NGC7380 in Ha

[swag72]

Taken over 2 nights, may I present to you NGC7380 - My first real attempt at an Ha image.

NGC7380 was taken over the nights of 19.20 June.

Details:

Canon 1000D (modded)

HEQ5

SW 120ED / 0.85 reducer

Astronomik 12nm Ha Clip in filter

Guided using a 9x50 finderscope, QHY5 and PHD

Processed in PI, stacked in DSS,

800 ISO

22 x darks

27 x lights at 1200 seconds (20 mins)

30 x flats

[jsigone]

NICE wizard!!

[Grinde]

Wooaa, that's really cool! It's really interesting to see what can be achived in narrowband with a dslr! It takes lots of more exposuretime compared to a mono ccd, but it can be done. When I first saw the pic, I could never have guessed it was a dslr-shot, good job

[ollypenrice]

Wheee, pretty darned good. I have never tried Ha other than on a mono chip.

Can I be very picky and say that maybe, for an Ha image, the stars are quite large? This could arise from the matrix or from focus, but I bet focus is tricky with a colour chip in Ha. How did you do it?

Anyway, great result. Bravo.

Olly

[JCJC]

Brilliant Sara! Really deep for a DSLR shot, the 20min subs have really helped.

I bet focus is tricky with a colour chip in Ha.

Blummin' annoying! I thought I had something wrong first time I used an Ha filter. Best way I found was to find a bright star near the target and focus using shortish (10sec) exposures and bahtinov mask.

Great result!

Jordan

[Telrad]

Great image Sara! Looks wonderful. Thanks for posting

[swag72]

Thanks for the comments guys - Focus done with a B mask and EOSUtility live view. It is quite tricky due to not being able to see much through the filter!

A couple of things regarding the big stars. If you buy a LP filter, if you don't use the CLS version on a modded camera it will give you bloated stars - Could this be an issue with the Ha filter? as I assume that it won't be a CCD filter, or does it make no difference?

Is there a way to star reduce in PI?

[jsigone]

I asked Jerry Lodriguss that question not too long ago, he said w/ Ha filter it doesn't matter if the IR cut filter is removed. The stars won't bloat. If you did the clearglass or put nothing when you modded the camera, you need the CLS-CCD version. That has both the LP and the IR cut filter. I have that and works well when I had an 80mm ED refractor and did the no filter mod. If you put the Baader IR cut filter for the mod, the normal CLS filter is all that is needed

In photoshop you can use the noise filter "dust and Scratches" to form a 2nd layer w/less stars. But I use Troys Actions to separate skies and stars.

Troy Piggins' Photoblog: Troy's Astro Actions

[swag72]

OK folks, taking on board comments from here and with Harry's invaluable advice as always, I've done a re edit of this data. Would welcome your thoughts on which is better and why (Sorry forgot to rotate it!!)