Tulip nebula..

[Magnus_e]

So no i have checked of a few first's

I finally can star align without much effort. It's not so hard so don't know why i did not manage before.

The AVX's all star polar alig works good and i can get guiding to ceep within the +-0.5 lines on the Y axis in PHD.

Now that i can align everything i can actuall start imaging things that i can't visually point my scope at. This naturally opens up a world of new objects..

So i had a go at the Tulip nebula. I slewed to ngc6871 and framed it from there. With a print out fram stellarium i could easely match the brightest stars with liveview.

So i think all i need now is darker nights and a field flattener. I could only manage 200 - 240 sec exposures at iso 200 before overexposuring.

Stacked in dss, edited in regim and photoshop cs2.

Defenetlly not perfect. Think darker nights will help a lot, but tips will be appreceated

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Lots of stars! But maybe you're missing some colour? I'd have thought that with a modded 550d you would pick up Ha nicely. I've got into the habit of aligning the rgb colour peaks in DSS, adjusting the luminance curve then using the saturation adjustment tool to enhance the colours. I find that the development version of Gimp (v2.9) is much better than cs2 for curves, other adjustments, and its colour balancing tool is neat. Sometimes I use Startools though that prefers the unchanged dss fits or 32bit tiff autosave file. One of these days I'll get Pixinsight!

Cheers

Louise

[Magnus_e]

I look forvard to get Pix in the futer too

For now i find levels to work better in Photoshop than in GIMP, but i have GIMP 2.9 and switch back an forth.

The prosess you explaned is pretty mutch what i doo. Except i do gradient remowal and background normalization in regim before opening in Photoshop / GIMP.

I live in Oslo Norway (59*N), so the night are still not compleately dark. I can only get 200 - 240 sec exposiures at iso 200.

I think that is why there is too little nebulosity. I can keep at it if i get some more clear skies, and exclude subs with low scores as i get new and better ones.

Hopefully i will get a great image in a while. Loving my new Equinox Mutch better colors than the ST80!

Clear skies

[Thalestris24]

I look forvard to get Pix in the futer too

For now i find levels to work better in Photoshop than in GIMP, but i have GIMP 2.9 and switch back an forth.

The prosess you explaned is pretty mutch what i doo. Except i do gradient remowal and background normalization in regim before opening in Photoshop / GIMP.

I live in Oslo Norway (59*N), so the night are still not compleately dark. I can only get 200 - 240 sec exposiures at iso 200.

I think that is why there is too little nebulosity. I can keep at it if i get some more clear skies, and exclude subs with low scores as i get new and better ones.

Hopefully i will get a great image in a while. Loving my new Equinox Mutch better colors than the ST80!

Clear skies

Hi

I find curves more useful than levels (though aligning peaks in dss is essentially using levels) but I think you need to do some saturation adjustment and maybe some further colour balancing - you should really be able to see the Ha colour as well as star colours especially as you've picked up so many stars. But dss kills the colour which is why the dss saturation tool is so useful. Maybe your background normalisation and gradient removal is affecting the nebulosity and colour? How many subs have you stacked? 200-240s seems long enough. Did you include flats and bias frames?

I suffer from very bad lp gradients too

Louise

Edit: maybe you can post a link to your autosave fits or tiff file? I could have a play - or maybe someone much better at it than me can!

[Magnus_e]

Not shure why i can get so little of the Ha out.

Here is a link to the autosave, and the edits from dss.

Also the "finished" image from Photoshop.

Hope that you find that i have done something wrong in post, and there is more captured.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx0H87uxM0zZfnpPMVlxY0d6LUt3cUtmZzRQNmJhZXFWOHV3cE5XZWp3YWU0S1hOblBCalE&usp=sharing

"Currently uploading, can take a few minutes"

The stacked images adds up to 1h12min total...

[Thalestris24]

Hi

I had a very quick play - there's definitely more colour there! I have to admit I'm not very expert at processing myself (but learning all the time!). Hopefully, someone who is good at it will also have a go  I'm sure it can be improved!

Anyway, I just had a quick edit in dss first - here's a screen capture:

I whacked up the saturation to max - it might look overcooked on here!

