First light with modified 300D: Horsehead/Flame

Thanks all for the kind comments. I did hold off until the used 300Ds dropped to the '33%-off' range but figured if I waited much longer I'd be too tempted by the next generation and waiting for them to get cheap! M O'C, yes I use ImagesPlus and am currently on the 2.5 beta test version. This latest optionally uses a lossless 16-bit FITS format for RAW conversion that's less than 2/3 the size of TIFF (36MB!!) image files.

IP's user interface is quirky and hard to get used to, but the videos shipped with it (and the optional full set of instructional videos) make things a lot easier. When it comes to automated processing of digital SLR images IP can't be beat: you can convert, calibrate, and align large sets of 36MB files without breaking a sweat or breaking the bank on a screaming PC. Its also has a full set of (astro)image processing tools, but many prefer Photoshop for final tweaking of images. Two other things: It can now do direct control (focus, settings, acquisition, custom sessions) on all Canon dSLRs plus the Nikon D70; and author Mike Unsold gets personally involved in the Yahoo group so he's responding directly to users' needs.

I will be reprocessing/reposting the Horsehead image that started this thread, based on a reassessment of the color balance of the modified 300D with IDAS LPS. Seems that there's a lot more red up there than I thought!

Cheers.

-- Denis Slattery

... And the reprocessed image, based on a 'warmer' value at RAW conversion:

home.earthlink.net/~dslattery1/images/HHead2_2-7_2-9-05.jpg

Hope your weather is better than ours, it's another rainy new-Moon (well almost) weekend!

-- Denis S.

Denis thats a cracking shot!! Like most I wouldnt have the nerve to go poking around the insides of my nice new 300D just yet. I'll have to make do with it unmodded FTM. Now all I need is a bit of clear sky:)

Thanks Dave. If mine was new I wouldn't put a screwdriver near it either. This was got used fairly cheap, and it was do or die. Luckily it didn't die. Some poor fella just said on the ImagesPlus Yahoo group that he's killed his Nikon D70 but I haven't heard of anyone ruining a 300D yet.

Today I got a chance to do a proper flat frame for the 'new' camera so took another crack at calibrating and processing. I was able to include more of the original frame since the field was better corrected, and also stretched the blue and green channels a bit more to compensate for the dominant red (!!). Here's the updated version:

home.earthlink.net/~dslattery1/images/HHead3_2-7_2-9-05.jpg

Don't we all need a clear sky .. this has been the worst of years in SoCa, not that I can complain compared to the Irish climes (cry me a river, I hear you sing...)

-- Denis