Test Shot of the Orion Nebula - Adam Lundie - Eatons Hill Observatory

Test Shot of the Orion Nebula

19-Sep-2015
Test Shot of the Orion Nebula thumbnail
Test Shot of the Orion Nebula
My original target was the Helix Nebula, but after spending most of Saturday night trying to work out how to use off axis guiding, I gave up and noticed Orion was rising. A nice bright target to use the drift aligned mount on.

I've been waiting too long for a proper astronomical camera. After being messed around with by Atik and my local suppliers, I ordered a QSI 683wsg direct from the factory. It cost less than the prices here and only took 2 weeks to get to me from placing the order to having it in my hands Mississippi to Brisbane Australia.

After processing the photos, I must say I'm impressed with my first attempt at using the QSI. I'm looking forward to more practice with it once I crack the off axis guiding.

Image:

  • 90x 6s luminance
  • 30x 6s red
  • 30x 6s green
  • 30x 6s blue
  • 51x 10s luminance
  • 16x 10s red
  • 16x 10s green
  • 16x 10s blue
  • 40x flats
  • 37x darks
  • 120x bias
34.5 minutes total integration

Hardware:

  • Celestron EdgeHD 1100 with CGEM DX mount
  • Celestron 0.7x EdgeHD focal reducer
  • QSI 683wsg Imager @ -15°C unguided
  • Astronomik LRGB Typ 2c filter set

Location:

  • Orange Zone near Brisbane, Australia.
  • September 19th 2015 3:55am-6:07am.
  • Seeing: Average-Poor.

Software:

  • Captured with AstroArt 5.0
  • Image evaluation and rejection with CCCInspector 2.5.3 (FWHM < 4", Aspect < 30%)
  • CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, combine LRGB, levels
  • Paint Shop Pro X: Shrink stars
  • Astra Image 4.0: Mitchell resize 150%, Lucy Richardson deconvolution, denoise, Bicubic resize 60%

Home