Then did a little curve adjustment in paint.net (quick and dirty!):

Cheers

Louise

[Magnus_e]

Hi. Tanks for taking the time

I'll have another go at post tomorrow.

Defenetly going to try and get some more data on the subject to see what i can end up with.

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Your welcome! I think yours compares quite favourably with this one on Wikimedia:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TulipHunterWilson.jpg

Obviously, when it comes to nebulae, narrowband is the way to go.

Cheers

Louise

[MarsG76]

Good pic, nebulosity definitely coming through... a raw narrowband Ha will definitely help as a 50% luminance channel.

[ollypenrice]

In Ps there's an incredibly simple way to make Ha pop out. Image - Adjustments - Selective Colour opens by default in the Reds. Take the top slider (cyans) and move it left. And that's it.

Olly

[StargeezerTim]

Well I have had a go at this. Used 'local adapatation' conversion to 16 bit. Applied curves and levels etc. Noise reduction using the Doug German method in his video. Gradient Exterminator. The conclusion I come to is twofold, Firstly, that this is a difficult stack to process, the more you process, the more gradients arise, and secondly, my processing skills are pretty rubbish! Lol. Enjoyed playing about with it though. Another target on my list to image!

[Pompey Monkey]

Well I have had a go at this. Used 'local adapatation' conversion to 16 bit. Applied curves and levels etc. Noise reduction using the Doug German method in his video. Gradient Exterminator. The conclusion I come to is twofold, Firstly, that this is a difficult stack to process, the more you process, the more gradients arise, and secondly, my processing skills are pretty rubbish! Lol. Enjoyed playing about with it though. Another target on my list to image!

I find that using "local adaptation" when converting to 16 bit really mucks up my image dynamic range. I now always use the custom settings, with the exposure and gamma left on default (if that makes sense). The initial conversion doesn't look very exciting at first, but I'll then use levels and curves to stretch the image and bring out the detail.

Now if only I didn't have to go to bed before it gets dark, I might stand a chance of actually getting some photos to process! Pesky job

[StargeezerTim]

I find that using "local adaptation" when converting to 16 bit really mucks up my image dynamic range. I now always use the custom settings, with the exposure and gamma left on default (if that makes sense). The initial conversion doesn't look very exciting at first, but I'll then use levels and curves to stretch the image and bring out the detail.

Now if only I didn't have to go to bed before it gets dark, I might stand a chance of actually getting some photos to process! Pesky job

I usually use that method too, but the results were equally unimpressive after processing so I thought I would give it a go. The noise reduction was pretty dramatic and took some of the colour and contrast away, but i quite like the effect...

[Magnus_e]

Thanks everyone

Good pic, nebulosity definitely coming through... a raw narrowband Ha will definitely help as a 50% luminance channel.

Does this mean that i could use a Ha pass filter for my 550d to do luminance subs? Really want to play around with something like that.

I had a new go at prosessing. It got real noysy though...

I think i need more / better data, or prosessing skills

Thisone is done in gimp 2.9

/Edit Looked at my first post after all your colorful edits, and it looks almost black and white. Tend to go "blind" when prosessing for a while, and only see some of the image...

[Thalestris24]

Thanks everyone

Does this mean that i could use a Ha pass filter for my 550d to do luminance subs? Really want to play around with something like that.

I had a new go at prosessing. It got real noysy though...

I think i need more / better data, or prosessing skills

editedgimp04-scale.png

Thisone is done in gimp 2.9

Hi

Yeah, more data is always good! Darker skies are even better! Where I live in light-polluted Glasgow, I find I need many more times the amount of data than others do. In fact, nebulas/nebulosity are almost impossible for me. Standard, even astromodded dslrs are not very good for narrowband imaging - you really need a cooled mono camera... You could attempt it but you'd probably need ~20 minute exposures in Ha... And Ha filters aren't cheap.

Also, be careful with gradient removal - there's a high risk of removing nebulosity too!

Good luck!

