First light: SBIG one-shot 2MP color camera

I took receipt of SBIG's new one shot, two mega pixel color camera (ST-2000XCM) two days ago and was able to point it at the sky last night using my Takahashi CN-212 at the cassegrain focus (f/12.4).

This is essentially the first decent color CCD image I have ever taken and it is a testament to how simple this new camera is to operate. I mean, if someone who essentially does not know what he is doing can take this image, given all of its flaws, think what someone who knows what they are doing can accomplish!

The image below is of M-3 and is the result of 12, 30 second images that were aligned, combined and stetched with the histogram tool in CCDSoft.


Additional, full size first light images are accessible at the following URL's:

each are 12 X 30 seconds with auto-darks, aligned, combined, histogram stretched, no auto-guiding

M-3 (full size): http://home.comcast.net/~rj2010/M-3_040704.jpg

M-13:
http://home.comcast.net/~rj2010/M-13_combined.jpg

M-13 binned 2X2:
http://home.comcast.net/~rj2010/M-13_2X2_combined.jpg

Attached Image:

That's a great shot Jay!

Looks like a very promising camera indeed! nice detail, colors & tracking!

How expensive was that camera? and how easy/hard to use?


Keep it up, and thanks for sharing!


Ivan

A good picture, except that the color seems extremely subtle. Note that all the bright stars in globular clusters are orange giants. A picture taken with most color films shows this very well. Is it possible to increase the color saturation? Can you test the camera in daylight to see how well it reproduces color? I was thinking about getting this camera, but now I'm not sure I want it. The SBIG website picture of M33 shows better color, maybe just a bit weak compared to normally processed color film.