ollypenrice

The standard trick to lose the magenta halos in Pixinsight is to invert the image and then run SCNR green. This in effect becomes SCNR magenta. The halos apart, I think the first one is absolutely beautiful. Olly

More enjoyable star reduction using Star Xterminator. NGC 2170 and NGC7129: Olly Edit. Let's make that three.

Yes. I still have a 6 inch Bresser-branded achromat (the longer FL version) and, though it hasn't been used in a while, gives a very decent view and looks like a telescope. Olly

I guide with a cheapo achro on one scope and it's miles better than a more expensive and fussy little 'finder guider' which cost more and regularly loses focus. I'm almost embarrassed to say that I haven't refocused the cheapo ST 80 in ten years, though I assiduously scrape the muck of the lens every two or three... lly

I did wonder about tilt but felt that tilt tends to give fairly parallel elongation whereas this is radial. On the other hand these anomalies rarely follow simple logic, alas. Olly

In both images the right hand side looks OK while the left shows elongation radiating roughly from the centre. I don't know what would explain this but I'd bear it in mind while trying to sort the telescope out. Olly

Yes, it's deeply satanic whereas DS imaging is merely sinister... Olly

...and M101. Great for extracting the very faint spiral arms. This is ae TEC 140/ODK14 hybrid, 30 hours. Olly

Your wish is my command. The Fireworks Galaxy delivered from the overly insistent starfield which usually splatters as pigeons splatter London... I feel like a kid in a sweet shop with this new tool. Olly

It's very strange that this instrument has 'gone quiet' and also strange that nobody makes bits to enhance it mechanically, since it has always struck me as offering great optics. Olly

I don't think you'd want a reducer for planetary imaging. Rather the opposite - a Barlow or powermate. The reducer would suit the deep sky imager but I would fervently not recommend either scope for DS imaging. Olly

Sorry, there are going to be quite a few of these as I work through my images looking for those which always needed the de-starring/re-starring process. Here's the Bubble, HaOIIILRGB, 23 hours, TEC 14O, Mesu, Atik 460. Processed mostly in Photoshop using StarXterminator. Olly

I knew you'd say that! 🤣 We really do need to popularize the aperture@resolution unit somehow. Olly

My original is below - and that had received an inordinate amount of effort using assorted classical methods of star reduction. I could have brought the stars down by a lot more but I wanted to preserve some evidence of why the galaxy is so red and why the scene contains so little blue. When the stars were brought down too far, implying a transparent sky, you just found yourself wondering why it was that colour. The region's gas and does does create more diffuseed stars as well. A bigger difference lies in the amount of faint outer galaxy we can see. Olly

It would be illogical to collect RGB for stars if the narrowband pallet to which you added them were not a close approximation of RGB. What I would do if wanting to create a natural (ish) colour image with RGB stars would be shoot a quick RGB for the stars and then add deep Ha to its red channel and deep OIII to its green and blue channels, all in blend mode lighten. This would be, in essence, an RGB-HOO image. I wouldn't add RGB stars to the colour pallet in the images you posted because they are not remotely similar to RGB. Also, if you do shoot more data (and I would) be careful not to throw it away in processing. Your first image has had its faint signal discarded by black clipping (ie bringing in the black point too far.) From a very dark site at F5 I generally shoot 10 to 20 hours per image. Olly

I gave it aggressive stretches in Curves like this, though of dimishing extremity... and then de-starred it. (In future I'll always de-star Ha layers when adding them to red as I do, since this will leave the RGB stars totally unaffected.) I then added the Ha to red in blend mode lighten. Olly

Inspired by Xiga's wonderful LRGB shot of this field, I went back to my own HaLRGB version and gave it the radical star reduction treatment. The view is certainly different this way! (Inspiration for taking an an Ha layer came from Fabian Neyer who did it first.) This uses RASA 8 OSC data taken with Paul Kummer and earlier Tak FSQ105 HaLRGB. Olly

You just might find a used TEC 140 at that price. If so, buy it. Olly

The Telrad offers a circle which defines the scale of its 4 degrees against the stars. I find this a hundred times more helpful than a mere dot which gives no scale whatever. It is also well made, long lasting and uses proper batteries instead of those useless watch things which go flat if you forget to turn them off one night - as you will. Olly

Stunning. Just occasionally we see an imager bring something radically new to a target and that's what you've done here. This one was itching for the de-starring technique and you've bagged it beautifully. Your animation shows an image we've seen a hundred times before and then, wham, something we haven't. Standing ovation. Olly

This is a list of UK astronomical societies. (If you're not UK based I apologize.) Getting face to face and hands on would probably be a good start but, that said, you have joined the right internet forum. Welcome. https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/amateur-astronomy-societies-uk-ireland/ Olly

The Telrad is also a great tool for short cuts. If you put a facsimile Telrad circle over a star chart (whether a paper one or on screen) and centre it on the object, it is often possible to replicate that circle's position on the sky and drop on your object directly. Olly

One third is about right in my experience. Olly

IC342 was an obvious candidtate for the extreme star control now possible. I was able to stretch the galaxy harder and to reduce the stars which once preserved its modesty like a forest of fig leaves. On the other hand, that business of hiding behind the stars was part of its character so I had to come to a compromise. Not too much bare skin for the hidden galaxy, then! Olly