as you say more,more subs :grin:

Just about to post a question in the imaging tips section Sara & I would love for to add some advice if possible.

Re processed M51 :-

post-11075-0-98094200-1427622194_thumb.j

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Like it :)  What exposure did you use?

Thanks

I took these Gina

1 x 1800

4 x 1200

3 x 600

1 x 300

I would like to capture at least a few hours at 300 just for the core tbh then the rest at 1200.

Add RGB if & when.

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Yes, I've concluded myself that this galaxy could do with multiple exposures followed by layers and masks in Photoshop.  I'm working on it :D  Need more clear nights and to sort myself out with masks etc. :D

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