Yet another Heart

[don4l]

This is my first attempt at producing a long exposure decent image at my scopes native focall length - 530mm.  I usually don't have the patience to remain on the same target as new and exciting targets come into view.  I gathered 200m Ha, and 170m OIII.  I would have liked to get much more OIII but the weather really has not played ball.   I wasn't able to process the noise down to acceptable levels, so I added in a further 270m OIII data taken at 367mm.  This improved things enormously.

I've also used Starnet for the first time, and I must say that it works brilliantly.  I also processed the stars separately and then added them back in.  I really could use some advice on producing a decent star image.  I used 10m each of RG and B and combined themin CCDStack.  However I really do not understand how to produce small coloured stars - so any advice or pointers would be very welcome. 

Comments and suggestions very welcome.  I have tried to save various stages of the processing, so I should be able to go back and try different things.

Equipment: Tak FSQ106 at F5 and F3,  EQ6, Moravian G3 16200, Chroma 3nm filters

Software:  CCDCiel, CCDStack, Gimp, Starnet

Exposure Ha 200m,  OIIO 170m + 270m(367mm),  RGB about 10m each in 60s subs.

 

 

[Brian Maurer]

Can’t help you with the stars, but I’ll list in.

 

Great image, you should do more!

[alan potts]

One of the nicest Heart images I have seen, the thing that annoys me with stars is I have found plenty of tutorials to remove stars but never found one that allows me to put them back. I actually found a way to do it myself but didn't write it down and forgot what I did, so back to the drawing board. Great image.

Alan

[tooth_dr]

That is nice delicate procession, and the phallic region is particularly nice.  If you get a decent methodology please share Donal!

 

Adam.

Edited November 22, 2019 by tooth_dr

[don4l]

48 minutes ago, alan potts said:

One of the nicest Heart images I have seen, the thing that annoys me with stars is I have found plenty of tutorials to remove stars but never found one that allows me to put them back. I actually found a way to do it myself but didn't write it down and forgot what I did, so back to the drawing board. Great image.

Alan

Thank you.

I used Gimp to put them back.  I simply made sure that the background was black, and used "lighten" as the layer mode.

In the past, I've used the "Generic -> Erode" filter to remove most of the stars.  This is quick and easy, so it gives a good idea of what to expect.  For most of my images, this was more than good enough.  However, the Erode filter does damage the background.  Starnet takes 30 minutes, but it does seem to work magic.

I think that I now need to concentrate on learning to make stars look nice.

[don4l]

3 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

That is nice delicate procession, and the phallic region is particularly nice.  If you get a decent methodology please share Donal!

 

Adam.

Thank you. 

I've just looked at it from work, and I'm horrified at the noise that is visible in the red.  I'm absolutely at a loss to understand when, or where, it crept in. This isn't a display issue.  This noise just wasn't there two nights ago.

 

Hopefully, I have saved my work at a stage that lets me see where the problem occurred and I'll be able to fix it tonight.