Well, I have taken the plunge into CCD imaging. I've been into visual astronomy for many years but have always been intrigued by CCD's. I have had a 12" LX200 for a few years and finally decided to give imaging a try. Last winter I purchased a $50 webcam and got some great images of the gas giants. Then I bought Ron Wodaski's book and realized that I am now knowledgeable enough about this technology to give it a try.
So, this past month I sold a couple of small scopes and bought a used ST7 non-E imager and a used Optec Maxfield f/3.3 reducer. This seems like a pretty good beginner set up with the equipment I have. I have attached the first of my images which is a 4 minute unguided exposure of NGC 891 I took last night (through a #8 yellow filter to reduce chromatic abberation introduced by the reducer). I want to learn how to get a respectable black and white image before even considering looking ahead to LRGB. Your tips for how to enhance this image would be greatly appreciated.
Second, a technical problem with my camera/ software (CCDsoft version 5). I can take fine unguided pics with the main CCD... but when I attempt to image with the guider chip in order to callibrate and autoguide the shutter does not appear to stay open. If I set the exposure to say 10 seconds the shutter dialogue box in CCD soft shows the shutter opening for perhaps a tenth of a second then shows it closed for the rest of the exposure and the resulting image looks like a dark frame with hot pixels. Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? I do click/ select the guider chip before the exposure... but am I supposed to do something else? Thanks!
So, this past month I sold a couple of small scopes and bought a used ST7 non-E imager and a used Optec Maxfield f/3.3 reducer. This seems like a pretty good beginner set up with the equipment I have. I have attached the first of my images which is a 4 minute unguided exposure of NGC 891 I took last night (through a #8 yellow filter to reduce chromatic abberation introduced by the reducer). I want to learn how to get a respectable black and white image before even considering looking ahead to LRGB. Your tips for how to enhance this image would be greatly appreciated.
Second, a technical problem with my camera/ software (CCDsoft version 5). I can take fine unguided pics with the main CCD... but when I attempt to image with the guider chip in order to callibrate and autoguide the shutter does not appear to stay open. If I set the exposure to say 10 seconds the shutter dialogue box in CCD soft shows the shutter opening for perhaps a tenth of a second then shows it closed for the rest of the exposure and the resulting image looks like a dark frame with hot pixels. Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? I do click/ select the guider chip before the exposure... but am I supposed to do something else? Thanks!
Attached Image:
