M31 HaLRGB

[carastro]

Thanks for going to all that effort Rodd, you are right I don't use Pixinsight and it was all gobbledegook to me.  However I have copied and posted your instructions into a folder on the off chance that i do give in and attempt Pixinsight in the future, which is also all gobbledegook to me.

Going to download your files and attempt to process them in Photoshop.

Carole 

[RichLD]

That's lovely Rodd, you certainly continue to deliver! Great stuff ?

[Rodd]

12 minutes ago, RichLD said:

That's lovely Rodd, you certainly continue to deliver! Great stuff ?

Thanks Rich

Rodd

[Rodd]

17 minutes ago, carastro said:

Thanks for going to all that effort Rodd, you are right I don't use Pixinsight and it was all gobbledegook to me.  However I have copied and posted your instructions into a folder on the off chance that i do give in and attempt Pixinsight in the future, which is also all gobbledegook to me.

Going to download your files and attempt to process them in Photoshop.

Carole 

? ---Good luck Carol.  Looking forward to seeing your efforts.

Rodd

[carastro]

Quote

Looking forward to seeing your efforts.

All the stacks seem to be over exposed in the core, maybe you can do something magic in Pixinsight like scaling I think it is called (saw Nik Szymanek demonstrate it at the weekend.   Not sure if this can be done in PS.

Carole 

[Rodd]

16 minutes ago, carastro said:

All the stacks seem to be over exposed in the core, maybe you can do something magic in Pixinsight like scaling I think it is called (saw Nik Szymanek demonstrate it at the weekend.   Not sure if this can be done in PS.

Carole 

Need to do a HDR composition--but that is a lot more work.  Just don't stretch them so much--The core shouldn't look overexposed upon RGB integration--at least with PIs STF auto stretch, it looks OK.  But I manually stretch and for this data yes, you have to be careful.  Attached is the initial RGB combine stretched using PIs STF tool.  The core is not blown out--still has slight color.

Rodd  EDIT--I like this better than my processed image.

[gorann]

Very generous of you Rodd to post the data for us under the clouds! I have downloaded them and will have a go over the next days using PS.

[Rodd]

5 minutes ago, gorann said:

Very generous of you Rodd to post the data for us under the clouds! I have downloaded them and will have a go over the next days using PS.

Comme on Goran...I expected you to whip something up between posts!  very much looking forward to seeing your take on things.

Rodd

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

Filled up my hard drive with the registration subs and calibration subs.  I really need to replace my external drive.

You may not be aware, but PI allows you to overwrite files during calibration and registration. I always keep the original, raw fits, but overwrite and purge all intermediate files. Otherwise you'd consume hard disk space at light speed.

[souls33k3r]

1 minute ago, wimvb said:

You may not be aware, but PI allows you to overwrite files during calibration and registration. I always keep the original, raw fits, but overwrite and purge all intermediate files. Otherwise you'd consume hard disk space at light speed.

That's a very handy time. 

Cheers Wim

[gorann]

Rodd, I sincerely hope that you now have invested in an extra hard drive for backup! I have all my data (including all subs) duplicated on two external drives.

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

All of my processing steps resulted in incremental degradation from an initial state of clarity.  I really need to learn how to process the darned data!

You've managed to reveal a lot of the faint outer regions of the main galaxy, as well as the bridge between M31 and NGC 205. Well done!!

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, RolandKol said:

WOW!
I been waiting for your stacks, to experiment with HaRGB  as I never done it before
but reading this, -  just completely confused me
It sound more like a wizardry and witchcraft!  but it produces a VERY nice result!

I will need to learn this "abracadabra" before I buy my LRGB filters!
Thanks for stacks!

 

 

1 hour ago, Rodd said:

How else to keep the Gremlins at bay? Seriously, it can be a bit overwhelming, and I always have to look at the cheat sheet to get the formula right.  In fact, I lost the cheat sheet recently and hope I got them right here!.  Fortunately,  There is a tutorial online.  Good luck!

Rodd

I believe that Kayron Mercieca has a tutorial about this. So has Vicent Peris.

Kayron's can be found at Lightvortexastronomy.

[Rodd]

32 minutes ago, wimvb said:

You may not be aware, but PI allows you to overwrite files during calibration and registration. I always keep the original, raw fits, but overwrite and purge all intermediate files. Otherwise you'd consume hard disk space at light speed.

