First ever image no processing of M81

[Prolifics]

Just stacked 10 x 1 min of LRGB in deep sky stacker.  Still black and white though not sure why. Forgive me I am a complete beginner. No post processing yet
This was really a test to check out my setup and guiding etc.

 

Need to work out best exposure times and make some darks, flats and bias.

 

Using asi1600mm pro gain 76 offset 15 -20c.

 

Any advice would be a god send

Edited May 13, 2019 by Prolifics

[Adreneline]

Hi.

Just for clarification, (a) did you load all of the LRGB lights at the same time into DSS with a view to producing a single LRGB master? - or (b) did you produce individual L, R, G and B masters of the individual L, R, G and B light stacks?

I've not used DSS for quite some time but I was not aware it could do (a).

When I did use DSS I loaded the individual filter lights to produce separate L, R, G and B masters and then combined them in Photoshop, typically by layering/combining the RGB first and then adding the L as a Luminosity layer.

Adrian

Edited May 13, 2019 by Adreneline
Typo

[Prolifics]

7 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

Hi.

Just for clarification, (a) did you load all of the LRGB lights at the same time into DSS with a view to producing a single LRGB master? - or (b) did you produce individual L, R, G and B masters of the individual L, R, G and B light stacks?

I've not used DSS for quite some time but I was not aware it could do (a).

When I did use DSS I loaded the individual filter lights to produce separate L, R, G and B masters and then combined them in Photoshop, typically by layering/combining the RGB first and then adding the L as a Luminosity layer.

Adrian

This is just raw LRGB data no darks flats or bias. I just loaded them all into deepsky stacker and stacked them all.

[Adreneline]

Um? Well I'm not sure DSS will produce a colour image on that basis.

When I last used DSS I needed to load the L, R, G and B lights separately and produce separate L, R, G and B masters. I rather fear that if you put them all in together as a single set of lights then DSS will produce exactly what you have - a grey-scale image irrespective of whether you also include Flat, Dark and Bias images.

Adrian

[Adreneline]

As an aside you can load all your L, R, G and B lights into a package like AstroPixelProcessor (telling APP which lights represent which filters) and it will produce separate L, R, G and B masters. You can then use APP to combine those masters as an LRGB 'full colour'  image. You can try APP before you buy if you wish to give it a go. Otherwise you need to use Photoshop or GIMP or any of numerous other photo editing packages to combine the individual masters to produce the final colour image.

Worth having a go because your data looks very promising!

Good luck!

Adrian

Edited May 13, 2019 by Adreneline
Typo

[Prolifics]

5 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

As an aside you can load all your L, R, G and B lights into a package like AstroPixelProcessor (telling APP which lights represent which filters) and it will produce separate L, R, G and B masters. You can then use APP to combine those masters as an LRGB 'full colour'  image. You can try APP before you buy if you wish to give it a go. Otherwise you need to use Photoshop or GIMP or any of numerous other photo editing packages to combine the individual masters to produce the final colour image.

Worth having a go because your data looks very promising!

Good luck!

Adrian

Thank you for that. I am in the very beginning early days. You need the data to be able to produce something. I am gathering data and trying to improve on that so the data is good. I am only on my 4th night out so plenty of time to learn post processing. I have Lightroom and Photoshop. I won't be purchasing Pix Insight which is well outside my buying range as an amateur. I have watched a lot of post processing video's and many do things from many different angles. I suppose it's whatever works for you and whatever you are happy with. Next I am going to experiment in raising exposures to 3 minutes. Just wandering if I use 3 minute exposures for RGB should the Lum be less? or is 3 minutes ok?

[Adreneline]

11 minutes ago, Prolifics said:

I have Lightroom and Photoshop.

Well you can certainly use Photoshop to combine your r,g,b masters to make a colour image; you will need to align/register them but that is also achievable in PS.

As for filter exposure lengths I will let an lrgb imaging expert answer that question. I found this article very helpful for narrowband imaging with an ASI1600 - it also covers broadband imaging; the included tables might be helpful in determining exposure lengths.

HTH

Edited May 13, 2019 by Adreneline

[Prolifics]

18 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

Well you can certainly use Photoshop to combine your r,g,b masters to make a colour image; you will need to align/register them but that is also achievable in PS.

