M81 & M82 Re-Reprocess! 80ED & D5300

[Xiga]

Hey guys

So with no new data at hand (or on the horizon it would seem) i decided to go back and re-process my short stack of M81 & M82, being the glutton for punishment that i am! The last time i re-processed this was about a year ago, so i was curious to see if i could get any more out of it. 

It's hideously low on data (nothing new there!), this is just 9 x 600s of colour (with an IDAS-D1) together with 7 x 1200s of Ha (which i only used to Lighten the Reds in the Ha jets of M82 and the small spiral regions of M81). AstroPixelProcessor used for stacking and gradient reduction, and PS for everything else. 

I mistakenly shot the colour at ISO 800, instead of the usual 200 i always use. A mistake i imagine every DSLR user has made before! And i have to say i really noticed it during processing. There was noticeably less colour in the stars. 

That being said, i was still able to bring out more colour in the core of M81 this time. And i think M82 looks a bit better as well, it was definitely over-sharpened before. 

I really love these targets, but they just make me wish i had more reach! 

CS!

Here is the original thread:

 

And here's the new one, including a cropped version:

[souls33k3r]

Mate your work is truly amazing. Really love what you were able to do with the data you had. Top work mate. 

[tooth_dr]

A skilful hand Ciaran. Very very nice. 

[kirkster501]

I really like this.  M81 my favourite object and your rendition is wonderful.  I am working on this too and have a ton of data to process.  If I can come anywhere near your standard I will be well pleased.

[paul mc c]

Cracking image.......could you tell me what did you use for processing.

[Xiga]

2 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Mate your work is truly amazing. Really love what you were able to do with the data you had. Top work mate. 

Thanks mate. The small amount of data went further than I thought it could tbh. 

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

A skilful hand Ciaran. Very very nice. 

Thanks Adam! ?

1 hour ago, kirkster501 said:

I really like this.  M81 my favourite object and your rendition is wonderful.  I am working on this too and have a ton of data to process.  If I can come anywhere near your standard I will be well pleased.

Cheers Kirk! I also love these targets so I look forward to seeing your version 

[Xiga]

1 hour ago, paul mc c said:

Cracking image.......could you tell me what did you use for processing.

Thanks Paul! I've amended the OP now, but I used AstroPixelProcessor for stacking and gradient reduction, and PS for everything else. 

I started out doing Narrowband, then only later did I start to do a few true colour images, so natural colour processing is something I've had to gradually get better at over time. I now know that until APP adds colour-preserving stretching (due soon I believe) then it's not sufficient to simply start from a DDP stretched image. Most of the colour has been washed out by that stage. So what i do at the moment is work on 2 separate stacks. One, I stretch manually in PS using sharkmelley's excellent arcsinh colour stretching method. I use this one for colour only. I can then add in a DDP stretched image (or my own stretched one) for Luminosity. This gives the best of both worlds, but the key is to get the background to roughly the same level beforehand.