I did not know this--though I don't see much of a difference between over-writing and deleting.  As it is, I keep all my calibrated subs (after verifying that calibration was successful), and I delete the original raw subs.  I then delete the registered subs after integration.  It became necessary to do this when dealing with 500+ subs--especially if you use SFS to generate another list of usable subs.  And drizzle?  Fuget about it

Rodd

[Rodd]

33 minutes ago, gorann said:

Rodd, I sincerely hope that you now have invested in an extra hard drive for backup! I have all my data (including all subs) duplicated on two external drives.

Not yet.  Soon though.

Rodd

[Rodd]

32 minutes ago, wimvb said:

You've managed to reveal a lot of the faint outer regions of the main galaxy, as well as the bridge between M31 and NGC 205. Well done!!

Thanks, Wim....Its not that I hate it.  But the unprocessed RGB combine looks so real if a bit pale.   I can't help but feel that I am getting better at rendering higher-quality cartoons--but cartoons none the less.

Rodd

[Rodd]

33 minutes ago, wimvb said:

So has Vicent Peris.

I went to a week long PI training seminar taught by Vicent Peris--so I probably follow his method.  We did go over it in the seminar and that's where I got the cheat sheet.

Rodd

[wornish]

Thank you Rodd for sharing your data.

 

Here is my feeble attempt at processing it in PI.

 

 

[Rodd]

5 minutes ago, wornish said:

Here is my feeble attempt at processing it in PI.

No so feeble at all!  Notch down the red and you have a winner!  (Not the Ha regions--they are ok--its the galaxy itself.  I was told it tends to the blue as opposed to red.  But it looks good

Rodd

[Laurin Dave]

Hi Rodd, many thanks for uploading the files.. Amazing quality.  Just had a very quick look and to me it looks like your DBE may have removed some of the outer galaxy..  Maybe put the un DBE'd files up, I think there's more in there. 

 

Dave

[Rodd]

7 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

Hi Rodd, many thanks for uploading the files.. Amazing quality.  Just had a very quick look and to me it looks like your DBE may have removed some of the outer galaxy..  Maybe put the un DBE'd files up, I think there's more in there. 

 

Dave

I don't know--the RGB combine looks pretty complete.  I don't have access to those files at present.  If you, and others, still feel that the DBE caused issues after you have a more complete look, suggest it again and when I get home I will up load them

Rodd

[wimvb]

Excellent data, Rodd. I have no problems with the DBE'd files. Your image also shows a lot of the faint halo around M31. In L the core is a bit burnt out, so I made a synthetic L by averaging R, G and B. Then used HDR composition on the linear L images. I've never tried this before, so fingers crossed. There is also a very faint stacking edge that I cropped. Atm I'm doing deconvolution, which has to be done very carfully in order not to get divergence. But the L data now shows structure right down to the core, which I've never seen in an image before. ?????

[Rodd]

12 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Excellent data, Rodd. I have no problems with the DBE'd files. Your image also shows a lot of the faint halo around M31. In L the core is a bit burnt out, so I made a synthetic L by averaging R, G and B. Then used HDR composition on the linear L images. I've never tried this before, so fingers crossed. There is also a very faint stacking edge that I cropped. Atm I'm doing deconvolution, which has to be done very carfully in order not to get divergence. But the L data now shows structure right down to the core, which I've never seen in an image before. ?????

Well the need to crop is bad--I missed that and that probably affected the DBE a bit.  I forgot about deconvolution in linear state!!!!  Man--now I have to go back and try that.  thanks for reminding me.  I guess 60 sec

Roddjust a tad too long.  I just can seem to escape the massive black hole in the center of this galaxy.

[wimvb]

Version 1

A lot of careful processing, but I ended up experimenting. This would be a LHaRGB, I guess.

There will be a version 2 with better care taken to get rid of the blue halos around medium sized stars. Now they're just desaturated.

(click for full size version)

[Rodd]

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

A lot of careful processing, but I ended up experimenting. This would be a LHaRGB, I guess.

There will be a version 2 with better care taken to get rid of the blue halos around medium sized stars. Now they're just desaturated.

I tried HDR compression on the Lum and RGB images as the tutorial suggests--but I did not like the way it compressed the core down to a point--which I see you employed.  Looks good.  maybe I should have taken it to the end that way--I see what you mean about structure to the core. But I bailed.  I like your background and stars--but the disc is a bit yellow.  I am in the middle of a reprocess.  I used deconvoluition in linear state and man--what a difference,  I like this data.  When zooming in on the LUM stack during deconvolution, or later on the RGB during Ha insertion, the details are pretty cool--faint and washed out when viewing at normal size--but clear as a bell when zoomed--a real sense of depth and spatial relationships.  The stars look really nice before processing as opposed to after (at least for mine).  I will post sometime tomorrow--but I am not going to rush it.

Rodd