M101

[Yoddha]

Last weekend I was on my friend's dark site and decided to give a second try of M101. This time with guiding The seeing was not very good and there was ah hour an half break because of thin clouds, but we was lucky to have only -4C and around 7 hours clear skies

Here is the new image 1h and 24mins (in 7min exposures). APT was used for focusing, framing and acquisition. DSS and PS for processing.

And here is the unguided attempt from the last summer - 1h and 25 mins

The new image is taken with modded camera, the old with unmodded...

[swag72]

That's a nice picture and good to see the difference between a modded and an unmodded camera. Do you find the modded camera leaves you more colour in the image?

[jgs001]

The difference in detail is clear, lovely result Ivo... Were you using the guiding integration with APT ?

[Yoddha]

Thanks Sara!

This was the first light of the modded camera... BTW the temperature difference is quite big -1C against 15-16C, the ISO is different... On this target the main factor, I think, was 7mins against 55s

[Yoddha]

Thanks John! Yes, I tested all the new features

[RobH]

Excellent image Ivo.

Fine detail in M101, and lots of interesting galaxies in the background as a bonus.

Cheers

Rob

[Yoddha]

Thank you Rob!

[swag72]

Ivo, it says on your pic that your 1000D is cooled - How do you achieve that?

[Yoddha]

Sara, the camera is modified with a cold-finger and peltier cooler The bad is that I still don't have power source to feed it at full power for whole night, so I ran it on only 20%. That minimized the typical 6-7C heating during long exposures to less than 3C above the ambient temperature

[Catanonia]

Lovely image on quite a difficult target.

Nice structure and colours.

Nice to see the definate iimprovement by modding the camera.

[Yoddha]

Thanks Catanonia!

[RogerTheDodger]

Lovely picture

[swag72]

How much of an improvement in subs did you find between the camera being colled and uncooled?

[Yoddha]

Thanks Roger!

Sara, take a look at this post http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-discussion/126136-dslr-sensor-heating-study.html

[ollypenrice]

Wow, a big step forward with the new data. Nice one.

Olly

[Yoddha]

Thanks Olly!