NGC 281 Pacman Hubble palette

[x6gas]

I've added some more NCG 281 data as I wanted to capture some RGB to use for star colour. I must say that processing it was harder than I thought it would be...

Most of the Ha and OIII on this was captured in very poor conditions with high cloud - I did manage to get 10 subs each of Ha and OIII in much better conditions and the difference in the quality of the individual subs is astounding!

Anyway, this uses most of the data that I've captured:

Ha: 40 x 300s

OIII: 40 x 420s

R: 30 x 120s

G: 30 x 120s

B: 30 x 180s

TS90 APO; CG-5; Atik 460 ex. Guided with QHY IMG0H and PHD.

Thanks for looking.

[Stargazer Jack]

Excellent image

[x6gas]

Thanks Jack - still on a learning curve...

The latest discovery is blending in a high pass filter to sharpen the image - Ken Crawford describes this really well.

[Gina]

Terrific image - beautiful

[x6gas]

Thanks Gina - really pleased with the high pass filter sharpening... gradually collecting techniques and then I just have to figure out what works best on what subject!

It's a long road this astro-processing lark!

[Gina]

Yes, that high pass filtering worked wonders - must take a look at that

[Martin-Devon]

It's a nicely processed image - good colours & balance. The high pass filter is one of the key ways to boost the contrast in an image, it's often better than the unsharp mask.

[x6gas]

Thanks Martin. Yes I wish I'd discovered it before - edge sharpening without introducing noise to the background or artefacts around the stars!

I feel some re-processing of old data coming on...

[Gina]

Been trying ti find the high pass filter in PS - or have I got my wires crossed

[x6gas]

Been trying ti find the high pass filter in PS - or have I got my wires crossed

It's under "other" on the filters menu in PhotoPlus X4 - think it's the same in PS. Set pixel size to aroun 6-7 and blend mode to overlay or softlight...

[x6gas]

... oh and then adjust opacity to taste...

[Gina]

Found it - thank you Think I need more practice to make it work though