One-shot-color Camera Backyard Imaging Adventures in 2023 and 2024
| I
purchased a used one-shot-color CMOS camera (QHY 168C) at a
decent price back in 2022. This was meant to be for
short-and-sweet exposures, maybe nice widefield color exposures
(in lieu of using DSLR's), and maybe for shooting comets. I was
always concerned about its performance under our light-polluted
backyard, however (Bortle 8 - second worst - as of 2022,
according to light-pollution maps). I tried the camera briefly in 2023 using a UV/IR filter. Not surprisingly, it struggled a bit teasing signal out of a reasonably bright (for deep sky objects) nebula. Here is 18 x 2 minute exposures of the North America Nebula with aggressive processing. The telescope used was a Borg 90FL with associated flattener: |
|
Click on the thumbnail for a full size image |
|
| Over the
months of July and August, 2024 I tested out the performance of
a tri-band filter (specifically, the Antlia Triband RGB Ultra
filter) that I had bought around the same time I bought the QHY. For the next two targets, I used the same camera as the prior image (QHY168C) on a Takahashi FSQ-106N. All images were shot with the imaging train on an Astro-Physics AP1200GTO mount. Short (1, 2, even 5-minute) test exposures showed that my first selected target (NGC 6888) had respectable signal. But I found that pushing exposure times to 10 minutes yielded even better signal. So I stayed with 10 minute exposures. After rejecting bad subs, I was left with 14 decent 10-minute exposures. Here is the result, processed much less aggressively than the North American Nebula: |
|
Click on the thumbnail for a full size image |
|
| I was so pleased by the quality of data taken that I went for another target: M27, the dumbbell nebula. This is the result of 19 x 10 minute exposures. | |
Click on the thumbnail for a full size image |
|
| Here is a cropped version since M27 itself is pretty small: | |
Click on the thumbnail for a full size image |
|
| One
other factor that has me pleased with my results is that despite
the level of light pollution in our skies, I only had to perform
a mild operation to remove light pollution gradients. Am I impressed? Yes! Am I excited to use this camera/filter combination for other targets in the future! You bet! Can I see myself letting go of a mono camera for deep sky work? Not yet. I still believe that mono cameras deliver the best resolution available. |