The Elephant's Trunk Nebula

[Stub Mandrel]

Taken on my third outing with an Optolong L-Enhance filter, used with a modified, cooled canon 450D, home built ED 66 scope and HEQ5 mount. 17 x 5-minute subs.

[tooth_dr]

Neil what do you do when you upload the image. It is quite pixelated when I click on it. 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Neil what do you do when you upload the image. It is quite pixelated when I click on it. 

Most odd, it looks fine here - one pixel per pixel, if you know what I mean!

It's just a standard PNG, at half APSC-size (I used super-pixel mode).

[tooth_dr]

I dont want to criticise, but the quality isnt great   This is a screen shot of what I get>>>

[carastro]

The image itse'f without zooming looks good, but it doesn't look good to me either when I try to zoom in on it.  Are you sure you uploaded the right file?  Looks more like a jpeg to me.

Carole 

[Stub Mandrel]

This is a screen grab at my end:

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Just now, carastro said:

The image itse'f without zooming looks good, but it doesn't look good to me either when I try to zoom in on it.  Are you sure you uploaded the right file?  Looks more like a jpeg to me.

Carole 

I think it's just a bit noisy and colour blotchy being only 1 1/2 hours data?

But criticism is useful... How about this?

[carastro]

This is what I am seeing if I blow it up.  It's not noise it's like Jpeg artifacts.

I have blown up one of the areas bottom left. 

Carole 

[Stub Mandrel]

21 hours ago, carastro said:

This is what I am seeing if I blow it up.  It's not noise it's like Jpeg artifacts.

I have blown up one of the areas bottom left. 

Carole 

Usually means I used Noel's Deep Space Noise Reduction followed by Astra Image's Denoise ; must take care to use on OR the other..

[Stub Mandrel]

Well I've still used both on this iteration, but with greater care, sacrificing a bit of detail for greater smoothness. It is only 17 subs, so noise is an issue.

What do the 'panel' think?

(Edit - I masked in the old bright stars as they had posterised a bit, they are now bigger, but softer and more natural looking).

Edited November 2, 2019 by Stub Mandrel

[carastro]

Ah. much better.  I stopped using Noel's noise reduction some time ago as I found it was detrimental to the nebulosity.  the only noise reduction I use now, is despeckle. 

Great image. 

Carole 

Edited November 2, 2019 by carastro

[tooth_dr]

Neil that’s superb. Big difference. FWIW I use NC deep space noise reduction, it masks the lighter areas better 

[markse68]

Where’s the elephants trunk?  I m finding myself  fascinated by the dark areas in many nebulae- is there an explanation for them?  

[wxsatuser]

The trunk is the dark bit in the middle, turn it 90degrees clockwise.

[Stub Mandrel]

9 hours ago, wxsatuser said:

The trunk is the dark bit in the middle, turn it 90degrees clockwise.

Ah, Now I see the elephant!

[Hallingskies]

Think you’ve nailed it Neil, it looks just fine to me now on the I-pad.  That Optolong filter really looks like it does the business....