First go at Andromeda

[Shiinsuh]

So last night I had my first real go at Andromeda viewing conditions were good until the clouds rolled in meaning I was only able to take 16 subs, 12 of which were used. The subs were 400 seconds long.

The subs along with 13 dars, 32 flats and 30 bias where stacked in DSS then processed in photoshop CS6. Here is what I got:

While i seem to have to some decent detail out of the data. There is a green gradient that goes from right to left as you can see. Any idea how I can remove this in photoshop?

Other than that I am pretty happy with the picture.

Any feedback would be most welcomed.

[RodexMtl]

I have no idea of astrophotography....but wow.....beautiful image!

[Stargazer33]

I'm still learning myself regarding processing, but I would have thought that with 12 exposures of nearly 7 minutes each, that there is a lot more detail in that image. Great start though! Try the Hasta La Vista Green plug in for PS by Rogelio Bernal Andreo, to remove the green cast.

[Shiinsuh]

I have no idea of astrophotography....but wow.....beautiful image!

Thank you very much!

[ollypenrice]

You can buy a Ps plug in from Russ Croman, Gradient Xterminator. Some kind of gradient remover is necessary even from the darkest sites. The king of them all is Dynamic Background Extraction in Pixinsight but GradX works well.

Olly

[Shiinsuh]

I'm still learning myself regarding processing, but I would have thought that with 12 exposures of nearly 7 minutes each, that there is a lot more detail in that image. Great start though! Try the Hasta La Vista Green plug in for PS by Rogelio Bernal Andreo, to remove the green cast.

I agree, I'm sure there is a lot more data, I have been able to show more dust lanes but trying to bring them out causes the green glow and the core to blow out so I opted for some where in between. The data is defiantly a keeper though so as I learn more about processing, I can have another go later on.

Thank you for the plug-in, I'll give it a try later on!

Thanks for the comment.

[Shiinsuh]

You can buy a Ps plug in from Russ Croman, Gradient Xterminator. Some kind of gradient remover is necessary even from the darkest sites. The king of them all is Dynamic Background Extraction in Pixinsight but GradX works well.

Olly

I shall have a look into that plug-in.

I have a trial of Pixinsight at the moment so I shall have a play around with DBE see if I can get anything like (I know very little on how to use Pixinsight at the moment).

Thanks for the comment, and also good to know that the gradient is unavoidable.

[ollypenrice]

I shall have a look into that plug-in.

I have a trial of Pixinsight at the moment so I shall have a play around with DBE see if I can get anything like (I know very little on how to use Pixinsight at the moment).

Thanks for the comment, and also good to know that the gradient is unavoidable.

On this kind of target you'll find Automatic Background Extraction will work fine. Set the mode of correction to Subtraction otherwise it will just make a model of the gradient. To see the model properly Ctrl A will give a screen-only stretch.

Give it a run with SCNR Green as well. It's the original for HLVG.

Olly

[Davey-T]

You can try duplicating the image and applying a Gaussian blur to it and adjusting so you can only see the gradient, you may have to use the clone tool to hide the bright galaxy centre first, OK the blur image and use curves to darken a bit by lowering the centre.

Click on original image then Image / Apply image / select the copy as source so in the widow you have the source at the top then background then RGB then subtract and 100%, click preview to see whats happened.

Cost nothing so worth a try.

Dave

[Shiinsuh]

On this kind of target you'll find Automatic Background Extraction will work fine. Set the mode of correction to Subtraction otherwise it will just make a model of the gradient. To see the model properly Ctrl A will give a screen-only stretch.

Give it a run with SCNR Green as well. It's the original for HLVG.

Olly

I'll certainly give this a go later when I'm home! Thank you.

You can try duplicating the image and applying a Gaussian blur to it and adjusting so you can only see the gradient, you may have to use the clone tool to hide the bright galaxy centre first, OK the blur image and use curves to darken a bit by lowering the centre.

Click on original image then Image / Apply image / select the copy as source so in the widow you have the source at the top then background then RGB then subtract and 100%, click preview to see whats happened.

Cost nothing so worth a try.

Dave

This sounds an interesting way. I will defiantly give this a try! 

Thank you both for the comments, I will give both methods a try then report back!

[Shiinsuh]

OK I have had another go at processing this image, but using GradX and HVLG. Here are my results:

I was able to get some more detail out of it, and the core wasn't blown out too. However, got a bit more noise this time. I'm happy with how it has turned out though. I will give it a try with PI next once I learn how to use it.