Saturn April 16-17th QHY5L-ll IR DFK Colour.

[Space Cowboy]

Conditions were terrible imaging through cloud at 20 degrees max gain with very dark images.

3 images below. Taken with QHY5L-ll IR 742 filter and DFK colour. 1st is combine colour and IR, 2nd is IR and 3rd DFK colour.

QHY5L-ll IR DFK colour combine :

QHY IR 742:

DFK colour:

The IR image is 2000 frames stacked. The colour 500 frames. (all i could get before cloud killed image)

[Alan]

The IR + colour combine has produced a very respectable image Stuart considering the poor conditions and high noise levels required

[sologuitarist61]

Not to bad at all considering the conditions -well done!

[si@nite]

Like the combo shot Stuart its certainly paying off, you did very well to get anything at all considering the lousy conditions of late, but carnt help thinking the opportunitys are going to be a bit thin on the ground this apparition

[SnakeyJ]

Yet to produce anything close to this in lrgb as the seeing has been very poor lately despite often good transparency. Not so surprising given the low declination, but at its highest I get 27 deg on Saturn.

Still lots of detail and good results.

Fingers crossed for one good night this w/end or next week!

[neil phillips]

Worth trying to get out there Stuart. Can see gain is on max. Just need better trans and seeing. worth getting a red filter for extra sensetivity as a add on with the other things your doing. Not as good seeing beating as IR but better for low trans on saturn.

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks guys! With a bit more luck I could have got a decent image but just as the thin cloud that had been plaguing me since imaging the moon at 9pm cleared the Dob tracking stopped working and Saturn sailed off. The power tank had gone flat! First time thats happened to me on a session.

Frustratingly the eyepiece wheel produced a much larger image scale (nearly 25% larger) than I anticipated as there only appears about 10mm of extension from the 3x barlow i thought it would be a small increase.

Anyhow the scraps of Saturn I got have proven again how well this IR Colour combo works.

I'm pretty much set on getting the colour QHY and selling the DFK as it would make this combine process much easier as the extra weight of the DFK throws the scope off when swapping cams and the focus point is completely different so precious time is wasted re-setting.

Yes a red filter would work well on such a night Neil though I still managed nearly 30fps with the IR despite 50% visibility compared to 15fps with the DFK.

Got quite a few IR lunar images to post up from last night though seeing was very wobbly.

p.s any tips on cleaning the QHY sensor as it appears pebble dashed with dust. After using a puffer to try and blow it off there appears more than ever.

[Stargazer Jack]

Nice image

[neil phillips]

Arh cleaning chips

Cleaning chips, not to my likeing. it can be tricky. I use a microfiber cleaning cloth. pentax are good. with a a bit of distilled water, you have to wet a tiny corner of the cloth. put the cam on the lappy. adjust settings so you can see the chip and all the muck. Then gently wipe in one direction, watching the result on screen. sometimes you can end up putting a ton more dust on. The cloth has to be perfectly clean. And i found just the right amount of water on the cloth as its drying, can make the difference to removing, or putting on dust.

if it gets too dry, dust will go on. if its too wet it will look like a swimming pool. but it soon evaporates so dont panic. Ive got into trouble before with so much dust, i was panicking. Then i put more water on. got the wet dry level better. and with one wipe it all came off again. But its not something i like doing. Often i will have to leave a speck or two on the edges of the chip. or the merry go round starts again, and you can be wiping for another 5 or ten mins. good luck. Enjoy

[SnakeyJ]

Arh cleaning chips

Cleaning chips, not to my likeing. it can be tricky. I use a microfiber cleaning cloth. pentax are good. with a a bit of distilled water, you have to wet a tiny corner of the cloth. put the cam on the lappy. adjust settings so you can see the chip and all the muck. Then gently wipe in one direction, watching the result on screen. sometimes you can end up putting a ton more dust on. The cloth has to be perfectly clean. And i found just the right amount of water on the cloth as its drying, can make the difference to removing, or putting on dust.

if it gets too dry, dust will go on. if its too wet it will look like a swimming pool. but it soon evaporates so dont panic. Ive got into trouble before with so much dust, i was panicking. Then i put more water on. got the wet dry level better. and with one wipe it all came off again. But its not something i like doing. Often i will have to leave a speck or two on the edges of the chip. or the merry go round starts again, and you can be wiping for another 5 or ten mins. good luck. Enjoy

Neil, would you advise against the standard lens cleaning products (Baader Wonderfluid type) - I only did this once with my Firefly MV Mono, which had some thermal grease on the CMOS. Not a big investment so was not too concerned, but used a lens cleaning swab (cotton bud type), to rotate and lift the main contaminent off and then used the other end with BWF to clean. All seems to have worked without noticeable damage on this occassion - though would you generally advise to hold off with cleaning solvents?

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks Neil. Jake has said what I was going to ask about cotton buds and lens cleaning fluid.