As for filter exposure lengths I will let an lrgb imaging expert answer that question. I found this article very helpful for narrowband imaging with an ASI1600 - it also covers broadband imaging; the included tables might be helpful in determining exposure lengths.

HTH

Thanks again for you quick replay and advice. I have used Deep sky stacker loaded in Lum pics x 10 and added bias and darks (no flats yet) and created a master tiff file. Done the same as we are speaking for RGB. Whats next on the menu?  So just to reiterate I have 4 master tiff files LRGB.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Prolifics

[Adreneline]

4 hours ago, Prolifics said:

Whats next on the menu?

Hi - sorry for the delay - been out making music!

You need to create an image file in PS so I suggest loading the Red master tif into PS which will create a grey scale image; you can then change the image mode to RGB which will then create a file that has the red, green and blue channels but all the channels will contain the red image - not helpful!. Load the green master and blue master files into PS and then copy and paste the green file to the green channel and the blue file to the blue channel and with luck you will have a colour image. The alignment may not be ideal but hopefully it will be adequate to provide you with a colour image.

The luminance file can also be opened in PS as a new file; cut and paste this as a layer onto your newly created RGB image, change the mode of this layer to Luminosity and play around with the opacity slider to achieve the desired result. Again it may not be perfectly aligned but it will give you an idea of what you have.

At this stage I have to say I have never aligned and registered images in PS but I am sure you can find info on the web to guide you through that process.

Hopefully all that makes some kind of sense. I'll look forward to seeing the glorious techni-colour result!

P.S. There is a wonderful set of Photoshop Actions you can buy called Annie's Astro Actions - they are great! - and will do this RGB and LRGB combine for you - and a whole bunch of useful other things. They are worth a look.

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by Adreneline

[Prolifics]

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

Hi - sorry for the delay - been out making music!

You need to create an image file in PS so I suggest loading the Red master tif into PS which will create a grey scale image; you can then change the image mode to RGB which will then create a file that has the red, green and blue channels but all the channels will contain the red image - not helpful!. Load the green master and blue master files into PS and then copy and paste the green file to the green channel and the blue file to the blue channel and with luck you will have a colour image. The alignment may not be ideal but hopefully it will be adequate to provide you with a colour image.

The luminance file can also be opened in PS as a new file; cut and paste this as a layer onto your newly created RGB image, change the mode of this layer to Luminosity and play around with the opacity slider to achieve the desired result. Again it may not be perfectly aligned but it will give you an idea of what you have.

At this stage I have to say I have never aligned and registered images in PS but I am sure you can find info on the web to guide you through that process.

Hopefully all that makes some kind of sense. I'll look forward to seeing the glorious techni-colour result!

P.S. There is a wonderful set of Photoshop Actions you can buy called Annie's Astro Actions - they are great! - and will do this RGB and LRGB combine for you - and a whole bunch of useful other things. They are worth a look.

 

Thanks for that. I play if a band too if thats what you do  I will try that tomorrow. I have clear skies here and telescope is already out. Going to test some longer exposure times and try to get my phd2 guiding down even more.

[Adreneline]

9 minutes ago, Prolifics said:

I have clear skies here and telescope is already out.

Mine should be too but after a night of music making I'm too banjaxed! I don't play anymore (I rarely get the chance), I conduct a fifty piece symphonic concert band.

Good luck with the guiding and longer exposures.

 

[Prolifics]

13 hours ago, Prolifics said:

Thanks for that. I play if a band too if thats what you do  I will try that tomorrow. I have clear skies here and telescope is already out. Going to test some longer exposure times and try to get my phd2 guiding down even more.

I easily manged 5 minute expsures last night but decided to collect 3 minute data. Had a problem with snagging on the leg adjusted on the tripod of the EQ6 pro. Got my Guiding to 00.68 averaged over 2 hours. That should be good enough without further fine tuning. I bought Annies Plugin but you have to first convert your stacked images to 16 bit before you load them or all her scripts pop up with errors. Not sure what order you need to do these scripts in as I cant find a video on LRGB using her actions. There is one on youtube but its for HA and O3 staring with colour image. 

 

Another clear sky tonight. I guess I will grab some more data on M81 Clear Skies.