This is the new Astro camera QHY268M ASP-C size sensor ...... Unlike a DSLR where you pick up the camera and go, a deep space camera requires a lot more set up. As this is the first shot I thought for those interested just what is required.

At the very start you have to make sure that your rings match the back focus of the particular camera. in this case it is 55 mm from camera sensor to the corrector that picks up the image from the mirrors. So all the bits between filter wheel and Off Axis Guider all have to fit in that 55 mm spacing ...

DARKS : These are shot that are taken at the times you will be using in you photography Eg 300 sec . So you have to take your exposure time you would be using BUT with a cap on the camera so there is no image but what there is is an image of all the noise that the camera creates in those times. You create a library of about 40 shot of each. This is a 300 sec dark master I did 7 different exposure times 7 x 40 shots = 280 shot from 10min to 30 sec... quite a few hours shooting.



FLATS : These are taken at about 1/4 exposure above the Dark point in between to the middle point. The good part is the program is able to work it out. Each filter has to have the same 40 shots. This is used to show up any imperfections in the optical train such as Vignetting, dust, scratches. This is a master flat made from stacking the 40 shots with also how many bias files you took. This is for the red filter you can just make out the slight vignetting in the corners center is brighter..... 7 filters x 40 shots = 280



BIAS : Bias frames are taken with the camera lens fully capped, at the shortest possible exposure time, to ensure only the sensor noise is recorded. These are use with the flats to create the master flat. I did 100 as they where timed at 0 sec...



While Darks and Bias files show up noise they are both very different patterns.

OFFSETS : The all important focus point the clearest filter is Luminance so this is used to get focus . Offsets are made by running through all the filters to get perfect focus 3 times each about 60 min cycle. Then in the end it calculates the difference of each focus point for the filter to Lum and applied as the offset. To make it easier to understand if lum is your base or 0 if Red is +1 focus point then filter focuses on lum 1600 but when its Red filter it adds +1 to the focus point 1600 +1 as worked out by doing the offset run for each filter. This is the new part to me as I am only just starting with filters.

NOW YOU CAN TAKE A PHOTO and why most photographers will shy away from this type of photography. Is it worth it to me yes ..................... enjoy the shots.

When the shots of the nebula are taken checked they are all stacked with the Darks, Flats and Bias to remove all the optical faults and noise to get the clean shot that you have seen before and above. You can not start with out all this info and shots just to get the one Perfect photo. All part of the learning curve of the last 5 years.

Enjoy the result of about 1 hours editing and all the shots that make up this single image, all the very best to Ai you never can better the original or stand as proud of your work. This is un ashamedly the result of a lot of work.

Do look at this as big as you can, look at the detail, not one bit of noise straight out of camera enjoy the shot.


Coloured Shot QHY183C and EB80



QHY268M -10c 100 Odd shots 5 min each filter over 5 nights .. 30 shots each RGB 1 min exposure.
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MeLE Mini PC
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Starpoint Australis SP3 Focuser Rotated 90 degrees
Skywatcher 200 F4 PREMIUM PHOTO QUATTRO REFLECTOR OTA
Skywatcher F4 Aplanatic Coma Corrector
Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned
SVbony 50MM Guide scope
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Guided PHD2, Nina
Pixinsight, Ps, Lr