Atik 16200 first light - Heart Nebula

[Skipper Billy]

First image this season due to lousy weather!

First light for new camera - Atik 16200

The Heart Nebula - imaged over 19th and 20th Sept. in Ha, Sii and Oiii - 10 x 900 second subs of each. Takahashi 106 - Atik 16200 - EFW3 with Baader 2" filters, guided with SW ED72 and ZWO290 mono mounted on a Mesu 200. Sequenced with SGP, guided with PHD2, processed with darks, bias and flats in Pixinsight. Post processed in the SHO (Hubble) style and HOS. Jpegs attached - full definition images here - https://www.flickr.com/…/72157675109735132/with/48770836883/

Constructive criticism welcomed - I DO listen !!!

 

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Skipper Billy

[tomato]

Fabulous images, I can’t offer much in the way of constructive criticism, you clearly have your impressive rig working very well indeed. 

If I may make one observation, I note there are blue halos around some of the bright stars in the first image, which interestingly don’t all appear concentric with the stars? However, I’m afraid my processing skills fall far short of offering any pointers on this.

 

[Skipper Billy]

1 hour ago, tomato said:

I note there are blue halos around some of the bright stars in the first image, which interestingly don’t all appear concentric with the stars? However, I’m afraid my processing skills fall far short of offering any pointers on this.

Yes there are - but not in the Hubble image. I dont know how to get rid of them or what causes them - I wish I did - very ugly!!

[Laurin Dave]

Very impressive images and a lovely field of view. The halos are I suspect reflections off the Oiii filter (and maybe also the Sii as there are magenta halos around the stars in the SHO version... Astrodons or Chromas I'm afraid £££)..  I don't know how to deal with the blue ones in processing (I'm sure there is one) but  in the SHO version in Pixinsight do this ... invert the image (in the menu .. Image Invert) , run scnr green (adjust to taste) then re-invert and they're gone or at least diminished

HTH 

Dave

[Star101]

Very nice Billy. Lovely camera you have.

[Skipper Billy]

9 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

I don't know how to deal with the blue ones in processing (I'm sure there is one) but  in the SHO version in Pixinsight do this ... invert the image (in the menu .. Image Invert) , run scnr green (adjust to taste) then re-invert and they're gone or at least diminished

Great tip - thanks - I will try that this evening.

[Craney]

There is a macro in the Astronomy Tools  Plug-in  for PS  that is entitled    "Reduce Large Violet /Blue  Haloes"    .....

Not sure if this is for an artifact of RGB imaging specifically or whether it is  applicable across all astro images...... might be worth a go ?

[Ikonnikov]

Great first light with your new camera, agree that the OIII filter is very likely the cause of the halos. I wonder if you might be able to get even better signal to noise using longer sub exposures since the KAF16200 sensor has quite high read-noise; certainly I find that 30 mins per sub helps with the Moravian G3 camera and 3nm filters even on an Epsilon at F3.3 (although I've not gone beyond this so far for reasons of pixel rejection, imaging time wasted by spoiled subs etc).

Paul

[kirkster501]

Stunning mate!  Amazing detail you've captured in there and the colours are fantastic.  My favourite is the top one with its red.

Edited September 22, 2019 by kirkster501

[sloz1664]

Very impressive images David. I can see you are going to love that new Atik

Steve

[Skipper Billy]

8 hours ago, Craney said:

There is a macro in the Astronomy Tools  Plug-in  for PS  that is entitled    "Reduce Large Violet /Blue  Haloes"    .....

Not sure if this is for an artifact of RGB imaging specifically or whether it is  applicable across all astro images...... might be worth a go ?

Thanks - I will try that. Cheers.

[Skipper Billy]

1 hour ago, Ikonnikov said:

I wonder if you might be able to get even better signal to noise using longer sub exposures since the KAF16200 sensor has quite high read-noise; certainly I find that 30 mins per sub helps with the Moravian G3 camera

Thanks - I am still learning this cameras foibles - its quite different to my Atik 460!!

I will try 30 mins next time and see how it goes.

Cheers.

[Hallingskies]

Those haloes must be frustrating for you.  Everything else about the images are superb.  

