1 hour on IC410 - QHY268M First Light

[Spongey]

I had a clear patch last night, and despite a flurry of other issues with my gear, I was able to capture a total of 13x300s subs on IC410 with my new QHY268M and Antlia 3nm Pro Ha filter. Shot at gain 56 offset 10.

This is the full field of view, only cropped to remove stacking artefacts around the edges.

Uploaded in 1:1 for all your pixel peeping desires

Shot with my Esprit 100 and CEM40.

Very happy with the camera so far!

I do notice the halos around the bright stars at the bottom of the frame, and have got in touch with Antlia about them. 

CC welcome, as always

Edited February 4, 2021 by Spongey

[peter shah]

Wow that deep.... beautifully done

[souls33k3r]

Very nice indeed. The Antlia weren't supposed to give halos as they made a big thing about that on Facebook. 

Also, your stars do look off, more like pinched optics to me. Maybe someone else with a bit more knowledge and better eye can chime in. 

[Spongey]

3 hours ago, peter shah said:

Wow that deep.... beautifully done

Thank you Peter, I can only hope to get to your level one day!

15 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Very nice indeed. The Antlia weren't supposed to give halos as they made a big thing about that on Facebook. 

Also, your stars do look off, more like pinched optics to me. Maybe someone else with a bit more knowledge and better eye can chime in. 

Cheers, as said I've emailed their support line asking for feedback but no response yet. You're correct, I do suffer from pinched optics in the cold. I detailed it in another thread as linked below. I have accepted it as a 'signature' of my scope, and it doesn't bother me too much.

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Spongey

[Luke Newbould]

Really nice overall, agree that the halos are a shame but I don't think they overly detract from the image - it's gone very deep however for such a small total integration!

Very promising 😃

[Sunshine]

Love mono DSO images, this one is beautiful!

[tomato]

A brilliant result from one hour of integration, just what we need under UK skies.

[Davey-T]

Very nice just received an Antlia 3nm Ha, waiting on ZWO ASI2600MM .

8 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

The Antlia weren't supposed to give halos as they made a big thing about that on Facebook. 

Took some shots with it on the ZWO ASI2600MC last night and preview images had red haloes round the stars haven't had time to look at them properly yet.

Dave

[Craig123]

Great image. I have just got a set of Antilia 3nm for my Esprit 100 so will look carefully for  halos when I get the chance to try them out. 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Craig123

[Sp@ce_d]

Nice.. This camera is looking very promising! I'm still trying to decide on QHY or ASI, probably won't be till next season as I'll loose astro darkness before one turns up anyway. My Antilia 3nm turned up yesterday, still waiting on SII & OIII. Not looked at it yet, is there an orientation marking? Be interesting to see what they say.

[Spongey]

1 hour ago, Sp@ce_d said:

Nice.. This camera is looking very promising! I'm still trying to decide on QHY or ASI, probably won't be till next season as I'll loose astro darkness before one turns up anyway. My Antilia 3nm turned up yesterday, still waiting on SII & OIII. Not looked at it yet, is there an orientation marking? Be interesting to see what they say.

There is no specific orientation marking, but their website says that the non-ghosting side should be towards the sky, so that is how I installed it. I have yet to hear back from them but will update this thread when I do. 

I've also flipped the filter to see if that helps, but with no clear skies forecast it doesn't look like I'll get the chance to test any time soon.

[Deeko]

23 hours ago, Spongey said:

There is no specific orientation marking, but their website says that the non-ghosting side should be towards the sky, so that is how I installed it. I have yet to hear back from them but will update this thread when I do. 

I've also flipped the filter to see if that helps, but with no clear skies forecast it doesn't look like I'll get the chance to test any time soon.

I am looking at buying the Antlia 3nm Pro set, do you have the OIII and SII pro too? I am a little wary as not long bought an Astronomik 6nm SHO set and if halos are a thing with the Antlia Pro filters I will hold off for now! I guess the real test will be with their new OIII 3nm Pro.

Also, I hope to have my 268M delivered next week and see you have used 56 gain and 10 offset, is this a specific mode/preset or just a combo where the HCG mode kicks in? My preference is to set the gain and offset then forget about it! So I'll be looking out at what works for people if they get the clear skies to test.

[Spongey]

49 minutes ago, Deeko said:

I am looking at buying the Antlia 3nm Pro set, do you have the OIII and SII pro too? I am a little wary as not long bought an Astronomik 6nm SHO set and if halos are a thing with the Antlia Pro filters I will hold off for now! I guess the real test will be with their new OIII 3nm Pro.

Also, I hope to have my 268M delivered next week and see you have used 56 gain and 10 offset, is this a specific mode/preset or just a combo where the HCG mode kicks in? My preference is to set the gain and offset then forget about it! So I'll be looking out at what works for people if they get the clear skies to test.

I have the Sii but no Oiii yet, waiting for that one to come in still. No halos so far on Sii but haven't had a chance to do a proper test with it yet.

In mode 1 (high gain mode) you are best off using gain 0 or 56. If you have somewhat decent skies and a good computer for stacking then mode 1 gain 56 is pretty much set and forget. Offset you just want high enough to prevent clipping of the low end in bias / dark frames. For me an offset of 10 is sufficient, but it will depend on your specific chip.

[Deeko]

1 hour ago, Spongey said:

I have the Sii but no Oiii yet, waiting for that one to come in still. No halos so far on Sii but haven't had a chance to do a proper test with it yet.

In mode 1 (high gain mode) you are best off using gain 0 or 56. If you have somewhat decent skies and a good computer for stacking then mode 1 gain 56 is pretty much set and forget. Offset you just want high enough to prevent clipping of the low end in bias / dark frames. For me an offset of 10 is sufficient, but it will depend on your specific chip.

Thanks for that! My PC will be up to it, just bumped in a 12c/24t 3900X in it with 32GB ram, though might go for 64GB as pricing reasonable atm. So mode 1 gain 56 and I'll have a play around with the offset to settle on works best with the chip. Really looking forward to it, also very happy at the price when compared to the competition

[cfinn]

Really impressive for only an hour of integration time. On the topic of pinched optics, my Esprit 120 shows brighter stars being slightly hexagonal but I very much suspect a lot of this is due to there not being sufficient time for the scope to acclimatise from warm room to cold outdoor temperatures. This could well take a couple of hours when it’s really cold outside. If you’re setting up from scratch every night as I am, this could be a contributing factor?

[Spongey]

10 hours ago, cfinn said:

Really impressive for only an hour of integration time. On the topic of pinched optics, my Esprit 120 shows brighter stars being slightly hexagonal but I very much suspect a lot of this is due to there not being sufficient time for the scope to acclimatise from warm room to cold outdoor temperatures. This could well take a couple of hours when it’s really cold outside. If you’re setting up from scratch every night as I am, this could be a contributing factor?

Thanks, and thank you for your input. I'm afraid I've pretty much ruled out reaching ambient temperature, as, for example, my scope had been outside for 4-5 hours by the time these subs were taken.

[Allinthehead]

Great result, looking forward to seeing what can be done with that sensor. I wonder will we see Atik bring out a camera with the imx571 in it. 

[cfinn]

5 hours ago, Spongey said:

Thanks, and thank you for your input. I'm afraid I've pretty much ruled out reaching ambient temperature, as, for example, my scope had been outside for 4-5 hours by the time these subs were taken.

Indeed, since you said that I have taken a look at my individual subs and they show the same thing even at the end of a several hour session. Like you though, I'm not overly concerned about it and it does seem to be extremely common to varying degrees if you look at images on astrobin.

Edited February 8, 2021 by cfinn
Typo

[Spongey]

UPDATE:

Unfortunately flipping my Antlia 3nm PRO Ha filter has not changed the halo situation. I'll probably be looking to exchange it with another, as it doesn't seem that anyone else is having this issue. I will send the details on to Antlia and get in touch with the vendor tomorrow.

Good news is that I have no halos with Sii; I did a test sub on Alntiak for 300s and no halo was visible 👍

[MarsG76]

Awesome work and only an hour of exposures... nice

 

[AstroComet3]

Fantastic shots! Can I ask for a photo of the spacing you used with the Esprit 120 and the 268M? I'll be getting the camera soon, and from the end of my field flattener have an M48 thread but the 55mm back focus configuration ends in an M48 thread, and I would appreciate some clarification! :) 

[John Nodding]

Oooooh!! 👍🏻 Noddy

[Spongey]

54 minutes ago, AstroComet3 said:

Fantastic shots! Can I ask for a photo of the spacing you used with the Esprit 120 and the 268M? I'll be getting the camera soon, and from the end of my field flattener have an M48 thread but the 55mm back focus configuration ends in an M48 thread, and I would appreciate some clarification!

My image train was (I no longer have the Esprit 100): 

Field flattener with M63-M48 adapter (included with flattener, sets backfocus as 55mm from end of m48 piece) -> 1mm M48 spacer -> QHY M54 to M48 adapter (included with camera) -> 20mm spacers (included with camera) -> QHYCFW3M-US -> QHY268M