NGC 6960 (Witch's Broom) and Pickering's Triangle - Ha OIII Bi-Colour

[Xiga]

Hi guys

We had a few hours of clear skies here on Saturday night, so I set about getting some O-III for the Western Veil, after I had collected the Ha last month. Thankfully, the moon wasn't around, so even though I didn't get that many subs (only 10) at least they were of good quality.

I actually fell asleep during the capture, and woke up to a 'Sequence Aborted' message in SGP and the sight of PHD2 going mad due to thick clouds. Quickly ran outside and thankfully there was no rain about (phew!). I got 11 subs in total, but the last one was totally unusable due to the clouds. The 10th one was affected too, but still looked useable to me, given that I know from experience that APP's 'Quality' stacking mode would know to give it less of a weighting, so I kept it.

So this is 15 * 1200s of Ha and 10 * 1200s of OIII (8 Hrs 20 mins in total).

Taken with the usual gear: Nikon D5300 (modded); HEQ5-Pro and a SW 80ED.

Calibrated with Flats, Bias, and a Bad Pixel Map. APP used for stacking and gradient reduction. Everything else done in PS (including running Carboni's 'Synthesize Green Channel' action).

After now having processed both the Eastern & Western Veils, I have to say I have found them to be among the hardest targets to process that I've done so far (although it's still early days for me yet, think I'm still under 15 DSO's and counting). I'm not sure if it's down to the sheer number of stars, or the very faint nebulosity that seems to be everywhere, but I've found the background to be especially difficult on these ones. Getting the Ha and OIII nicely balanced before combining probably has something to do with it. I also tend to do gradient reduction (which seems to affect the OIII a lot more than Ha) on the individual stacks before I combine them, so I wonder if I'd be better just leaving it to later in the process? (which I had to do again anyway, as there was still a noticeable red gradient visible later in the workflow).

Something to note, I did go quite heavy on the star reduction. More so than I normally would. I found it wasn't until I upped it significantly, that the nebulosity really started to take centre stage. I like the impact it has made to the image overall, but it made me feel a little dirty at the same time, lol (if that makes any sense).

Also, this isn't actually the finished version just yet. I have a bit more work to do on the background and stars (which need their colour toned down in places - probably shouldn't have ran Carboni's 'Increase Star Colour', in hindsight I don't think it needed it). I was literally falling asleep at the monitor last night while attempting to finish it off, and in the end had to admit defeat. So hopefully I can get around to it later tonight.

Then the next thing will be the big mosaic of both Eastern & Western Veils. I'm both looking forward to, and dreading it, in equal measures ?

As always C&C warmly welcomed!

 

[souls33k3r]

An absolute gem there mate. Really loving your processing.

You mentioned you're below 15 DSO and calling it early days? Well you've nailed it every time mate. I'm hoping to learn from your processing techniques

[michaelmorris]

Lovely processing ?

[Maxrayne]

Just.....wow  

[Xiga]

9 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

An absolute gem there mate. Really loving your processing.

You mentioned you're below 15 DSO and calling it early days? Well you've nailed it every time mate. I'm hoping to learn from your processing techniques

Thanks Ahmed.

Yeah I don't have that many images yet. I've been into AP seriously for about 2 years, but in the 1st year I think I only managed no more than a few, as I didn't have a decent location to shoot from. Then last Autumn I got the camera modded, and at the same time realised that I could just travel to my parents house to image, which actually has decent Mag 20.5 skies (how did I never notice that before?!). Since then it's been a revelation, so most of my images have been in the last year.

[Xiga]

14 minutes ago, michaelmorris said:

Lovely processing ?

Thanks Michael

12 minutes ago, Maxrayne said:

Just.....wow  

Cheers Max

[JohnSadlerAstro]

I'm not normally a fan of the Veil Nebula, its not particularly photogenic imo, but this shot is really, really, beautiful. ? I'm amazed you are doing 20 min subs with a DSLR! ? What ISO?

Keep the pictures coming!  

John

[Galen Gilmore]

That is a one heck of a shot! Really amazing!

Have you considered entering this photo into the SGL competition?

[swag72]

Love the colours and detail..... super image ????

[souls33k3r]

1 hour ago, Xiga said:

Thanks Ahmed.

