Atik 11000 first light

[jarbi]

This week my camera arrived finally, and I didn't care about -15 outside, I wanted to see what can it do !

Yesterday evening was not completely clear, some mist made the transparency worse than usual but who cares . I took some layers of warm clothes on, and I mounted the Atik 11000 on my Meade 127mm APO. Guding scope was an Orion 80mm Shorttube refractor.

I needed to insert a short 2" tube extender to reach focus with the Atik, and I shot 3 sessions: 10x5min California, 10x5min NGC7000 and 10x10min Rosette, all three through a 2" HA filter. Capture software was Nebulosity, guiding PHD. There was no wind at all, so guiding was very smooth .

Since I don't have an RGB filterset yet, all images are B/W, but I am very pleased with the result already. I still have to get used to some more Photoshop work ( caused by the readout artefacts with these large chips ), but it is a property of these CCD apparently.

I processed the California set already, with darks, flats and flat-darks in Nebulosity, final tweaking in Photoshop. Hard to believe how much FOV I get even at this focal length. I cannot wait to continue with the others, that is for this evening and tomorrow hopefully.

Edit: the Rosette is also processed in the meantime, see also here.

cheers,

Janos

[Tim]

That camera certainly opens up the sky doesn't it, be very interested to see the results on a shorter tube too

[jarbi]

That camera certainly opens up the sky doesn't it, be very interested to see the results on a shorter tube too

TJ, it is indeed true. I was tempted to run one more session for M31, it fits on this chip with even with such a long focal length ! Unfortunately clouds were rolling in at around 2AM, so I was forced to stop.

By the way, I don't need any focal reducer/corrector, at least on the Meade APO.

As weather allows I will certainly try my Zenithstar 70 and Orion ED 80 with the Atik 11000. I have read about this CCD that fast scopes may cause stronger wignetting, let's see about it.

cheers,

Janos

[steppenwolf]

The California certainly shows that your new CCD is good and sensitive.