M106

[Xiga]

Last year i bought a used Qhy163c. Then baby no.2 came along and it just sat in it's box (the camera, not the baby! lol). 

I wasn't impressed with the camera tbh (i found it noisier than i was expecting) so i recently just sold it. Thankfully I did at least manage to get 1 actual image out of it first, and this is it. 

Shot over 2 short nights, due to the rapidly fading Astro Dark (which is now gone until early Aug) here in N.I. 

I went for M106 as it was nice and high in the sky. I don't think i have ever shot something as high as this, it passed very close to Zenith, and the subs showed it. The lowest HFR SGPro reported was 1.82, which is way lower than i've ever seen before. 

In total i managed 269 subs of 90secs, so about 6.7 hrs in total, using a SW 80ED and an IDAS-D1. Stacked in APP and processed in PS. 

Noise was a thorny issue, and caused me a fair bit of consternation as to how much NR to apply, and how much noise to leave in. Interested to hear what you guys think, all feedback welcomed as always. 

Clear skies and stay safe. 

[MarkAR]

Lovely image, good colours and you've nabbed a few tiddlers as well.

Edited May 11, 2020 by MarkAR

[Xiga]

2 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Lovely image, goof colours and you've nabbed a few tiddlers as well.

Thanks Mark. I like 'Tiddlers'. Might use that one myself 😋

[Allinthehead]

That's a beauty. Lovely colour and processed very gently.

[Allinthehead]

As an aside, i'm surprised you found the 163 noisy. I thought the data on my 1600 was very clean. What bugged me were the halos around bright stars with certain optics. 

[mikey2000]

it doesn't look noisy to me at 'screen size'  I haven't zoomed in to pixel peep.  Nice colours too and the background is smooth without being blotchy.   I'd be very happy with this result...

[Xiga]

On 11/05/2020 at 21:43, Allinthehead said:

That's a beauty. Lovely colour and processed very gently.

 

On 11/05/2020 at 21:53, Allinthehead said:

As an aside, i'm surprised you found the 163 noisy. I thought the data on my 1600 was very clean. What bugged me were the halos around bright stars with certain optics. 

Thanks Richard. 

The 163 was fine really. I was just expecting, coming from a DSLR, to see a huge difference in noise, but I just wasn't seeing it. In fairness though, i made this assessment of the back of very few data sets, plus I was shooting from poorer skies with the 163 so that probably made the biggest difference. I think i needed a 163m rather than a 163c with the skies here at our new house. 

In my short time with it, I didn't see any of the well-known diffraction patterns around bright stars though. Not sure if this is because the Qhy has a better sensor cover coating than the Zwo, or if i was just lucky. 

Who knows, I probably made a mistake in selling it, but for now I'm content to stick with the D5300 for colour, and look out for a used mono cam. 

Edited May 17, 2020 by Xiga
Spelling

[Miguel1983]

Very good image ! Well done

[Xiga]

On 11/05/2020 at 22:25, mikey2000 said:

it doesn't look noisy to me at 'screen size'  I haven't zoomed in to pixel peep.  Nice colours too and the background is smooth without being blotchy.   I'd be very happy with this result...

Thanks Mikey. I downloaded the trial of Topaz Denoise Ai and used it on this. It wasn't ideal as I'd already ran some mild NR on the image and I couldn't be bothered backtracking, but even so I was pretty impressed with what it could do. I might test it a bit more on some old data sets before the trial runs out. 

24 minutes ago, Miguel1983 said:

Very good image ! Well done

Thanks Miguel 😃

[x6gas]

Lovely image - and I think you've judged the noise perfectly.  Congrats!

[Xiga]

35 minutes ago, x6gas said:

Lovely image - and I think you've judged the noise perfectly.  Congrats!

Thanks mate.

Just realised our usernames are quite similar! 😄

[tooth_dr]

I thought I had replied to this thread.  Looks really good Ciaran, amazing what you can do with an 80mm scope.  Dont give up just because it's not dark 💠 I got a nice Ha/Oiii image of NGC7000 three days ago.

[astro mick]

I tried this,have to say yours is a lot better.

Well done.

Mick.

[Xiga]

10 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I thought I had replied to this thread.  Looks really good Ciaran, amazing what you can do with an 80mm scope.  Dont give up just because it's not dark 💠 I got a nice Ha/Oiii image of NGC7000 three days ago.

Thanks mate. I forgot too, then realised nearly a week had passed and i'd not even responded to my own thread 🤣. There's not enough hrs in the day sometimes...I need to catch up on the forums, i'll have to go find your NGC 7000. 

You've inspired me to keep going, despite the lack of darkness. I have had a couple of outings with the Qhy9m (thanks again for the loan!). I got a few Ha subs of the Pelican Nebula last week, i'll put up a thread on it in a mo. 

[Xiga]

14 minutes ago, astro mick said:

I tried this,have to say yours is a lot better.

Well done.

Mick.

Thanks Mick! 👍