How much more data can I get out of my Image M81 Using Pixinsight

[topgearuk]

I’m a complete newbie and only been imaging for a few weeks, I’ve got my head round DSS and photoshop I struggle, but can easily find guides to help me..

I am trying to learn more and a lot of people I see on here use Pixinsight, although I read a lot of love/hate with it.. Lol  I’ve been following many guides including the ones from Harry, which are great but seem very geared towards RGB images and not DSLR, in fact nearly every guide I have come across I find the same.

I have managed to stack and calibrate using Pixinsight but after that I seem to get lost, I seem to lose all colour, I can see the image from a stretch, does anyone know of any beginner guides using Pixinsight with a DSLR?

This is what I’ve achieved from DSS and photoshop, just using stretching, I’m sure/hoping there is more data in there. Or is this about as much as I can hope for with my set-up?

18 x 720 sec lights, 12 Darks and 18 Bias over 2 nights.

M81_Mar09.tif

[harry page]

Hi

Most of my newbie vids are done with a osc camera so really there is no difference in processing

Also tried looking at your image and I can not open it

Harry

[starnut]

I think it looks very nice as it it so well done

[lensman57]

I’m a complete newbie and only been imaging for a few weeks, I’ve got my head round DSS and photoshop I struggle, but can easily find guides to help me..

I am trying to learn more and a lot of people I see on here use Pixinsight, although I read a lot of love/hate with it.. Lol  I’ve been following many guides including the ones from Harry, which are great but seem very geared towards RGB images and not DSLR, in fact nearly every guide I have come across I find the same.

I have managed to stack and calibrate using Pixinsight but after that I seem to get lost, I seem to lose all colour, I can see the image from a stretch, does anyone know of any beginner guides using Pixinsight with a DSLR?

This is what I’ve achieved from DSS and photoshop, just using stretching, I’m sure/hoping there is more data in there. Or is this about as much as I can hope for with my set-up?

18 x 720 sec lights, 12 Darks and 18 Bias over 2 nights.

Any Chance you could let us have the raw data please?

Regards,

A.G

[topgearuk]

Hi

Most of my newbie vids are done with a osc camera so really there is no difference in processing

Also tried looking at your image and I can not open it

Harry

Thanks for your reply Harry, I will go through your video's again.. As they are very good.

I think it looks very nice as it it so well done

Thank you

Any Chance you could let us have the raw data please?

Regards,

A.G

If you could take a quick look that would be great, this is stacked in DSS Tif, Is that what you mean or the individual files?

Stored on OneDrive, http://1drv.ms/1nC86JV

Cheers

David

[lensman57]

Thanks for your reply Harry, I will go through your video's again.. As they are very good.

Thank you

If you could take a quick look that would be great, this is stacked in DSS Tif, Is that what you mean or the individual files?

Stored on OneDrive, http://1drv.ms/1nC86JV

Cheers

David

Hi David,

You could put the raw data in DropBox, Fits file  is better but if u have saved as Tiff then that is fine.

Regards,

A.G

[topgearuk]

Hi David,

You could put the raw data in DropBox, Fits file  is better but if u have saved as Tiff then that is fine.

Regards,

A.G

I only have it as a Tiff, but can easily re-stack and save as a Fits.. Is the file accessible via that link on the Onedrive? (never used it much before)

[lensman57]

Hi Dave,

I am downloading the tiff file from the link you have posted, many thanks.

A.G

[topgearuk]

Hi Dave,

I am downloading the tiff file from the link you have posted, many thanks.

A.G

That's great thanks, I'm just going through Harry's video's again. I'm just beginning to find out how much of this astrophotography is to do with how good your image editing skills are, and I always thought the hard part was taking the photo's.. Lol

[harry page]

Hi

can not see your go ?

Harry

[topgearuk]

Converted it to a Jpeg

[lensman57]

Hi Dave,

Here is quick go with StarTools, I do apologise for not using PI as it takes a bit longer than ST for me and at the moment I am testing the old QHY8 that I got a few days ago. Your capture was quite large so I have binned it to about 50% so there is loss of resolution but it does show that you have decent data.  

Regards,

A.G

[harry page]

Hi

very quick go with pixinsight , nothing fancy

dbe-hist stretch-cc-acdnr-hdrwav-sat boost - bit of curves

Harry

[topgearuk]

Wow that is very nice of you both to spend time on my image, so thank you!

Hi Dave,

Here is quick go with StarTools, I do apologise for not using PI as it takes a bit longer than ST for me and at the moment I am testing the old QHY8 that I got a few days ago. Your capture was quite large so I have binned it to about 50% so there is loss of resolution but it does show that you have decent data.  

