First light Atik 414

[steviemac500]

Lots of things to excuse here please. I was keen to get an image of any sort just to try it out as I'm waiting on extensions for my focuser on the ED80 so i can use the camera on that. Instead I used my 200P which hasnt been out in a while, without the filter wheel, as I could achieve a semblance of focus on it. Even still, it's out of focus a bit, guiding wasnt great, pretty sure I messed up the flats and bias too and I rushed the processing (over stretched), but for my 1st mono image, I'm quite excited at the obvious difference in sensitivity between this and the DSLR. So here's my first ever CCD shot of M51, 20 x 5 min mono exposures, 20 flats and bias. Be nice!!!

 

[swag72]

Well done on your first CCD image  Do you have a Bahtinov mask? That will help you nail the focus.

[steviemac500]

9 minutes ago, swag72 said:

Well done on your first CCD image  Do you have a Bahtinov mask? That will help you nail the focus.

Hi,yes I do but my focusser on the 200 isn't great and it took me a while to understand Artemis properly. Next time though.......

[ollypenrice]

Lots of things are working well there.

I like Artemis but let me warn of the 'traps:'

1) Not deleting the subframe selection after focusing using FWHM and taking a set of tiny images! Note that the sequencer does NOT over ride the subframe selection though it over rides other settings in the capture window.

2) Forgetting to check Autosave if not using the sequencer.

3) Forgetting to un-check Autosave for focussing in FWHM. (No big deal.)

Olly

[Joel Shepherd]

Heckuva lot better than my first attempts! Nice nebulosity trailing away from it; it'll just get better from here.

[steviemac500]

Thanks everyone, I'm going to try using APT with the Atik next, hopefully me adaptors for the ED80 will be here tomorrow and I can get some real practise in.

[PatrickGilliland]

The bug bites!  Once yo have all the niggles sorted and worked on focus you will love your new toy.  Data is there for capturing clearly now the fun begins.  Will keep an eye on the progress

 

Paddy 

[MattJenko]

Excellent, you are up and running. Challenging little target too. Take each little issue one at a time and you will see real progression. Congratulations and you'll find the ED80 much, much easier.

[Marky1973]

Stevie - that is a nice shot - I got a 414EX a few months back and am very keen to get out again when the nights are better - I seem to have been cursed since I got it - but it seems to be s very promising little camera - look forward to hearing more about how you get on with it!

[steviemac500]

I had to rush out tonight and leave everything running, not ideal. I used APT to control everything including the filter wheel and the luminosity exposures seemed to be ok. When I got home, it was nearly complete with the RGB but there was no discernible difference between the images? I would have expected to see a colour heavy image for the different filters? I'm wondering if the filter wheel didn't turn and all I've got are L images? Should I see a difference?

[Marky1973]

Well, I am not saying that the filter wheel didn't not work, but my first (and so far only) effort at LRGB resulted in multiple sets of subs that showed no colour - that all comes out in the processing - so don't panic!  And I did (sort of) get a colour image out of it in the end! :-)

[geordie85]

51 minutes ago, steviemac500 said:

I had to rush out tonight and leave everything running, not ideal. I used APT to control everything including the filter wheel and the luminosity exposures seemed to be ok. When I got home, it was nearly complete with the RGB but there was no discernible difference between the images? I would have expected to see a colour heavy image for the different filters? I'm wondering if the filter wheel didn't turn and all I've got are L images? Should I see a difference?

You won't see a colour image from a monochrome camera until you combine all your stacked images 

[nightster]

Congratulations. Moving to mono is quite a step up in workload from OSC/DSLR. +1 on using APT as you move forward. Its manual focus routine will help you nail down that job. My Atik behaved nicely with APT.  Getting good/any color was a mystery to me when I went mono.  That will come out as you get comfortable with the processing techniques.  The more time you have on each filter will make getting color easier.  Also if you haven't already checked out Madratters guide on "Getting Good Color."  It was a game changer for me.

Good luck and clear dry skies.

[MattJenko]

Each colour filter image will look similar at a glance, but if you study the actual pixel values in each, you will see differences, which is what results in the final image being colour, not grey. A red heavy image will still register photons in green and blue and because astro images are all left hand histogram compressed, they all look similar to begin with.