M81 & M82

[Miguel1983]

Still in progress, i need more LUM.

But i stacked the 182 60s subs i got so far to see whats there already

RGB is for later, got 150 minutes per channel.

Processed in Pixinsight

Edited January 1, 2020 by Miguel1983

[wimvb]

Very nice already. Hope you find time soon to catch more data and enhance the jets from m82. 

[Miguel1983]

Maybe in the color data

I might add some Ha too later on.

[Miguel1983]

New years night wasn't clear as promised by CO and it doesn't look like there will be an imaging opportunity soon, so i started with the data i have for now, i most definitely can use the exercise in Pixinsight.

So i got 616 60s subs, of witch 182 Luminance.

Stacked in DSS and processed in Pixinsight

I did a few things wrong, like deconvolution and to much noise reduction, but i definatly made progress so i'm reasonably happy.

I will rework this data once i got some more subs.

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Miguel1983
bad English

[wimvb]

Weather has indeed been very poor so far. Imo, you over stretched this latest image. Did you use LRGB combination? I usually stretch the RGB data with Arcsinh Stretch, with the black clipping set to 0. This will give you a lot of colour without clipping any data. I then use either Curves Transformation or Histogram Transformation to adjust the background. That's basically all that is needed for colour. I think that if you combine the RGB image with the L image that you posted earlier, you will have very nice LRGB image.

[Miguel1983]

8 hours ago, wimvb said:

Weather has indeed been very poor so far. Imo, you over stretched this latest image. Did you use LRGB combination? I usually stretch the RGB data with Arcsinh Stretch, with the black clipping set to 0. This will give you a lot of colour without clipping any data. I then use either Curves Transformation or Histogram Transformation to adjust the background. That's basically all that is needed for colour. I think that if you combine the RGB image with the L image that you posted earlier, you will have very nice LRGB image.

Hi, 

yes i know, i see it as a first draft Pix-lesson, version 2 will follow 😅

[Miguel1983]

V2, not there yet, still need more data and skills.

I didn't do the Deconvolution this time, couldn't get it right.

[Miguel1983]

Version 3

did some alternate processing steps and went less agressive on the colors

[MarsG76]

Great result.... I like your last color image the most as well as the original mono image.

 

[carastro]

Quote

Version 3

did some alternate processing steps and went less agressive on the colors

I like this one the best.  Well done.

Carole 

[Miguel1983]

Thanks,

well i'm a pix newbie, and processing noob in general so it's not easy for my, but these last days i made some progress.

[wimvb]

V3 and the mono image for me too. Also, Holmberg IX shows very nicely.

[Miguel1983]

it still is far from perfect, but i did learn a lot in pix, took me hours and hours but i guess that the right way to learn 🙂

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Yes that last image well worth the effort - very nice 🙂 

Steve

[wimvb]

5 minutes ago, Miguel1983 said:

took me hours and hours but i guess that the right way to learn

Processing takes at least as long as data collection for me, but it's a lot more fun.

[carastro]

Quote

Processing takes at least as long as data collection for me, but it's a lot more fun.

I think you will be surprised to learn that it can be the same for all of us imagers.  Plus I often process it a few times before I am happy with it even after posting up I sometimes do revisions.

Carole 

[geeklee]

1 hour ago, Miguel1983 said:

Version 3

did some alternate processing steps and went less agressive on the colors

That is definitely the best version - really nice - good colour showing in M82.  I also liked your mono version as it showed what was going to be possible with some RGB.🙂

[Miguel1983]

On 03/01/2020 at 16:10, wimvb said:

Processing takes at least as long as data collection for me, but it's a lot more fun.

I think i'm at a capture/process ratio of 1/2 right now 😆

Edited March 9, 2020 by Miguel1983
typo

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, carastro said:

I think you will be surprised to learn that it can be the same for all of us imagers.

Not a surprise really, quality takes time. (Although, at least for me, so does crap sometimes.)

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, Miguel1983 said:

I thing i'm at a capture/process ratio of 1/2 right now 😆

The main reason that ratio will go to 1/1 is that you'll start to collect more data as you learn. 😋 Most of us start as astro-tourists; we point and shoot to get as many targets in one night as possible. But as we progress, we learn that quality does take time and shoot one target over several nights, sometimes even months.

[Miguel1983]

V4 , added 2.5h of Lum from capture this week, still want some more...

 

[wimvb]

Nice. But, did you use a mask around M82? 😋

[Miguel1983]

8 hours ago, wimvb said:

Nice. But, did you use a mask around M82? 😋

I went back and forth experimenting, i consider this an in between result, i'm planning on capturing more so i might have cut some corners in the processing 😏

Edited January 18, 2020 by Miguel1983
type OOOO's

[Miguel1983]

i've added some Lum and Ha data to my existing data, total exposure time is about 23,2Hrs now.

500 x 60 sec Lum

121 x 240 sec Ha

147 x 60 sec R

145 x 60 sec G

147 x 60 sec B

Working PixInsight  is progressing, every run i have on this object it goes a little better, far from perfect, i still need to learn a lot.

 

Crop

 

[wimvb]

Nice! You're getting there. The extra data really lifts the image. I think you can safely darken the background a little to give the galaxies a little more punch.

Also, when doing noise reduction (which, btw, you may not need with 8 hrs lum data), consider using a mask that has the background at 50%. This will leave some noise, but at the same time also the natural variation as a texture.

What is your sky darkness? At 23 hrs captured, you may have ifn in the background.