M37

[alan4908]

Since I needed more practice at my star field processing, particularly with respect to star colour, I thought I'd have a go at M37. 

My default exposure duration is 600s subs which I find works well from my site and allows me to capture faint background objects. Unfortunately, for M37 I noticed that this length of exposure, whilst it does not create saturated stars, it does take my camera into the non-linear response region for some of the bright stars. A consequence is that star colours can become compromised.  So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out the Pixinsight Repaired HSV separation script, which can be used to correct this non-linear effect. I also decided to shoot a small amount of Lum since I like the glowing effect it produces.  Since I was interested in capturing quite faint objects in addition to containing the bright stars, I performed both a high and low strength DDP stretch of the Lum which I subsequently blended and then mixed with the RGB data. 

The result is below and represents just over 5 hours integration time.

Alan

 

LIGHTS: L:5, R:10, G:9, B:8 x 600s. DARKS:30, FLATS:40, BIAS:100 all at -20C.

[peter shah]

Jewel like...nice job

[kirkster501]

Very nice.  A good contrast with your moire tightly framed version and my wider field version.

[Demonperformer]

Yes, very nice, Alan.

[alan4908]

13 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

Very nice.  A good contrast with your moire tightly framed version and my wider field version.

Thanks, yes, it's interesting the close up v wide field prospective on star clusters - I'm not entirely sure which approach works best.

14 hours ago, peter shah said:

Jewel like...nice job

Thanks Peter. 

 

12 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Yes, very nice, Alan.

Thank you for the comment, which is much appreciated. 

[Hallingskies]

Good colours and nice, tight stars without over-sharpening.  Nice job...

[alan4908]

12 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

Good colours and nice, tight stars without over-sharpening.  Nice job...

Thanks for the comment - on your over-sharpening point - yes, I never sharpen stars - I find deconvolution works best. 

Alan

[iansmith]

A nice image, you've captured and processed the stars very well.

Cheers, Ian

[alan4908]

12 hours ago, iansmith said:

A nice image, you've captured and processed the stars very well.

Cheers, Ian

Thanks Ian.

Alan