mackiedlm

That has to be the best M27 I have seen. Stunning level of detail and taking it so far out from what we normally see in M27 Images. Amazing!

That is so lovely!

2 minutes ago, groberts said:

As a matter of interest do you find APP easier than PI for pre-processing?  I find PI particulary complex with this phase and I'm thinking of of perhaps moving to APP and then PI for post processing.

Graham 

As a matter of fact I do find APP easier for pre processing. You load up everything in the right places and hit go and it does it all. In PI (at least the way I've learned so far) its very manual. You need to remember to calibrate some of the calibration frames, you need to manually save the masters etc. Now none of that is difficult and not a show stopper (unless you forget something)but APP manages it all for you. And if the final stack looks much the same then ......

BTW I love APP overall - gradient removal is great, color calibration works well, RGB combine is really good. I just wanted to get more control over noise reduction  deconvolution etc.

5 minutes ago, groberts said:

I'm battling up the said PI learning curve but I'm motivated by your result, a clear improvement on the earlier version.  Few more months (years!) and I might get there too! 

As a matter of interest is that entirely PI, pre- and post-processing?

Well done.

Graham

Thanks for that.

No, its calibrated and stacked in APP so its coming from the exact same stack as the earlier version. I have done a few stacks and calibrations in PI but did not really see much difference in the stack so decided to do post on this one from the APP stack, partly out of laziness partly to allow me to assess the PI Post processing on its own.

I decided I needed to give PixInsght a try out so got the 45 day trial. I had been avoiding it because of cost/perceived difficulty.

This is my very first effort with it and it was done very much following online tutorials.

It is certainly a a steep learning curve but perhaps not as steep as i expected. The image is still not the best but I do think it is an improvement on my previous effort in APP/PS 9I'll post that below. This was captured with a L-enhance filter, Calibrated, stacked, Ha and Oiii extracted in APP but everything else in PI but processed just as LRGB. I will need to look into how to do HOO in PI but for the moment its baby steps.

75 X 240s (half at ISO800, half at ISO1600)

EOS700Da

NEQ6

PHD2/APT

Previous best effort in APP and Photoshop

As always I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions for improvement.

34 minutes ago, feverdreamer1 said:

I was wondering doing NGC7000 but I have a stock dslr. Lens is the kit 55-250. Should I try to image NGC7000? Even with a stock dslr?

Thanks for you comments, you provide great information 

So remember I'm a beginner too so some of the more experienced folks on here may disagree but my opinion is that of course modded camera will give better nebulas but that does not mean there is no point in taking  such targets if your camera is not modded. This is a wide field I took before I had my canon modded. So you can see that it is worth giving it a try. 

Also some cameras are more sensitive than others so give it a go. I think you may get more out of NGC7000 than M101. 

8 minutes ago, feverdreamer1 said:

Thanks for the comments!

For stacking, I'm using dss, and then further processing is done in GIMP. Are there any other (preferably free) alternatives to any of these softwares? I've heard of siril, but many astrophotographers I've seen use dss and there are less tutorials on it. Might try it once I'm more experienced, but holding on dss.

Might try m101 from my bortle 9 terrace. Should I even bother?

Clear skies!

Personally I think Astro pixel processor is fantastic. Its not free but its nothing like the expense of Photoshop or Pixinsight. There is a fully functioning 30 day free trial.

I find it does a better job of stacking than DSS and then it will process the image to  very nearly complete. It has great gradient removal and colour calibration and I find that it does a great job of stretching the image. 

M101 is, in my beginners opinion, a much more difficult target than you would expect and from bortle 9 would be really tough.  I'm guessing that's a 135 or maybe 200mm lens?  If so you may be better trying some wider field images in Cygnus like the North American Nebula and the pelican. They are nice and high just now which will help.

On 18/08/2020 at 21:03, feverdreamer1 said:

My first ever DSO, done with a 550D and the SWSA.

I know, I know, it's nothing like the M31 images you've seen, but it's a start and I'm really proud of it

This was at a bortle 4-5 and 18 minutes of total integration before clouds rolled in and I had to go back home. Any tips are really welcomed.

Thanks! 

 

As a first ever thats pretty good and you are right to be proud of it.  As already said, more time on target will move things along. What are you using for image processing?

I took a third try at this after some comments in the L-enhance processing thread. This time treating it as normal RGB data without extracting Ha/Oiii. I then used the Ha as aluminance layer also.

So now three very different images from the same data set and I'm not sure which I prefer.

Versions 1 & 2 can be found here -

That's a wonderful image. 

Team viewer did exactly the same with me yesterday. But windows remote desktop is not available on my version of Windows 10. So last night I set up Google chrome remote desktop and its been perfect for me today.

Afraid I don't do jumping through hoops for software companies. I'm too old for that!!

17 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

I have only treated the L-eNhance data as regular RGB in APP, but skipped star colour calibration

Nice images.

There is also an algorithim in APP which called "Ha-Oiii colour" which goes straight to a colour image taking account of the duoband filter (I think) But I've not had particularly good results from that.

