M42 (another) reprocess BUT this time with Pixinsight!

[blinky]

Got me a trial of Pixinsight so went back to my M42 data and did it in PI, right from stacking/debayering/alignment up to sharpening/deconvolve/curves etc I finished off a little in Photoshop CS5, really just a tiny tweak of the levels and saturation and I also layered in my other (ghastly, when I look at it now) origninal M42 to give a little more colour (mostly a bit of blue and also the core, as I never bothered with that in PI).

So.... What do you think? When I look at my other M42 I think this looks a lot more natural:)

As for PI..... Well....... Stacking is a bit more of a faf compared to Deep Sky Stacker but works fine and is not too hard to figure out. I am starting to get to grips with other bits of PI - DBE, star masks, stretching, ACNDR (The thing that gets rid of green noise) are all great but I still think you need PS to just finish it off although maybe I just need to use it more, time will tell.......

[Arringar]

That is a beautiful image. Great job.

[Jessun]

Jelaous. But hey what a killer shot! So crisp and well balanced colours. And to rub it in you did this in PI.....

[Craig20264]

It really is a stunning image, so crisp and clear. Loads of depth too.

Congrats

[swag72]

That is a great reprocess in PI and clearly you have great data as well. Beautiful shot!

[Earl]

Really nice, check out Harrys new tutorial on Noise Reduction, it does a much better job.

[NickK]

Very nice - clear, and it looks like it's been illuminated from within!

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Really nice colours, and i LOVE the nebulosity in the upper right, looks like it is being lit from afar by the bright core.

[Euan]

Looks much better this time around, go on buy it you know you want too

(...and then you can learn it and show me how to use it...)

[Tim]

That must be one of your best images Craig? The processing looks perfect to me.

I usually finish off in PS too, but the things you did, Levels and saturation are pretty easy in PI, if anything more accurate.

There is an issue with triangular stars though, probably means your primary mirror clips are too tight. Make sure they aren't clamped down tight to the mirror, you should be able to slide a business card between the mirror and the rubber on the clip.

Other than that, looks pretty much perfect I especially like the detail around M43.

Tim

[blinky]

Cheers Tim!!!

BTW, I dont have any primary mirror clips! I siliconed the mirror to the cell! I think my collimation was just a little off (as usual!). I also just did the histogram equalisation in PI and it's looking even better.....

[Catanonia]

Looking good Craig, very nice and looks like a PI convert to me. Time to get the cheque book out

Collimation eh..... Darn fast newts

I too use CS5 to finish off, I mainly use PI for calibration, alignment, stacking, clipping, stretching, DBE, ANCDR, SCNR and a few other tweaks.

[blinky]

How about this? Last play I promise (well, for tonight...)

[blinky]

Hmmm... I think I like the first the best, more natural feel to it?

[Catanonia]

No you joking, all you done is flip it :D:D:D

Prefer the 1st one, the dust is showing more and this one looks too forced. IMHO

Cracking data you got there

[The Viper]

wow if i can ever manage a image like that in the future i would call it job done

[Tim]

Ooops, that last one is overcooked Craig

I'm not sure about the stars being that shape due to collimation. I have imaged with f4 newts for 3 years now and plenty of times had poor collimation, but never had three sided stars.

Might be worth keeping an eye on that, it was the reason I removed the silicon from my GSO 8" F4, couldn't quite be sure that there was enough give in the compound to enable the mirror to move freely.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice images, with very nice colour balance. Three sided stars could be a pinched mirror (mirror clips too tight?).

[Euan]

I'm not convinced you have a mirror problem with those pinched stars, can you see it on a single sub?

It could be a tracking issue, I've seen some similar things with my refractors if my guiding is playing up

[blinky]

I think it was collimation - If I zoom in on a star I can see a small tail behind it, making it look like a triangle,

[Jessun]

No you joking, all you done is flip it :D:D:D

I've seen M42 in all thinkable flipped and mirrored versions - so many that I don't even know which is 'correct'...

Fantastic detail!

[peter shah]

beautifully done

[Ant]

Thats nice Craig .

The triangular stars look like a result of a guiding error to me. You may find if you inspect the subs one by one and find one or two with the slight trail and then re-stack that you can lose the triangular stars completely.

Cheers

Ant

[ianaiken]

Brilliant, something for me to aim towards when I eventually manage to get out and do this. Nice tight stars and a naturally looking process. PI rocks, I'm quite liking it for processing now I am getting the hang of it a bit.

[Zul]

Very nice!