Andromeda

[Kinch]

Yes - I know there are some negative points that can be raised about this image - but for once....I am thinking positive 😃

 

This was from a bad night at the end of 2017 and I did not think I could make an image with the data I took home. My goal was a colour image, which I did, but recently realised that putting the data into solely mono form....well... it just worked better.

I hope you can look at it.....and see the 'positives'.......

[Jarvo]

Spot on that mate. You obviously haven’t seen my sub par effort earlier in the week. 

Jarvo

[don4l]

Ok... I give up!

 

What are the negatives?

 

[Kinch]

The big one for me - and I hate to say it....because your eye will be drawn to it - M32 should not be so bright in comparison to the center of M31. To try bring detail as far in as I could in M31, the 'HDR Multiscale Transform' tool was used in PixInsight which reduces the galaxy core brightness......but I feel that the galaxy core should still be brighter than its small neighbour. This hits me everytime I look at it - but I don't know how to dim M32 on its own (....and perhaps M110 some also).

[tomato]

Well, now you have pointed it out, I do see what you are getting at, but really, it is a very good mono image of the Andromeda Galaxy indeed.  I particularly like the detail you have captured in the dust lanes.👍

[Allinthehead]

There's some great detail in that Brendan. I see what you mean about M32. Very easy to dim it in PS or Gimp. Just paste this image over a less stretched version and use the eraser tool over the area you want to dim.

[Kinch]

Thanks Richard - I may get to try that later today. I do have Photoshop.....but rarely even open the program as I never got to grips with it. (I have used PixInsight right from the start). Now looks that I would do well to learn a bit more than just playing with the curves/colours in PS 🤔.

 

Thanks for the tip - much appreciated.

[Allinthehead]

42 minutes ago, Kinch said:

Thanks Richard - I may get to try that later today. I do have Photoshop.....but rarely even open the program as I never got to grips with it. (I have used PixInsight right from the start). Now looks that I would do well to learn a bit more than just playing with the curves/colours in PS 🤔.

 

Thanks for the tip - much appreciated.

Definitely worth the time learning new tricks. I use APP, PI and PS for processing. I'm master of none but using all three gives me the best tools to do what i need to do. 

Using PS layers gives you great control if you want to add the best bits from multiple revisions. I'm sure this can also be done in PI but as far as i know it's a much more clumsy process. If you like i can post up a step by step guide on blending two versions of the same image in PS.

[Kinch]

Thanks for that offer - I am sure there are more than me here that would benefit and enjoy learning some new processing steps. Whenever you have the time..........👍

[dave_galera]

Hi Brenden,

Have a look at this, it works very well

Edited September 14, 2019 by dave_galera

[Kinch]

Sorry Dave.....was there supposed to be a link with that post?

[dave_galera]

Sry yes:

https://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/stepbystep/

And I have template PS files with the layers all setup if you want a copy of them

Edited September 14, 2019 by dave_galera

[Kinch]

I will look closer at this, this evening. I think what I have to do with the Andromeda image should not be too hard....I guess I will only be working with two layers (two images). I am not 100% about that - but will know better after I try my hand at actually doing something - hands on - in Photoshop.

Thanks for the link....I have a bit of reading to do 🙂

[Allinthehead]

First open the two versions of the image in PS

-Lets call your image above version 1 and your future less stretched image version 2

-What you want to do is copy version 1 and paste it over version 2. Ctrl A selects the image, Ctrl C copies the image, Ctrl V pastes the image

-Once this is done if all you need is a simple blend of two images you can use the opacity slider on the bottom right to select what percentage of the images you want to blend together

-In your case you only want to blend a specific area so you can ignore the last point

-Now you select the eraser tool on the left and you'll notice settings for the tool appear where the 3 arrows are top left (this may differ depending on your version)

-You can adjust the opacity, flow rate and size of area you erase (i usually use a 10% opacity and use it multiple times until the result is good as i find higher percentages can make too drastic a change).

 

That all made sense to me so i hope it does to you.

[Kinch]

Thanks Richard. Later tonight (no chance of doing any imaging ☹️) I will have a closer look at what both Dave & you have sent. Looking forward to trying to improve this image because M32 really bugs me every time I look at it!

[Kinch]

There is a very subtle difference here - just a first run using the Paste then Eraser tools (but I did go back to PixInsight to tweak things....could not help it  🤣).

 

At least, now I have a method and my thanks to Dave and Richard for responding.

[don4l]

On 12/09/2019 at 23:08, Kinch said:

The big one for me - and I hate to say it....because your eye will be drawn to it - M32 should not be so bright in comparison to the center of M31. To try bring detail as far in as I could in M31, the 'HDR Multiscale Transform' tool was used in PixInsight which reduces the galaxy core brightness......but I feel that the galaxy core should still be brighter than its small neighbour. This hits me everytime I look at it - but I don't know how to dim M32 on its own (....and perhaps M110 some also).

I would never have noticed it if you hadn't pointed it out.

[Kinch]

I was SO sorry you asked ....  🙄

But NOW....I am glad....because I have learned something new tonight  👍   😃

[Allinthehead]

Looks great. Glad it worked out.

[Rodd]

I think it looks good.  Can't wait to see the other filters

Rodd

[Kinch]

No more photography until November  - so there will no improvement on what has already been done I am afraid.