First Image Post: M52 and NGC7635 - Advice/Help appreciated

[Sp@ce_d]

Ok.. so after 6 months of picking your brains about imaging gear I finally plucked up the courage to show you a result.. so this is it.. my first attempt at this target and it's my first ever posted image!!

This was done over 2 nights at the end of April when I still had darkness till 3am, so I haven't had chance to revisit for more data since then! Plus I need to know if I'm on the right track so I don't waste my time

I still consider myself in the very early days of learning how to process properly so I would appreciate any advice on this one. I've been playing around with this for a while & never seem to be happy with the sharpness, balance & detail of star colour and the detail in the Bubble neb. To be honest my target was originally just M52, I didn't expect much else from my un-modified 1000D.

I'm also assuming the eggy stars in the right hand bottom corner is Polar alignment rather than mis-alignment in the light train?

It looks a bit darker on some other monitors I've tried but I didn't want to push it, bring out the background noise or burn out any more stars. I've added some star spikes to the over exposed/bloated stars in an attempt to make them look a bit better ;-)

Light path:

SW80ED - SW flat/reducer -SWLP filter - T-Adapter - Canon 1000D (un-Modified)

Guiding:

9x50 finder - QHY5 - PHD

mount:

NEQ6 with EQMod

Lights:

10 x 3mins

26 x 5mins

Darks:

9 x 3mins

16 x 5mins

Flats: 22

Stacked in DSS and (attempted at ) processing in CS3

If anyone wants to have a play feel free.. Thanks

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32747771/Astro_pics_share/M52_NGC7635_80ED_1000D_April-27and30-2011_v1.jpg

1MB filesize

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32747771/Astro_pics_share/M52_NGC7635_80ED_1000D_April-27and30-2011_raw-stack.jpg

762k filesize

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32747771/Astro_pics_share/M52_NGC7635_80ED_1000D_April-27and30-2011_raw-stack.TIF

62MB filesize

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[Cloudwatcher]

Excellent job.

[JCJC]

Very well done! Stars are good and the bubble is showing nice detail.

Jordan

[AndyUK]

I can only agree with the above - Excellent... especially for your first posted image!

My processing skills are rubbish, but (I hope you don't mind) I did have a brief go at stretching it a tad further and applying a gradient fix (it appears to be ever so slightly lighter in the bottom right corner?). However, this then increased the number of stars so I ran a star reduction - There's an awful lot of them there which seemed to detract a little from the main targets!

Although the extra stretching has increased the noise, there's some lovely star colour there, and the bubble is indeed very nice...

[Sp@ce_d]

Oh thanks.. I've learnt just about everything so far on here.. it's a goldmine so I have to say credit goes to SGL..

I can only agree with the above - Excellent... especially for your first posted image!

My processing skills are rubbish, but (I hope you don't mind) I did have a brief go at stretching it a tad further and applying a gradient fix (it appears to be ever so slightly lighter in the bottom right corner?). However, this then increased the number of stars so I ran a star reduction - There's an awful lot of them there which seemed to detract a little from the main targets!

Although the extra stretching has increased the noise, there's some lovely star colour there, and the bubble is indeed very nice...

Hey, not at all.. I want to see how to improve.. that's why I posted the links to my Dropbox.

That right hand corner is closer to light pollution, so I'm not surprised. I use a SW LP filter but it does leave a purpleish cast. I'm tempted by the Hutech but they are quite a price!

I have been trying the demo of GradientXTerminator but didn't see any benefit on this. I used Noels LP removal action which I thought works better. At least on all the stuff I've tried so far. You're right about the stars I was amazed how many there are. One of my problems is letting go of some of them hard won photons..

What did you use for the gradient?

You've certainly brought out more detail and colour.. I do love star colour. I guess the trade off of pushing it is noise, so more subs next time then.

I didn't expect the Bubble to show up much, so that was a real bonus. Still trying to pluck up the courage to try and Mod the 1000D and last out a bit longer before that Atik 314L+ lures itself into the collection and I have an even steeper learning curve... I see you've got that T-shirt..

[AndyUK]

... before that Atik 314L+ lures itself into the collection and I have an even steeper learning curve... I see you've got that T-shirt..

Yes, I haven't had that T-shirt long at all... and yes, I did find / am finding if a VERY steep learning curve, but I'd like to think I'm getting there (slowly!)

For LP I thought about the Hutech as well, but as I also wanted the option of the using the camera and a lens direct on the mount (or piggybacked) I eventually opted for an EOS Clip filter. It certainly cuts out the LP around where I live very efficiently, but apparently it is quite "harsh"... and the flats are a rather odd blue/turquoise!

For gradient removal in DSLR images I usually use GradientXterminator which I have to say I found worked pretty well for me (that's what I used on yours). However, for some DSLR images, I use Pixinsight DBE which is superb at gradient removal - I don't have the "full" PixInsight though, only the (free) LE edition, but it's certainly worth looking at (I can't afford the full PI - To be honest, I have other higher priorities at the moment...!)

I do also use some of Noel's actions too - They were certainly totally invaluable a few months ago, but, depending on the subject, I'm finding I'm using them slightly less now.

For main post-processing, I use PS CS5 - A big investment, but worth every penny (my family are also comfortable using it too). Most of my processing of your image was using levels and curves, although for some reason your red channel was quite "heavy" so I had to also tweak that down a tad to maintain some kind of colour balance... but for an unmodded DSLR image, you sure got a lot of colour in the bubble!

I do also have Topaz DeNoise which is very useful on really noisy images (at expense of some definition ) but you can also do selective sharpening with a high pass filter layer mask in Photoshop. However, as with any sharpening, it does tend to introduce more noise, but by not applying a sharpen action across an entire image, I find/found that it doesn't look quite so bad...

(However, I need to put a caveat on all of the above - Compared to a great many on SGL, I know virtually nothing at all about post-processing... )

[swag72]

I have to say that for gradient removal you really can not beat taking flats. I avoided them for ages thinking that they were hard and that gradient removal in PP was sufficient. It's OK, but flats are the best way by far to sort out the gradient.

Give them a go and see the difference!

[Cloudwatcher]

I took you at your word and felt free to have a play with your image..... I've tried to bring out a bit more of the nebula around the bubble.

Whilst I'm a great fan of wide field views they do tend to hide detail so I cropped the central area for a closer look. A bit overdone really but the bubble shows up quite well.

[Sp@ce_d]

I have to say that for gradient removal you really can not beat taking flats. I avoided them for ages thinking that they were hard and that gradient removal in PP was sufficient. It's OK, but flats are the best way by far to sort out the gradient.

Give them a go and see the difference!

Yup I did use flats Sara, 22 of them using the old (clean) T-shirt against the plentiful diffuse white clouds .

I think I'll get one of the Gerd Neumann Aurora Flat-Field Panels from FLO though.

Graham

[Sp@ce_d]

I took you at your word and felt free to have a play with your image..... I've tried to bring out a bit more of the nebula around the bubble.

Whilst I'm a great fan of wide field views they do tend to hide detail so I cropped the central area for a closer look. A bit overdone really but the bubble shows up quite well.

Fantastic, I've been amazed to see the un-modded 1000D get so much of the nebula. I honestly didn't expect it. I'm still pretty green at processing so I'd love to know how you brought it out as I've been around in circles on this one and never managed to get a hint there was anything behind the bubble! Mind you I hadn't cropped right in..

Thankyou.. I'm well chuffed to see that