Ha Modified DSLR - First Impressions

[Juno16]

Hi Forum!

Well, I finally had a night to get out to try out my recently Ha modded dslr that I received several weeks ago from Lifepixel. The weather has been poor.

A nice clear night finally, but blowing like hell. A cold front passed through this morning. Transparency is poor with stars twinkling badly. Not good for astro, but pretty to look at. Anyway, I had to shoot something to check this out.

All set up well and is working pretty good. I finally set some bricks in the ground where I can set my tripod on and save some time on leveling the mount and skipping the polar scope. The bricks under the legs gets me close enough to PA in Sharpcap and save me some time.

Plate solving is working perfectly in Astrophotography Tool. I did have issues with focus though. Normally, I zoom to about 50% with liveview and use the Batinov Mask tool. Tonight, I would loose the star when I zoomed in (the star is super close to the center) and the I really don't feel that the Batinov Tool got me close enough focus.

Moved on to M33 and started shooting images at 120 seconds at iso 800. Currently, I am at image #28 and I can't get over how red the overall image is! I am sure that most of it is lp, but I believe that I can see NGC 604 as a red patch in Triangulum which is amazing.

I do feel that the focus is a but soft, but I will shoot for another hour or two to see what I can collect.

I am curious if anyone on the forum that shoots with a Ha modded dlsr in moderate lp sees red light frames like this. I think that it is normal for this type of mod, but I am just guessing. Another big difference is the amount of light that the sensor is pulling in. It might just be because that lp is more apparent, but I usually shoot at iso 800 for 180 seconds and this light frame is a whole minute less exposure time.

Thanks for any comments!

Jim

[Juno16]

I had to take a quick process of the work last night. It appears that DSS balances the red out. When Autodeveloped in Startools, the colors were off a bit, but not red dominant.

This is a very quick crappy image, but I just threw it together with old darks (before the mod), very old bias, and quick flats (that really didn't work that well because I still see a dust mote). I also have focus issues. Looks like hopefully, I am in the ballpark.

I will try to put together some better calibration files and redo the process when I get more time. All in all, except for the focus off some and blown out stars and nebula NGC 604 in M33, the mod looks like nice improvement on sensitivity and Ha (just like everyone said!).

Thanks,
Jim

[Peppy]

That looks great, I like the star colors.

[jazzin]

Wow! Nice shot Jim!

[JayTee]

Wow Jim,

For a "very quick crappy image", that's a pretty spectacular image. Can't wait to see what happens when you have more time.

Cheers,
JT

[Juno16]

Wow Jim,

For a "very quick crappy image", that's a pretty spectacular image. Can't wait to see what happens when you have more time.

Cheers,
JT

Thanks JT,

I captured 2 hours more the next night. The most notable thing about the following evening was that the session worked remarkably well!

My son and I built a new pc today and I will eventually get around to adding the M33 data and see what I can put together. The new PC build is amazing. I plan to post on it later tonight.

Thanks a bunch for your very nice words JT ! Keeping things simple seems to work out well.

Thanks,
Jim

[Kanadalainen]

Super nice, and not crappy!

How long did you need to wait to get your modded camera back?

Ian

[Juno16]

Hi Ian,

Thank you very much! It was a wham slam put together image, but sometimes they turn out to be my best!
I shot a few more hours the next night of M33, and will soon get around to adding the data to see if i can improve the image.

It took around 11 days for the camera to get from Mississippi to Washington (Lifepixel) by UPS ground. Lifepixel did the mod In 3 1/2 days (not expedited) and had it back to me in about 6 days. Total about three weeks. Of course i could have paid more to get it there sooner, but at $31 for UPS ground with insurance, I figured I would just wait. So far, I am very happy with the mod.

Thanks,
Jim

[Kanadalainen]

It looks like you traded in your 80mm ES for a 102... obviously its working for you!