QHY8 First light - double cluster

[blinky]

I wanted to go for something thats not too faint for my first light with the QHY8. The annoying thing is that the moon is up and not too far from the double cluster but hey ho! This is 10 5 min subs - no darks,BIAS or Flats.

I do need to do flats and give the CCD a wee clean as well - thats a job for tomorrow!

Overall, I am not blown away with this image but then it is only 10 subs and the nearly full moon is nearby and it's my first go at processing fits/CCD files so I am not disappointed in the image by any means.

[Euan]

Off to a good start, was it with the ED80? Your stars look really sharp

How was the HEQ5 guiding do you think it was any better?

[Earl]

The moon really is a killer tonight.

[blinky]

Images with the ED80 and guided with a 8" SCT at native focal length. Not sure about the guiding - it was all over the place but then my polar alignment is not that great and guiding at 2m, it will show up the least misalignment. I think the mount is smoother though maybe thats me telling myself that!

I am about to pack up for the night - the moon is just too bright and I dont have an Ha filter.

[Petervde]

Very nice start with the new camera. You might want to look into the colours of the stars. The Perseus Double Cluster contains soms yellow/orange stars as well. Blue seems to be too overwhelming here...

Peter

[blinky]

I know exactly what you mean Peter. I dont know how people balance the colours from CCD's - with the DSLR I could take a shot of a white background and use that as a custom white balance.

[Euan]

I know exactly what you mean Peter. I dont know how people balance the colours from CCD's - with the DSLR I could take a shot of a white background and use that as a custom white balance.

Are you using DSS to stack? You can ask it to align the RGB channels, there are two options not sure which one would work best but you could try both

Also, Photoshop has an auto-colour function but it doesn't always work right. I used to find if you don't sort it at the stacking stage it becomes hard to fix afterwards

[Petervde]

Hello Blinky,

In Photoshop you should have a look at each histogram separately (R, G and and remove the colour bias by placing the black point for each colour separately. That's a good start.

Then have a look at the form of the histogram to check out if there isn't any colour balancing problem. Loading this image in PS, the blue histogram is clipped on the left side and is far more pronounced that the R and G-channels. Work with the middle slider in the Image/Levels window to change the importance of each colour or work via Image/Adjustment/Colour Balance.

Peter

[blinky]

This looks better...... Did per channel RGB background in DSS then did as Peter said in Photoshop.

[blinky]

Now it looks too red!