Combining Ha and Oiii with R G B to make Hubble palette image

[Geordie mc]

Hi everyone. I just collected data using Maxim DL in Ha, Oiii, RGB filters (ran out of time for Sii data) and I'd like to combine the data into a Hubble palette image. I know that Oii goes to red And Ha to green and blue as I have no Sii data, and I'd like to add the RGB data to get some star colours. Can I do this in Maxim or do I need to use photoshop? When I try and combine the images Maxim tells me I cannot assign Ha data to green as I already have a green group in use. I tried the saving to separate layers but only got three images, R, G and B not 5. The Ha and Oiii data doesn't seem to have been included .Even if I got 5 how could I then combine them. I'm using Maxim DL 6. The target was the lower half of NGC7000. Any help much appreciated. Thank you.

[steppenwolf]

The Hubble palette maps SII to Red, Ha to Green and OIII to blue. You can do mapping using either MaxIm DL (by duplicating the OIII data and giving it a different name) or in PhotoShop without making a duplicate. Adding the RGB data to your NB image needs to be done in PhotoShop.

As you have only Ha and OIII data, you could map the Ha to red and the OIII to both Green and blue to produce a bicolour image that would have much in common with a standard RGB image taken with broadband filters. However, you could manipulate this image to produce a wide range of different false colour versions including an approximation of the Hubble Palette.

[Geordie mc]

Thanks Steve. Saved me a lot of time trying to combine everything in Maxim. I'll try the NB data as you suggested. Maxim is new to me and a bit of a steep learning curve. Even after using the stack command and giving each group a colour it looks mono on screen. Do I need to use the colour menu in some way to get the image to display in. Colour? There seem to be so many menu choices and commands!

[wavydavy]

Im trying something a bit similar to this.............gona have a read later looks like good advice.......so thanks!

[swag72]

Having done a fair bit of bi colour with only Ha and OIII, it's fairly easy to make a pseudo HST palette in photoshop. I find that the easiest to do is to use Noels actions to create an RGB image, assigning Ha to Red, OIII to green and blue. From there, I use Noels action again on this 'RGB' image to create a synthetic green. From there, select colour is your friend! You can make it whatever colour you like

The RGB I'd blend as a normal RGB and then use it just on the stars at a later stage in the processing.

[wavydavy]

Hi Sara............just at the mo got 7 nm h-alpha, and oiii..........so im learning to do bi colour, a lot to learn!