The Rosette nebula with night vision

[GavStar]

It’s the first time I’ve posted on this section, but as the cloudynights forum groups night vision with video astronomy, I think this is probably the most appropriate place to post.

I was using my night vision monoculars last night and took some iPhone photos of the horsehead and rosette nebula through the eyepiece.

When observing through the eyepiece I normally have the gain at around 50 percent since otherwise the scintillation is too much - I prefer having a view that is close to a normal eyepiece.

However when I took the pics last night I also took some with the gain turned right up to 100 percent. The initial result wasn’t that great I thought...(see below).so I effect binned them.

Then today Stu took some of my 50 percent gain pics and used ps express to tidy them up. They were very nice and so I loaded up ps express myself and had a play.

I was really surprised at the results- ps express really brought out some of the detail that was not clear in the original photo . Several dust lanes magically appeared. Stu loaded up the sky safari image of the rosette for reference and the post ps express iPhone pic stands up pretty well I think. Stu thinks I overdid it ? and so he had a play as well and aimed to keep as much of the nebulosity as possible. So I’ve put my photo, his photo and the sky safari one on for comparison.

I’d be very interested in comments on how the photoshopping could be improved, what looks best etc ...

 

 

 

[Stu]

The dust lanes do look very clear in your version Gavin, but it does lose the more subtle parts of the Nebula. Need a combination of the two I think  

[RobertI]

Hi Gavin, 

Really been enoying your posts with your NV setup, something I would definitely have a go at if I had the budget. Waiting for cost to come down...

I couldn't quite work out from your description which pic is which so am assuming:

1) Original photo with 50% gain

2) Stu's post processed version

3) Skysafari version

4) Alternative original with 100% gain - post-processed?

I think the processed number pic 2 definitely improves contrast, darkening the background and brightening the fainter features. In truth I cannot see any new features in the processed version, but it could be I don't have the trained eye of you guys, and I am viewing in an ipad screen, not ideal. But number two is easier to see the detail.

Your issue of too much scinitllation at 100% gain seems very similar to when I really ' stretch' an image on screen during an EAA session; the fainter stuff becomes more apparent and sometimes new bits magically appear, but at the expense of horrible noise, so less aesthetically pleasing. When posting my my results I usually try and choose something in between, but thinking about it I should probably post two versions, the 'pretty' version and the 'noisy' version to show the faint detail - might start doing that. 

Look forward to more NV posts!  

[GavStar]

Thanks Robert

Sorry yes I see the order of the photos isn’t clear.

They are:

1) original iPhone photo with 100% gain

2) Stu’s post processed version using photo 1

3) sky safari version

4) my post processed version using photo 1 and using high contrast adjustment to aim to bring out the dark lanes (which does make it noiser and reduce some nebulosity). Still like it though ?

[GavStar]

Here’s a 50% gain original - darker than 100% but with maybe a bit less detail to exploit with ps express.

[Stu]

@RobertI I think you are right about not being able to see any additional features in the processed versions. The detail is all there in the original but I think the processing makes them aesthetically better and the detail is more obvious. I almost always look at things on my phone so probably miss loads...

Personally I prefer the more subtle version I've done, but Gavin's certainly shows more contrast on the dust lanes at the expense of more noise. I like that one too  

I guess, if you were wanting to, you could stack multiple frames to see if that improved the signal to noise ratio and showed more or the faint stuff. Might be fun, although that gets away from the observational nature of NV.

[GavStar]

5 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

Personally I prefer the more subtle version I've done, but Gavin's certains shows more contrast on the dust lanes at the expense of more noise. I like that one too  

I have to admit that subtlety is not a strong point of mine ?

[shirva]

Very nice,,was pleasantly surprised when I saw the images,,I was expecting it to be the colour of the incredible hulk ?.

Fantastic results when you see the original then the processed image, like night and day,, I've followed a lot of von's posts on cn and he tried to get folk interested also on VAF,, as mentioned the costs are high for this live video astronomy and of course the lack of understanding of it,, I've personally always liked it and would love to add it to my kit.

Can you post up the make/ model of the night vision monocular.

Cheers davy

[GavStar]

Hi Davy,

i think all the details of the NV moncular are in this thread

cheers

Gavin

[shirva]

Sorry mate I never saw the full posting from the start

[GavStar]

11 minutes ago, shirva said:

Sorry mate I never saw the full posting from the start

No problem. It was just easier for me to do a link than type it ?