M51 - QSI 583c test
Date: 2009.07.26
Location: Victoria Centre Observatory, Observatory Hill, Victoria, BC, Canada
This is a first light image from Victoria Centre's new QSI 583c CCD camera
Equipment: QSI 583c CCD imager prime focus on a Meade 14" SCT operating at f/10 mounted on a Paramount ME, autoguided by an Orion StarShoot Guider and PHD guiding software
Image Acqusition: CCDSoft - both light and dark frames, & camera control
Exposures: 12 x 5 minutes light frames, 7 x 5 minutes dark frames, cooled to 5°C.
Size: 3324x2502 pixels - original size from the CCD camera
Conditions: Temperature/RH 26°C/55%, LVM 4.5, Transparency 4/5, Steadiness 5/5, clear skies
Processing:
ImagesPlus 3.75 - Auto-process - digital development from FITS, dark frame calibration, normalize, grading, alignment, average min/max exclude combine. Very aggressive contrast stretch (BP 384, Bkgd 129).
ACDSee Pro 2.5: reduce colour depth to 24 bit, save as jpg.