Unassorted

Nope! Just 100% camera.

I finally had a nice clear night and was able to get a decent test with my modded 1000D. M45 - The Pleiades - http://i.imgur.com/lRyALpe.jpg 30 x 1min Lights 9 Darks 15 Flats 20 Bias Williams Optics GTF-81 Celestron AVX Canon 1000D(mono modded) Processed in PixInsight The amount of detail collected in just 30 min is astounding to me. You can even see the galaxy PGC 13696 in the image(red circle is where it is located - http://i.imgur.com/pJhsGZc.jpg) I can't wait to do this again since I have a few friends of mine asking me to do it for them as well!

I was able to get some time outside tonight and I have an hour of imaging the Iris Nebula - http://i.imgur.com/ttPBJDH.jpg Going to need to get a new sensor to get rid of the scratches since my flat frames are messing up for some reason.

I believe this was due to the tracking errors on my images. Here is a new image - http://i.imgur.com/yFQmtz2.jpg 6 x 60 at ISO 400 taken on 12/06/2014 during the full moon. Scope is a Celestron Omni 102 XLT on an AVX mount. The tracking on this one is a much better and the blob stars are non-existent. I believe that the blob stars from the previous post are also due to my scope and the CA that it suffers but I could be wrong. More testing is needed to make sure.

Time for an update! After finally getting a clear night last night I went out to get a first light test done on the camera(despite the almost full moon). Forewarning, I was in a rush to set up and break down so the tracking on my mount wasn't near as good as I would have wanted it to be. Here is the flat that I took after some more removal that I ended up being "okay" with - http://i.imgur.com/noJpfqV.jpg I wanted to give people a bit of a comparison to go off of on why this is a good idea so thats exactly what my plan was when I started this. Back in October during a new moon phase, I took a 7 min exposure of the Crescent Nebula(no reason back then but Im glad I did). The subs for the image were 7 x 60. Last night I took a 7 min exposure of the Crescent Nebula with the debayered camera for comparison. The subs for the image were 14 x 30(tracking issues). I took one sub from each image, a 30 sec and a 60 sec and placed them side by side. This is the result - http://i.imgur.com/8GV3pxN.png This just blew me away. The fact that the 30 sec exposure under a FULL MOON has more data than a 60 sec exposure under a new moon phase is staggering. I, of course, have the two images for you and here is the 7 min exposure of the nebula before debayering - http://i.imgur.com/94OzHof.jpg Here is the 7 min exposure after debayering - http://i.imgur.com/86BFdTZ.jpg The debayered image IS slightly out of focus(like I said, I was in a rush) and neigher of the images used darks or flats(comparison people). But of course, I did take darks and flats to go along with the images from last night and this is what I have after about 10 min of post processing - http://i.imgur.com/70hc0xL.jpg Lights: 14 x 30 at 1600 ISO Darks: 10 x 30 at 1600 ISO Flats: 15 Despite the full moon being 100% on saturday, I am going back out again since its a clear night and I will have all night to properly set up and properly focus.

So a bit of an update! New sensor came in. I was a bit more careful this time around and the results are pretty appealing. Here is the camera with the glass 100% off with no breaking in it - http://i.imgur.com/MKKrRu3.jpg Starting the removal - http://i.imgur.com/Mb9P23M.jpg Alot more done and this was the end of the day for me - http://i.imgur.com/8JzGIBL.jpg Flat image(yea, nice ol scratch in the middle and some tiny ones on the botton but flats galore should help) - http://i.imgur.com/Xanb6dh.jpg My hand! - http://i.imgur.com/qpi5BO2.jpg So far this has turned out quite well. Going to tackle more of the removal and then polish it up when I have some free time. Hopefully i can make the scratch less prevalent after removing the rest of the CFA. Currently in my forecast I am seeing Friday and Saturday as nights that will be somewhat free of clouds so I plan on getting first light with the mono mod then!

Thanks Gina! Ill update either tonight or tomorrow on the progress and or success/failure!

Yea =( I knew going in with that sensor that I would have an 85% chance of it being dead after I even touched it but my new sensor should be in today and I already have a much better set up and lighting so that I won't hit any of the golden wires.

Well, after a good day or two of reading I finally reached the end. I've taken apart my 1000D and started the process of removing the cfa. Got most of it removed and went to take a test shot to make sure everything was still working correctly. Image came back as being completely black. It would appear that I hit one of the golden fibers while cleaning it and I have a new sensor on the way! Here is what my sensor did look like before attempting to take a photo and I'm still unsure on if I went too far down or not far enough.