First attempt at LRGB

[Tim star]

So, after a couple of years using DSLR I took the plunge with CCD. Advice from here led me to the Atik 460 with a manual filter wheel. FLO didnt have the manual Atik wheel and recommended the Celestron one. I was delighted to find that my TeleVue TRF 8000 FR 0.8 screwed neatly into the filter wheel with a few moments head scratching over how all the bits fitted together and I have a nice firm Atik/FW/FR chain which slots nicely into the 2" focusser on my SW 80ED. I am still terrified of £1600 worth of CCD camera crashing out onto the ground but an elestic band is reassurance. I have the Baader filter set from FLO. I watched the Atik video and wasnt too impressed with the pinhole lens idea but tested the unit at dusk, no stars so a distant tower and red warning light were good targets to get used to focussing, binning etc. Its really odd not to have an ISO to adjust. Amazing to see the full structure of the tower perfectly focussed in complete darkness. Eventually the skies cleared and I got this very much first time image of M27. 7 L 1x1 and 5 RGB 2x2. They said no darks needed so no darks! So far have just used Astroart which is quite intuitive but will still need a lot more time to learn. Im not sure I will get away without Photoshop though would like to as I have already spent far too much. Looks more blue on here than on my computer screen but there you go.

[ollypenrice]

You're up and running.

The first thing to look at is the colour balance, which is very blue heavy. In AA did you use Trichromy to combine colours? If so, try checking auto colour balance and white balance as you do so. If that gives a biased colour balance you can adjust the colour weighting manually till it looks better.

I use AA for pre-processing but I couldn't manage without Photoshop. It was certainly possible to buy legit copies of CS3 recently for a decent price. You will need a real graphics programme to post process images. Pixinsight is also a great programme but I only use if for some tasks rather than all of them.

Olly

[Tim star]

Thanks Olly, I find your posts very inspiring. Shall practice a bit more with the colour balance.

Tim

[Geordie mc]

Photoshop cc and Lightroom cc are only £9 a month and are both great. Not sure about the no darks though. I'd try some and see if they help. You can take sets at varying exposure lengths and binning settings and use them for a few weeks before needing to take them again. Given that the Atik has set point cooling you could do these any time as long as you image at the same sensor temp. As Olly says you are up and running. It has taken me over a year to convert to ccd imaging and I have loads to learn and improve. If only there were more clear nights.