22 minutes ago, TerryMcK said:

Interesting method in Workflow1 David. I try to use APP as much as possible but it doesn't always work for me at which point I use DSS. However I have extracted HA and OIII using APP but didn't know about the HOO recombine method. APP is a complicated program when you get under the hood but works fine as a point and squirt program too.

That said I really like the results you got with the upper image in your other thread. Am I right in assuming it was produced using Workflow 2 ?

Hi Terry,

I think APP is just great - I get much more consistent output on calibration/stacking than in DSS. The combine RGB is in the tools and works really well. I have done a NGC6960 with the l-enhance only with that method and it came out good. I'm working on putting that data through workflow 2 also just to see how it comes out and I'll post it in beside the other also.

Yes the Top (more colour) image is Workflow 2, the Bottom (mostly red) image was workflow 1

David.

The L-enhance filter is becoming widely used by OSC imagers and some great images are being produced. However, there seems to be many different ways to process the data captured with this filter and therefore many different types of images being produced. I think it would be interesting and informative to see what peoples different work-flows look like.

So lets share our current experience with processing OSC data captured with the L-eNhance so that we can each work out the process which is best suited to our own systems and data.

I'll kick off by explaining two different methods i have used with an example of the different outputs from the same data. (Please note that I know the data is not great - its very noisy- and I am very much a beginner but I think it serves to illustrate my current flows and the different outputs achieved)

Workflow 1

1. I calibrate and integrate in APP using the "Ha-Oiii extract Ha" and "Ha-Oiii extract Oiii" algorithms
2. This produces 2 mono images which are then combined in APP's Combine RGB tool using one of the HOO formulae
3. I adjust the formula to get what i think is the best colour then save down
4. I then do some further processing using the APP tools as appropriate then save a stretched version as a TIFF (I find that APP's stretching is better than my own manual stretching in PS)
5. I then open the stretched TIFF in Photoshop and follow a pretty standard process of; improving contrast, selective saturation, star reduction, noise reduction, selective High-Pass etc.
6. Here is a link to my earlier posts which show the two versions ( full red one -the bottom image- is workflow 1 and the top image workflow 2 

Workflow 2

1. I calibrate and integrate in APP using the "Ha-Oiii extract Ha" and "Ha-Oiii extract Oiii" algorithms
2. This produces 2 mono images which I then stretch in APP and save as TIFF
3. I then open the individual tiffs in PS and do some work to improve contrast, reduce noise and reduce star size as necessary (this seems to help reduce the red or blue halos produced by the filter)
4. These adjusted tiffs are then combined as an RGB image using Carbonis action and then a green channel is then synthesized from R & B again using Carbonis actions.
5. This combined RGB is then processed following the same standard process of; improving contrast, selective saturation, star reduction, noise reduction, selective High-Pass etc
6. Above link for the image.

I look forward to seeing how you folks are processing your data so that I/we can improve my own workflow and make better images.

David

I use one of these on my Skywatcher 80 ED and it works fine. But it needs to be up at least at the medium setting to be effective.

I also have several of the W&W astro ones  which are a bit more expensive ( especially when you buy the USB connector) and dont have the controller. In my opinion the W&W are better made and more effective and if i needed another 40cm one I'd get W&W over the Coowoo.

But the coowoo one does the job.

I was not really happy with my first process if this - very red and very noisy. So I went back and reprocessed it a different way - this time extracting Ha/Oiii in APP then adjusting those mono images then building RGB with synth green in PS with Carbonis actions.

Its still quite noisy but the camera was running at +22C and moon at 85% was troubling even with the L-enhance.

5 hours of 300s exposures at ISO1600 on my SW 80ED and NEQ6 and Ha Mod EOS700d, L-enhance filter

This was the first version for comparison - the carboni's action flipped the new version!!

That is stunning. well done

This has been at the top of my target list for a long time and with some dark hours finally returning here I at last got to image it.

I rather wish I'd not bothered - camera was running at +20-22 C and the moon was clearly getting through the L-enhance a bit.

I know its too dark but otherwise the noise level is just absurd! This was intended to be a 3 panel mosaic but I'm not sure if I'll bother - at least not until ambient temperature is way down. Or a dedicated cooled camera drops in my lap.

Anyway, for what its worth this is just over 5 hours of 300s exposures at ISO1600 on My SW 80ED and NEQ6 and Ha Mod EOS700d l-enhance processed APP and PS

Thats a really nice clean image.

I think that is fantastic. I agree that the fov gives a real sense of scale and place.

They are all great. My own preference would be for the top one in your last post. I think because it is so filamentous (if that's a word!) this target looks better with with the more natural muted colours. I think the greens, turquoise and such work better on denser clouds - eagle, rosette etc.

Just my tuppence since you asked. But I'd be overjoyed to produce ANY of these.

really nice image. well done

2 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

I really like this version, much more natural looking. You could probably bring in the black point a touch or lower the mid point, just watch the saturation as it will increase and i think you have it just right here.

Thanks for that. I'll give it a go. I already did a bit about the red halos by reducing the stars a bit in the red channel and that already seemed to darkened the bg a little

Lovely story! Welcome to the Lounge.

Decided to try a less harsh approach and got this