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Narrowband

Moral dilemma


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The human eye is brilliant at pattern recognition and seeing small differences.

There's an excerpt from one of my images after initial 32-bit stretch in DSS and  BEFORE proper processing:

image.thumb.png.effde6b2884710676859c92ab4f3744b.png

Here's an excerpt from a stunning image by Tom Mattheson http://www.guidescope.net/galaxies/ngc2903.htm

Just a tiny extract:

image.png.14ca9659a0b28deeae8200012146d000.png

If you look at my image you can see the faint galaxy in Tom's image just shows on mine, but it seems that it is only a tiny bit above the background.

My inclination is to apply my usual processing to bring out the big galaxy and hop this accentuates the little one.

There are all sorts of dirty deeds I could do to bring out the small galaxy (I tried a few) but they all felt little different to 'airbrushing' in a pale patch.

Is there a 'morally acceptable' technique to bringing out that little patch aside from going to darker skies and getting lots more subs?

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Isn't the whole point of processing (from stacking & use of calibration frames upwards) to adjust the image to bring our the best from the data captured? As such, I don't see how any processing deed can be deemed immoral - as long as you don't claim to have done something you haven't. 

Just my 2p ...

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I think the test is to ask yourself is "have I added data or have I allowed data already present in the image to be better viewed above the noise".  But I think it would be perfectly acceptable to apply different techniques to different areas of the image.  I'm not  a skilled imager though so others may have a different view.

 

Jim  

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Ok, this is a version of the full image. I created a masked layer around the tiny galaxy, but not big enough to include the nearby stars. I then used 'screen' to make the galaxy brighter and then used curves to brighten it further and darken its surroundings to match the wider background.

Although I've put a reprocessed version of  this image in the galaxy challenge, it doesn't include this boost to the little fella.

5a8980857317e_NGC2903andfaintgalaxy.thumb.png.3a7ae15efecf7c5f032bc5f84662cbb4.png

 

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A very lovely image Neil. Amazing what is actually in there. I love the tiny but beautiful NGC2916, and below that there is mag 15.7 PGC27249, a spiral galaxy. There is even mag 16.4 PGC 1648681 near NGC 2903. There are fainter ones too, very nice.

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