Regards,

A.G

Startools, not heard of that programme.. I will take a quick look.. But i'm finding it such a steep learning curve.. Only just got my head round DSS and limited Photoshop.. Now spent 2 days looking in to Pix, not sure I can start all over again! lol

Great to see some colour, and M81 looks pretty good now, can't believe the difference.. Thank you for you time!!

Hi

very quick go with pixinsight , nothing fancy

dbe-hist stretch-cc-acdnr-hdrwav-sat boost - bit of curves

Harry

Again, that's great, and thanks for your work flow. I've been looking at your video's again, it's slowly sinking in..

When you did the dbe, was the background you throw away very blue? As when I had ago, that's what I got.. But funny enough when I stacked it with Pix I got a totally different background using dbe..

Many thanks for your time!

[lensman57]

Wow that is very nice of you both to spend time on my image, so thank you!

Startools, not heard of that programme.. I will take a quick look.. But i'm finding it such a steep learning curve.. Only just got my head round DSS and limited Photoshop.. Now spent 2 days looking in to Pix, not sure I can start all over again! lol

Great to see some colour, and M81 looks pretty good now, can't believe the difference.. Thank you for you time!!

Again, that's great, and thanks for your work flow. I've been looking at your video's again, it's slowly sinking in..

When you did the dbe, was the background you throw away very blue? As when I had ago, that's what I got.. But funny enough when I stacked it with Pix I got a totally different background using dbe..

Many thanks for your time!

Hi dave,

You are very welcome and you are  a lucky man you have Harry the Master with PI processing your data, it is a good job that I didn't try it with PI, would have been a source of embarrassment to all concerned.

A.G

[lensman57]

Hi Dave,

Here is a version mainly in PI, I did the last background destruction in PS, sorry for that. As I said I am really hopeless with PI, this took nearly an hour and a half. Many thanks for posting the data.

Regards,

A.G

[topgearuk]

A.G That is just incredible! I can't believe you could get that out of my photo! Just gob smacked to be honest that is the image that came out of my camera, from my light polluted back garden,  and after your careful hard work..

I really need to stop taking images until I can at least learn how to get these kind of results, with what I've got. Otherwise it sort of defeats the object of astrophotography, no good just grabbing data, it's knowing what to do with it afterwards.

When I tried editing this image in Pix on Sunday night somewhere along the line I lost all my colour... I'm going to try tonight, following Harry's video's while trying this out at the same time.

Thank you so much for your time.. If you don't mind me asking how did you learn how to use Pix?

[harry page]

Hi Dave,

Here is a version mainly in PI, I did the last background destruction in PS, sorry for that. As I said I am really hopeless with PI, this took nearly an hour and a half. Many thanks for posting the data.

Regards,

A.G

Hi

That's a excellent go , you do yourself down that is much better than your startools version

Also I can often spend many hours messing with a image , so don't always expect to do it in 10 mins 

Harry

[lensman57]

A.G That is just incredible! I can't believe you could get that out of my photo! Just gob smacked to be honest that is the image that came out of my camera, from my light polluted back garden,  and after your careful hard work..

I really need to stop taking images until I can at least learn how to get these kind of results, with what I've got. Otherwise it sort of defeats the object of astrophotography, no good just grabbing data, it's knowing what to do with it afterwards.

When I tried editing this image in Pix on Sunday night somewhere along the line I lost all my colour... I'm going to try tonight, following Harry's video's while trying this out at the same time.

Thank you so much for your time.. If you don't mind me asking how did you learn how to use Pix?

Many thanks for your kind words. I watched Harry's tutorials and just now I am starting to watch the tutorials by Gerald Wechselberger, I believe he goes by the screen name of oldwexi but to be honest they are way over my head, all that pixelmath and stuff. Right now I am tearing my hair out trying to extract the nebula ( IC405 ) from a noisy background that I did last night, all under the full glow of the Moon. I guess I deserve what I got. BTW do not stop taking the images, save them and go back to them as your processing skill improves.

Regards,

A.G

[lensman57]

Hi

That's a excellent go , you do yourself down that is much better than your startools version

Also I can often spend many hours messing with a image , so don't always expect to do it in 10 mins 

Harry

Hi Harry,

Many thanks I really appreciate it, to be fair I only spent about 5 minutes with StarTools but I do agree that I like the PI version better. Great watching your videos, I really enjoy them and keep going back just in case if I missed a point.

Regards,

A.G