My first RGB image - M42 HaRGB

[SyedT]

After chasing it for what seems like an eternity and encountering more problems than I care to count, I finally managed to get a decent (at least that's what I think!) image of M42. This is my first RGB image, and I've enhanced it with Ha. The stars aren't as good as they should be, but I'll take it for now! I’m hoping to add to it further with more RGB. Any advice, especially on star halo reduction, would be much appreciated!  

Details:

William Optics GT81 with 0.8x FF/FR 
ZWO ASI 1600MM-C
Baader Ha 7nm + RGB
Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro & Avalon Linear Fast Reverse

Ha: 68x180" + 65x120" + 32*90" (Total 382 mins)
R: 93x60” (Total 93 mins)
G: 68x30” + 37x60” (Total 71 mins)
B: 48x60” (Total 48 mins)

Calibration, integration & LP removal in AstroPixelProcessor
Post-processed in Pixinsight

[Allinthehead]

Nicely done Syed.

[tooth_dr]

Perfectly done. A great example of M42

[Knighty2112]

I like it. A lot! Well done!  

[Nathan UK]

Very nice mate

[MarsG76]

very nice

 

[peter shah]

wish my first RGB image was that good.....superb job

[SyedT]

Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement everyone, much appreciated. I've always been put off by RGB imaging mainly because of LP issues, but I guess now that's all in the past!

[Barry-Wilson]

Very good first HaRGB image - I would be delighted!

I know you mentioned about star halos on the bright blue giants - this is a very dusty and nebulous area and it is quite a natural optical phenomena to have some halos on these super bright stars.  I realise it is subjective, but I feel that add charm and are more natural.

For some pointers - there is a small amount of green lurking in the dust - experiment with PI's SCNR set to green.  It may also help your background where it peaks through as it slightly blue-ish, as might adjusting the HT per channel.  I'd also see what a gentle contrast curve could do as well.

Syed - my comments above are improvements for your processing development and are not criticisms for you have a really good image, especially more so as it's your first HaRGB.  Well done .

 

[carastro]

Excellent work, even more so for your first RGB image.

Carole 

[SyedT]

1 hour ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Very good first HaRGB image - I would be delighted!

I know you mentioned about star halos on the bright blue giants - this is a very dusty and nebulous area and it is quite a natural optical phenomena to have some halos on these super bright stars.  I realise it is subjective, but I feel that add charm and are more natural.

For some pointers - there is a small amount of green lurking in the dust - experiment with PI's SCNR set to green.  It may also help your background where it peaks through as it slightly blue-ish, as might adjusting the HT per channel.  I'd also see what a gentle contrast curve could do as well.

Syed - my comments above are improvements for your processing development and are not criticisms for you have a really good image, especially more so as it's your first HaRGB.  Well done .

 

Thank you Barry. These are exactly the type of comments I'm looking for, as I'm very new to RGB processing. I did feel that the halos add a certain natural tone to the image, but wasn't sure how much is appropriate; I guess it's mostly subjective.

I've already run SCNR once, so I'll try the per-channel HT and Curves adjustment. I was actually playing around with it yesterday, and I noted that toning down the blue channel did lower that blue-ish tint that you mentioned. I'll have a go at some re-processing tonight. Would you say the dust should have a more brownish tint? Or something completely different?

36 minutes ago, carastro said:

Excellent work, even more so for your first RGB image.

Carole 

Thank you Carole! Hope to keep improving.  

[Guest]

Wow! Excellent results

David