First Narrowband: SH2-132

[AndrewG]

Hi All,

It's been a long time since my last efforts..... have had a few years / sort of gave up given weather and climate in UK.

Anyhow I have tried to use the gear I have to pull together a NB image of SH2-132, didn't like what it looked like based on Hubble Palette, so messed around in Pixelmath and then combined a couple of variants in Photoshop.

What do you guys think, as any pointers would be appreciated?

 

Total approx. 15 hours of data with even split between Ha, Si, and O.

Cheers

 

 

 

[wimvb]

A very nice comeback.

I think you can safely increase contrast to give it more punch. 

[gorann]

Yes, very promising comeback. Maybe also increase colour saturation a tad for even more punch.

[tooth_dr]

Lots of detail, with a tiny bit of saturation boost this would be the best lion nebula I’ve seen. 

[AndrewG]

Thanks all for the feedback... I have added a bit more saturation and slightly increased the contrast as you all recommend.

I didn't want to overdo it so what do you think now?

Maybe I should try to reprocess again in Pixinsight with star masks to make the Nebula's stand out more??

 

 

 

 

 

[dazza1639]

nice 👍

 

[ApophisAstros]

What a wonderful first NB,

Roger

[wimvb]

Better. You have more clarity in the bright nebula, but still good star control.

Just for kicks, use starnet in PI to create a starless image. Then go all in on colour saturation and contrast. It probably won't give you an image you'd want to publish, but it will show you how much is in the data. Imo, you can't push data to its limit if you never cross that limit. 

[AndrewG]

Roger and Darren, thanks for the great comments.

Hej Wim, thanks for the advice.  I didn't know about Starnet so gave it a quick go and then re-layered with stars, what do you think?

Thanks all.

[wimvb]

That made a difference. You pulled out a lot more of the faint nebulosity, but unfortunately introduced dark rings around the stars and purple colour burn on the lower right hand side. Image processing is a dark art. 🧙‍♀️

Edited October 11, 2019 by wimvb

[kirkster501]

I like the middle version most.   The bottom one is too "Spice Girls" for me (Baby Spice).   With the middle one you could give it even more of a contrast and saturation boost, your data is very good and would tolerate it I think.

[carastro]

It's a challenging target and for a first narrowband you have done particularly well.

Carole 

[wimvb]

@AndrewG, I took the liberty of downloading your original image and put it through PixInsight. I hope you don't mind.

I darkened it a bit and then applied a range mask to target the bright nebula on the left hand side, in order to put a bit more contrast into it. I applied Local Histogram Equalisation at about 25% strength, with scale factors 64 and 150. I then eroded the stars slightly with Morphological Transformation and a ring mask.

[kirkster501]

Perfect Wim. That’s what I thought was in the data and you made a brilliant job of that.

[Gina]

WOW Wim, what a difference!  Just shows that PI is very powerful and that I've got a huge amount to learn.  Wonderful.  Amazing first NB and goes to show what image processing can do. 

[AndrewG]

Thanks Wim  for the advice.

I will try to emulate what you have done and when complete post my efforts, that's what makes this forum great..... it allows us to learn from others and raise our game!

Thanks again all!

[AndrewG]

Tried to re-process but this was the best I could do, although I think I have made the stars smaller doing more masked  stretches!

[MartinB]

This is all getting out of hand!!!  For me the second image you posted is the best of the lot.  It is very tempting to think of all the processes that could be used to further enhance and image but, often, in doing this the image actually becomes less attractive to the eye.  Your third image has a glow to it which I like very much but the stars have taken a hit.  The only thing I'm not overly keen on is the pastel pink colouration at the centre.  Having said all this it is good to keep working on and refining processing skills.

[AndrewG]

Hi Martin, thanks for the reality check - Kudos.

I have re-processed from the beginning using some masked stretches to try and keep stars smaller, and have used the Hubble palette to provide a different mix of colour.  

I think this is better by far...…….

[wimvb]

Excellent rework, Andrew. I like this palette more than the original. Just for kicks: apply scnr green with default settings on that last image and see where that leaves you. 

[alan potts]

Lovely image you have taken there.

Alan

[MartinB]

11 hours ago, wimvb said:

Excellent rework, Andrew. I like this palette more than the original. Just for kicks: apply scnr green with default settings on that last image and see where that leaves you. 

Agreed!  However...scnr green will give you  very nice colour and will show dust well but please leave some green because that is ha.  Green shouldn't appear in broad band but I think it should in hst  nb.