M27 with QHY5LII-M

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turfpit
Posts: 1779
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:13 pm
Location: UK
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M27 with QHY5LII-M

#1

Post by turfpit »

M27_60x60s-g1-o1-QHY5LII-M.jpg
M27_60x60s-g1-o1-QHY5LII-M.jpg (101.51 KiB) Viewed 1537 times
Captured in Anglesey under a 98% waxing moon.
  • Altair Lightwave 66ED
  • Celestron AVX mount
  • QHY5LII-M camera
  • IR cut filter
  • 2 alignment stars + 4 calibration stars + All Star Polar Align
  • Focus with Bahtinov mask
  • 60 lights unguided + 50 darks + 100 flats
  • Calibrated, registered, stacked in Siril 0.9.9 + GIMP 2.10 final processing.
Dave

For anyone starting out, the settings in bold are the ones that matter. In this case minimum gain and offset gave a decent histogram.

[QHY5LII-M]
Output Format=FITS files (*.fits)
Binning=1x1
Capture Area=1280x960
Colour Space=MONO16
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Force Still Mode=Off
Enable Live Broadcast=Off
USB Traffic=50
Speed=1
Offset=1
Amp Noise Reduction=On
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=1
Exposure=60000
Timestamp Frames=Off
Contrast=0
Brightness=0.063251089016726
Gamma=1
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.5
#White Point
Display White Point=1
TimeStamp=2018-08-29T23:44:22.3259025Z
SharpCapVersion=3.1.5193.0
mAnKiNd
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Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2017 4:55 pm
Location: Long Island, NY
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Re: M27 with QHY5LII-M

#2

Post by mAnKiNd »

that came out very nicely balanced!
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turfpit
Posts: 1779
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:13 pm
Location: UK
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Re: M27 with QHY5LII-M

#3

Post by turfpit »

Thanks Minos.

I thought the moon in close proximity might affect the capture but then clear skies helped. With the new (to me) AVX mount I am having good success with unguided tracking for 60s exposures over a period of 1 hour.

I have experimented with and without the IR cut filter and found that its use does significantly reduce star 'blooming'.

I have now settled on Siril https://www.siril.org/ and Gimp https://www.gimp.org/ for my processing. Both applications have excellent documentation and the price is right. Gimp 2.10 now fully supports 16-bit images.

Dave
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