M33 with a modded 1100D

[Gtech]

Taken just before the moon rose on Friday night from my urbanish garden...

SW 190MN on NEQ6 Mount, taken with a modified Canon 1100D - ISO 800, 20 x 180s + 18 darks. Processed in AstroArt5 with tonal contrast adjustments and resizing in CS6.

The question I'm now asking (myself) is whether its time to invest in a dedicated CCD. The 1100D sensor was hovering between 10-14c for most of the subs and with almost as many dark frames, I'm now wondering if this is the best I hope to achieve with a dSLR.

[peter shah]

Gorgeous detail....perhaps a slight magenta cast to it.... but I'm just being over picky.

[Mr Spock]

Really good image quality.

The colour balance is easily sorted

[red dwalf]

nice image, certainly a good quality ccd camera will do away with dark frames so could save time, only real drawbacks are the price compaired to a dlsr and the smaller chip sizes

[Gtech]

Thanks for your kind comments. I also see a magneta cast.

I'm finding thay when I edit an image for the first time, I tend to overcook it. I guess one's keen to get results. I then go back a few hours (or days later) and retry with a more natural colour palette.

Here's a re-worked version......

[lensman57]

Taken just before the moon rose on Friday night from my urbanish garden...

SW 190MN on NEQ6 Mount, taken with a modified Canon 1100D - ISO 800, 20 x 180s + 18 darks. Processed in AstroArt5 with tonal contrast adjustments and resizing in CS6.

The question I'm now asking (myself) is whether its time to invest in a dedicated CCD. The 1100D sensor was hovering between 10-14c for most of the subs and with almost as many dark frames, I'm now wondering if this is the best I hope to achieve with a dSLR.

Great capture, M33 is a tricky target even for a cooled CCD, I reckon that the DSLR is fine in cold winter nights, my 1000d was @ 15c the other night but in the warmer summer nights it really does suffer from thermal noise. I image with both when appropriate and the CCD is  easier to work with but the price of a CCD with a DSLR size chip is rather frightening, with the exception of the QHY8L.

Regards,

A.G

[ollypenrice]

Colour apart I prefer the first one, which seems less noisy and at least as well stretched. You've got attractive detail right into the core. Really impressive. The 190 can be so impressive and this is good stuff all through.

I'm very much of the CCD persasion but you've done well here.

Olly

[Raga]

Lovely shot. Well done.

[StuartJPP]

Good job, especially with only 60 minutes of integration time.

A DSLR has its place, but I think that with your current kit you have outgrown it, I can't think of any reason not to upgrade to a CCD if you can afford it. Like Olly, I much prefer the 1st one.

[x6gas]

Great shot - especially for a DSLR.  M33 is pretty big but it's a tough target to get right and I think you've done really well.

[David_Pickles]

I have to say that I think the first image shows more detail than the second, but that is just my personal preference. Regarding DSLR vs CCD, I have just upgraded from a self modded 1000D to a QHY8L and first impressions are that the noise levels are significantly lower, allowing me to pull more detail from background. That said, I have always been really pleased with my DSLR images

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89259683@N04/

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[PhotoGav]

One consideration is time to capture all subs. From my understanding and research so far (I currently use a dslr, but love the results I've seen from the CCDs so aim to move that way eventually once I have some form of obsy/scope shed so that I can leave everything set up ready for use), a mono CCD requires much more time to capture the different filter channels to create the final image from, whereas a dslr is a one shot solution... So, do you have the time to collect all the data required?

Please correct me if I have misunderstood CCD imaging!

Oh, and that's a great M33! I too prefer the first rendition.

[David_Pickles]

One consideration is time to capture all subs. From my understanding and research so far (I currently use a dslr, but love the results I've seen from the CCDs so aim to move that way eventually once I have some form of obsy/scope shed so that I can leave everything set up ready for use), a mono CCD requires much more time to capture the different filter channels to create the final image from, whereas a dslr is a one shot solution... So, do you have the time to collect all the data required?

Please correct me if I have misunderstood CCD imaging!

Oh, and that's a great M33! I too prefer the first rendition.

PhotoGav is right about the mono CCD, which gives the best results, but requires more time to capture each channel separately - not something that is easily achievable in the UK due to the weather. However, you can also buy One Shot Colour (OSC) CCD cameras that operate in much the same way as a DSLR - the main difference is that many CCD cameras can be temperature controlled, which allows you to cool the sensor in order to reduce electronic thermal noise.

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[StuartJPP]

<snip>...but requires more time to capture each channel separately - not something that is easily achievable in the UK due to the weather....<snip>

Someone will be here shortly to debate this

[Quatermass]

Like the first one best you can process and process till your fingers drop off but its still a great image well done

[morimarty]

That really is an impressive M33 with a DSLR, also great Ha signal from the 1100D.