Measurements of OH chemiluminescence in an atmospheric pressure, laboratory-scale dump combustor at equivalence ratios ranging from 0.63 to 0.89 were reported. The signal from the first electronically excited state of OH to ground state was detected through a band-pass filter with an ICCD. The objectives of this study are two: One is to see the effects of equivalence ratio on global heat release rate and local Rayleigh index distribution. To get the local Rayleigh index distribution, the line-of-sight images were inverted by tomographic method, such as Abel do-convolution. Another aim is to investigate the validity of using OH chemiluminescence acquired with an ICCD as a qualitative measure of local heat release. For constant inlet velocity and temperature, the overall intensities of OH emission acquired at different equivalence ratio showed periodic and higher value at high equivalence ratio. OH intensity averaged over one period of pressure increased exponentially with equivalence ratio. Local Rayleigh index distribution clearly showed the region of amplifying or damping the combustion instability as equivalence ratio increased. It could provide an information/insights on active control such as secondary fuel injection. Finally, local heat release rate derived from reconstructed OH images were presented fur typical locations.