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Horsehead-to-M42 with G4-16000 CCD

Martin-Devon

By Martin-Devon
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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Martin-Devon

Martin-Devon

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I was not sure whether to post this or not, since it's the first "test" image with my new Moravian G4-16000 (Kodak 16803 chip) on the TakFSQ106, and as yet it's not optimized in terms of resolving tilt or focus, and the data is rather minimal & low-ish quality. This is just a single frame, that's the beauty though, the capture FOV is tremendous. What's a little more challenging is working with data from 9 micron pixels and 3.5 arcsec/pixel resolution - as I'm finding, I have to handle the processing differently to the data from my QSI690 (3.69 micron/1.98 arcsec/pixel), and I've tripped up a few times on this, you'll easily see that the M42 part of the image is pretty naff! With this big chip, good calibration frames are critical as well and I need to put more attention to optimizing my flats.

Anyhow, I've always yearned for a wide-field CCD, and this is a starting point, now I have to put the leg-work in and buckle down to getting the best out of it and pay more care with the processing. A quick 'thanks' also to Chris Heapy (ChrisLX200) for advice and sharing some of his initial G4-16000 data with me before I purchased.

Data for this test image is just 8 x 10min H-alpha, taken on New Year's eve last week.

Thanks for looking,

Martin 

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cfpendock

cfpendock

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That field of view really is pretty incredible.  Nothing wrong with 3.5 arcsec/pixel for an image of this size.  I presume you used the wide angle lens for this?  In which case I am amazed there doesn't appear to be any sign of vignetting.  It will certainly be interesting to see what else you can do with it!

Chris

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Martin-Devon

Martin-Devon

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Thanks everybody for your comments & feedback.

Barry - at the moment I'm just getting used to exploring several targets to see what fits in. I've had a quick look at Simeis 147 (SH2-240) and amazingly it all fits in nicely into a single frame, so if the weather breaks, I may have a pop at this one. I recall spending around 8 nights over the Christmas period of 2014 trying to put together a 9 panel mosaic of Simeis 147 and failed miserably since conditions and level of Moonlight varied greatly from night-to-night making consistent quality & gradients a huge issue.

Chris - this image was taken just with the Moravian CCD, there was no DSLR lens or similar bolted on - I know that some folk successfully use hybrids of a CCD/DSLR lens but there's no need for that with this CCD since it's a full frame chip of 36.9 x 36.9mm.

There's lots to still bolt down and optimize with this new set-up though. The Moravian 7-position filter wheel takes 50mm square filters, and I still need to order the rest of the narrowband set before I can do any colour images; the motorized filter wheel itself is very reasonably priced though, just a tad more than the Atik EFW2, yet it's the size of a dinner plate! The supplied Moravian OAG also works very well with my current Lodestar guider, and guiding traces in Maxim were remarkably good, so as a package the Moravian OAG/FW/CCD goes together very nicely.  

Martin

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cfpendock

cfpendock

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Chris - this image was taken just with the Moravian CCD, there was no DSLR lens or similar bolted on - I know that some folk successfully use hybrids of a CCD/DSLR lens but there's no need for that with this CCD since it's a full frame chip of 36.9 x 36.9mm.

There's lots to still bolt down and optimize with this new set-up though. The Moravian 7-position filter wheel takes 50mm square filters, and I still need to order the rest of the narrowband set before I can do any colour images; the motorized filter wheel itself is very reasonably priced though, just a tad more than the Atik EFW2, yet it's the size of a dinner plate! The supplied Moravian OAG also works very well with my current Lodestar guider, and guiding traces in Maxim were remarkably good, so as a package the Moravian OAG/FW/CCD goes together very nicely.  

Martin

Sorry, I should have been more clear, I had noticed that you used the Tak106, and wrongly used the expression wide angle - I meant reducer....

Wow - 50mm square filters - I presume to avoid vignetting.  Astrodon? !!!!

Chris

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Martin-Devon

Martin-Devon

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Hi Chris, this is all at native imaging, no reducer is used - fortunately the Tak106 has a massive 88mm imaging circle and can handle these full frame chips, whereas the babyQ (Tak85) would struggle here. The 50mm square filters are amazing, I have the Astrodon LRGB set and a single 5nM Astrodon H-alpha filter so far - the prices are shocking though! The flats show a little vignetting, but it's fairly minimal and easily corrected with flats. I think it helped also that I kept the imaging train at M72 from the Tak stock focuser right up to the M68 OAG, where I had to order a custom-made adaptor from PreciseParts in USA to link it all together.   

Appreciate your interest and comments.

Martin

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