Heart - HOO + osc stars

[Adreneline]

In an attempt to get my stars under control this is the Heart nebula comprising 13 x 300s Ha and 11 x 300s OIII from an Atik428. Pre-processed in PI, stars were removed and the images stretched to non-linear. The resulting image was then combined with 13x120s, 13x180s and 13x300s from an Atik414osc taken on a different night. The osc data was pre-processed in DSS and then processed in PI with the emphasis on star colour, so using ArcsinhStretch. The HOO and osc images were then DynamicAligned in PI and combined in PS using a lighten layer followed by a small amount of noise reduction and histogram alignment.

Any comments on how things might be improved or alternative methods/approaches would be much appreciated.

Thanks for looking.

Adrian

 

[simmo39]

Nice image, sorry cant help with the tech stuff.

[john2y]

Great data but I think you should've done more sample stars all over the image in the dynamic alignment as some stars are not round meaning that the alignment wasn't perfect. Also for processing I would use NBRGB combination script. Then when everything combined I'd make couple of colour masks and played with curves to achieve wanted colours and then process just the stars from RGB and overlay them in PS. Also don't reduce the stars too much as it tends to make weird shapes in the image.

[Adreneline]

5 hours ago, john2y said:

Great data but I think you should've done more sample stars all over the image in the dynamic alignment as some stars are not round meaning that the alignment wasn't perfect.

Thanks for this recommendation. I only used about eight stars from around the image so I'll try using a few more in future; the osc was shot with a different camera and a different lens.

 

5 hours ago, john2y said:

Also for processing I would use NBRGB combination script.

A poor excuse but this script is impossible to use on my MacBook Pro because it is not possible to see the execute controls at the bottom of the script window when the top of the dialogue box is hard up against the top of the screen! The interface needs to be redesigned for different screen size.

 

5 hours ago, john2y said:

process just the stars from RGB

I was hoping I had introduced enough colour using the ArcsinhStretch in PI. The standalone osc star image has lots of colour albeit with one or two slightly bloated/red ringed stars. I did use deconvolution with PSF to improve the shape of the stars a little; the Atik428+135mm gives significant undersampling so star shape is a bit of an issue. I had hoped deconvolution might help a little but obviously not. This is the osc star field:

Many thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I'll have another crack at it!