Louise

[Magnus_e]

Hi

Yeah, more data is always good! Darker skies are even better! Where I live in light-polluted Glasgow, I find I need many more times the amount of data than others do. In fact, nebulas/nebulosity are almost impossible for me. Standard, even astromodded dslrs are not very good for narrowband imaging - you really need a cooled mono camera... You could attempt it but you'd probably need ~20 minute exposures in Ha... And Ha filters aren't cheap.

Also, be careful with gradient removal - there's a high risk of removing nebulosity too!

Good luck!

Louise

I live probably in the most light polluted city in Norway. I have checked LP maps and my location is dark red.

My parrents live +- an hour out of town near the sea. The LP in their area ranges from none to yellow, so i'm a DSO commuter.

Does not help that summer in Norway has few nights. In a couple of days / weeks? it will be dark enough to get some long exposures.

(I tried 6 min iso 200 and it was almost bright white)

Had a new go at prosessing. Getting better...?

[Thalestris24]

I live probably in the most light polluted city in Norway. I have checked LP maps and my location is dark red.

My parrents live +- an hour out of town near the sea. The LP in their area ranges from none to yellow, so i'm a DSO commuter.

Does not help that summer in Norway has few nights. In a couple of days / weeks? it will be dark enough to get some long exposures.

(I tried 6 min iso 200 and it was almost bright white)

Had a new go at prosessing. Getting better...?

Norm_RG_editedgimp04-1-3700.png

Hiya

Maybe a bit overcooked now but at least it's more colourful than your original! Have the same problem with summer nights here though I guess you're even further north. I can image between 00:00 and 03:00 now. Should be much better by the end of August. If you can't get longer exposures then just do lots more of the shorter ones. Or maybe have a go at one of the brighter nebulas? LP filters help e.g. Astronomik clip filter. I'm hoping to get my 550d cooled and monochrome modded in the autumn. It's a bit of a compromise but I can't afford a mono ccd and it should let me do narrowband imaging though without any binning.

Louise

[Magnus_e]

Ill try to get some more subs when the clouds leave.

I have a sw lp filter, but it's 1.25". After streaching a master flat with 1.25" adapter and comparing it with my 2" adapter, i don't want to go back.

Have been carefull spending cash this summer,so next paycheck i can hopefully get a flattener and a 2" lp filter. And then there should be darker nights.

Atleast i have learned how to properly set up my mount so i can find things and post prosessering will probably come along with experience.

Lookimg forward to autum. Clear Skies

[Thalestris24]

I use Astrotortilla to platesolve and centre targets via Stellarium. Astrophotography Tool (APT) now includes a platesolving interface via another package but I've not tried it as I'm used to, and happy with, Astrotortilla Yeah, 2" filters are better with a dslr. Too much vignetting with anything 1.25" though flats will fix.

Louise

[MattJenko]

I took the liberty of having a go at the raw DSS output for you to try and see what was there to be pulled out, as the colours others have shown is there. This is processed in PixInsight. It is a very nice image. You do have some curvature at the edges, so a flattener would help with your big chip, but other than that, I really like it, well done!!!

[Magnus_e]

Thanks

It's really fun to see all the data that can be extracted from this image. Espessially considering my first attempt.

You look to have found a larger spread of colors. Min ended up all read!

Would be fun to get 2h+ of 10 min subs on this with a field flattener. Will not be any time soon, but I'll reopen this thread if i do.

[astroanimal]

Gradients took a bit of work to tame. Are you using a LP filter?

And yes, a flattener would help with the star shapes at the edges of the field.

Add more time to this and the nebula will really stand out.

[astroanimal]

Sorry, Magnus, I see you do have an LP filter, but not one you can use with your camera. 

I recommend the IDAS-D1 if you are using a DSLR. It is more expensive than others, but the results are superior.

[lensman57]

To be honest you need a lot more data to make this sing. I have had a quick play and here is the result without pushing it too far out and making a mess.

I think Louise and Matt have done a good job of getting the data out and Olly's suggestion is excellent and would give first class results if you employ the appropriate masks.

A.G

[StargeezerTim]

At last, I have done one I like. A bit yellow but all in all. OK!

Thanks for posting the pic, I have learnt a lot playing with your image....