Yeah I don't have that many images yet. I've been into AP seriously for about 2 years, but in the 1st year I think I only managed no more than a few, as I didn't have a decent location to shoot from. Then last Autumn I got the camera modded, and at the same time realised that I could just travel to my parents house to image, which actually has decent Mag 20.5 skies (how did I never notice that before?!). Since then it's been a revelation, so most of my images have been in the last year.

Better late than never mate. You seriously are producing some quality results

[Guest]

Lovely 

[MarsG76]

Very nice image... well done.

[Xiga]

3 hours ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

I'm not normally a fan of the Veil Nebula, its not particularly photogenic imo, but this shot is really, really, beautiful. ? I'm amazed you are doing 20 min subs with a DSLR! ? What ISO?

Keep the pictures coming!  

John

Thanks for your kind words John. 

I only ever use ISO 200 with the D5300. Low read noise and high DR is a nice combo to have ?

[Xiga]

3 hours ago, Galen Gilmore said:

That is a one heck of a shot! Really amazing!

Have you considered entering this photo into the SGL competition?

Thanks Kerbal ?

Didn't realise there was a competition. I doubt my humble efforts would be able to scratch the sides, but maybe when I finish it I'll look into submitting it. Cheers! 

[Xiga]

3 hours ago, swag72 said:

Love the colours and detail..... super image ????

Thank you Sara. 

Ps - you're version of Pickering's triangle still makes my jaw drop 

[Xiga]

2 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Better late than never mate. You seriously are producing some quality results

 

2 hours ago, artem said:

Lovely 

 

2 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Very nice image... well done.

Thanks all ?

[peter shah]

 very nice image....I love the way Pickering Triangle almost links up with the Broomstick...... nice and deep

[steppenwolf]

That's lovely with some great detail!

[Xiga]

5 hours ago, peter shah said:

 very nice image....I love the way Pickering Triangle almost links up with the Broomstick...... nice and deep

 

5 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

That's lovely with some great detail!

Thanks Peter and Steve! 

ps - I'm wondering now if i've over-stretched things. Might try and tone it down a bit in the next version if i can't tame the background. 

[tooth_dr]

Fantastically good Ciaran. Top drawer stuff, regardless of camera, there aren’t many folk who can produce top class images like this. Consistently I might add. 

[Xiga]

Latest version below.

It's late, so i'll write up the changes that i made tomorrow.

 

[Xiga]

On 10/10/2018 at 00:15, tooth_dr said:

Fantastically good Ciaran. Top drawer stuff, regardless of camera, there aren’t many folk who can produce top class images like this. Consistently I might add. 

Thanks Adam ?

[tooth_dr]

4 minutes ago, Xiga said:

Thanks Adam ?

You are welcome ????

[Xiga]

On 10/10/2018 at 04:30, Xiga said:

Latest version below.

It's late, so i'll write up the changes that i made tomorrow.

 

The changes i made were:

1. De-saturated the red stars. They aren't RGB anyway so it's of no importance really. And they were definitely fooling the eye (well, mine at least ? ) into thinking it was seeing gradients

2. Cleaned up the background a tad. Some sections were showing lighter and darker regions, and i'm pretty sure it was just down to my workflow and not getting an even balance of Ha and OIII. Or maybe i messed up with the gradient reduction (which i did run a few times!). The way i did it, was to use a Curves adjustment in a new layer, which had the default line anchored in many places so as to keep it as unchanged as possible, then i just lifted the very darkest part up a few notches. I then changed the blend mode to Lighten. The effect was obviously too much, as it made the background much too flat and grey, so i used a Levels adjustment to raise the black point gently to lessen the impact. FInally, i then added a small amount of noise (about 2%) so as to not make the slightly brightened areas not look 'too' smooth. I've attached crops below which show the before and after effect in case anyone finds it useful.

3. The final two adjustments were simply adding a bit of Vibrance and then lowering the black point just a smidge. 

Question - How do you guys think the noise looks? i.e Have i used just the right amount of NR, or do you think it needs a bit more? I'm in two minds...

 

[Xiga]

Decided that it did in fact need some NR. Apart from the sky background, i hadn't actually applied much, if any really, to the higher-signal areas and i think it's definitely helped. Sometimes you just need to step away from an image and revisit it a few times over the course of a few days in order to see it properly. 

I also changed the colour balance slightly too (again), as in hindsight i was finding the Ha regions a bit too gharish. 

Right. I promise to leave this one alone now!