Tulip nebula..

[Magnus_e]

Thanks everyone for showing how things should be done. I can now see my second attempt is really ower prossessed, so i will have another go at it.

Just wondering. What method ar you doing to set whitbalance?

I don't really have a method for this, just play around until i think it looks ok. This makes it easy to overdoo red or other colors.

I have aligned the RGB channels in dss. Is that all that's needed or should WB be corrected in post to?

[lensman57]

Thanks everyone for showing how things should be done. I can now see my second attempt is really ower prossessed, so i will have another go at it.

Just wondering. What method ar you doing to set whitbalance?

I don't really have a method for this, just play around until i think it looks ok. This makes it easy to overdoo red or other colors.

I have aligned the RGB channels in dss. Is that all that's needed or should WB be corrected in post to?

I can write down the steps for you but as I used Pixinsight I doubt if it relates to anything like Gimp or PS, anyhow here it goes.

Apply the Screen Transfer Tool, data is still linear.

Applied the Dynamic Background Extraction tool with default settings, data is still linear.

Applied the Colour Calibration Tool using masses of stars, Aggregated from previews as the white reference.

Reapply the STF tool, data is still linear.

Applied the Histogram Transformation tool with STF parameters and lined up the colours, this is like Levels in PS, data is no longer linear.

Made a Star Mask to include all the small and medium size stars, applied Convolution to the mask, this is like a gaussian blur in PS.

Applied the mask to the stars.

Used the the Curves tool increase saturation in the stars.

Reapplied the Histogram Tansformation tool.

Applied a mild ACDNR noise reduction to the low signal areas, excluding the stars totally.

Applied SCNR to remove any traces of the Green, this is like HLVG filter in PS.

Applied a mild Morphological Transformation to the stars using the star mask to reduce the size a little, this can also be done in PS using the Minimum filter or using Noel Carboni's actions.

Saved as jpeg.

Poo...h, it took longer to write all this down than it took to do them.

Regards,

A.G

[Magnus_e]

Thanks.

I'll check what and how i can translate to gimp

[MattJenko]

I have a similar process to AG for my version, with some slight differences:

- Dynamic Background Extraction - gradient removal

- Colour Calibration - balance RGB channels

- MultiscaleMedianTransform for noise reduction (at linear stage)

- Histogram Stretch -

- Curves for saturation. no mask as I wanted to increase saturation for everything

- SCNR for green reduction

- Lum mask and Curves to finish off and reduce background colour + brightness

[Magnus_e]

Thanks for sharing your prosess list Matt.

Just a little question.

As i mostly want to image nebulas and the occational galaxy, is this neodymium filter a good as LP / contrast filter? Optionally the UHC-S filter?

I looked at the IDAS-D1, but its out of my prize range, for now...

I'm also going to get the Sky Watcher Field Flattener From what i've heard it should match up good with the Equinox 80, and as i understand it will hold the 2" filter.

[MattJenko]

Flattener looks nice. I don't know about LP filters I am afraid, I don't use one, as I am lucky in that I am a rural dweller in a village with no street lights and only have to deal with towns on the horizon rather than cities.