I note you that you are using Baader filters, which I have never had any bother with - except when I initially fitted my old manual filter wheel back to front!  Then I got off-set haloes on bright stars, just like yours.  Put it on the right way and voila, haloes gone.  Just wondered if you are using unmounted filters with that huge camera of yours. 

Apologies if I am insulting your considerable intelligence...🤪

[Astrobug]

Nice done and what a big chip you use.

Did you combine the 3 channels or use Halpha as a lum layer and Ha+Oiii+Sii for the color combination?

[Skipper Billy]

2 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

I note you that you are using Baader filters, which I have never had any bother with - except when I initially fitted my old manual filter wheel back to front!  Then I got off-set haloes on bright stars, just like yours.  Put it on the right way and voila, haloes gone.  Just wondered if you are using unmounted filters with that huge camera of yours. 

Apologies if I am insulting your considerable intelligence...

Thanks for the suggestion but the filter wheel is definitely the right way round and the 2" filters are mounted and will only go in one way.

It is annoying and disappointing though!!

[Skipper Billy]

1 hour ago, Astrobug said:

Did you combine the 3 channels or use Halpha as a lum layer and Ha+Oiii+Sii for the color combination?

Straight combination of the 3 channels

[Skipper Billy]

2 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

Apologies if I am insulting your considerable intelligence...🤪

Not at all !!!!!!    

[Kaliska]

You may already have found this, but I use this (Process Icon) to reduce the magenta stars in PixInsight and have been very happy with the results.

https://visibledark.ca/remove-magenta-stars-from-narrowband-image-with-pixelmath/

 

[steppenwolf]

These are very nice images indeed with the second one appealing to me the most. This is a really excellent start with the new camera.

The halos are most likely from the OIII filter with the offset being produced from an incompletely corrected field.

The halos take a different emphasis in the second image but are easy to reduce (but not remove  entirely )using the Noise Filter - Remove Colour Noise filter in PS on a duplicate layer, turning the new layer into a hidden layer mask and then white brushing the affected stars:-

[Skipper Billy]

1 hour ago, Kaliska said:

You may already have found this, but I use this (Process Icon) to reduce the magenta stars in PixInsight and have been very happy with the results.

Many thanks - I will try that.  Thanks for the heads up.

[Skipper Billy]

38 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

easy to reduce (but not remove  entirely )using the Noise Filter - Remove Colour Noise filter in PS on a duplicate layer, turning the new layer into a hidden layer mask and then white brushing the affected stars:-

Thanks I will try that too - thanks for the info. i have just seen the price of a 2" Astrodon mounted OIII filter so a software solution is very much required !!

[Skipper Billy]

2 hours ago, Skipper Billy said:

You may already have found this, but I use this (Process Icon) to reduce the magenta stars in PixInsight and have been very happy with the results.

I am sure its me being thick but I cant work out how to import the process icon you so kindly sent me ???

 

[Kaliska]

3 hours ago, Skipper Billy said:

I am sure its me being thick but I cant work out how to import the process icon you so kindly sent me ???

 

Ok, so download the file, unzip it in you PI directory (don't think it matters where tbh, as long as you remember where it is). Open PI and click on the Processes tab (at the top) and at the bottom there is a "load process" option. Click on that and it will pull up the explorer window, just navigate your way to the PI folder in windows (usually c:\Program Files\PixInsight or where you unzipped it) and the process icon should be in there. Once you activate it, you then need to look in you 2nd workspace as it's in there. Just drag and drop it into the workspace where you are working.

Please note that this is from memory as I'm at my desk at work, but I will check tonight if you can't get it going.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Kaliska

[Kaliska]

This is where i first saw the process being used.

 

 

 

[Skipper Billy]

3 hours ago, Kaliska said:

Ok, so download the file, unzip it in you PI directory (don't think it matters where tbh, as long as you remember where it is). Open PI and click on the Processes tab (at the top) and at the bottom there is a "load process" option. Click on that and it will pull up the explorer window, just navigate your way to the PI folder in windows (usually c:\Program Files\PixInsight or where you unzipped it) and the process icon should be in there. Once you activate it, you then need to look in you 2nd workspace as it's in there. Just drag and drop it into the workspace where you are working.

Please note that this is from memory as I'm at my desk at work, but I will check tonight if you can't get it going.

Ah - I didnt think to look in the second workspace !!!

All sorted thanks very much.