3 data stacks to play with during lockdown

[Allinthehead]

Hi all, i hope everyone is safe and well during this difficult time. I wanted to make some of my data freely available to anyone who wants it. I'm hoping having some data to play with would be a welcome distraction to those with none of their own or those who just want to have some fun.

First up is the Orion Nebula. 9 hrs with Asi 2600mc and Esprit 100.  https://www.dropbox.com/s/76pwzmluo4ff52i/Orion_9hr.tiff?dl=0

 

 

Next is Andromeda 6 hrs i believe with Asi 071 and Takahashi Epsilon 130.   https://www.dropbox.com/s/tu0n363m253uaot/Andromeda.tiff?dl=0

 

Finally Dust in Taurus. 6.6 hrs with Asi 071 and Takahashi Epsilon 130.      https://www.dropbox.com/s/1swwjfaaev1r4wa/Dusty_Taurus.tiff?dl=0

Stay safe everyone and enjoy the data, don't forget to post your results here.

Richard.

 

[Nikodemuzz]

Great service to the community, Richard! Thanks!

Working with data from a dedicated astro camera for the first time was quite eye opening. Hitting auto stretch in PI had me collecting my jaw from the carpet. I'm sure good observing conditions and an experienced user also make a difference to the quality of the data, but it sure was different than what I'm seeing from my DSLR. 😃

I had a go at the Andromeda stack. I have to say, not much processing is needed at all to have a pretty convincing image, in my opinion. I stretched the image and enhanced the dust lanes a bit in PI, then worked on the color and the stars a bit in PS. Must have taken less than 15 minutes total. I still have some gradients in the background, and the core seems a little pink, but all in all would be very happy to catch an image like this myself. I worked on my own image of M31 a lot, lot longer than this and, well...

 

[Allinthehead]

That looks great. Background is tough as there's lots of IFN in the background as seen in this lovely image 

 

[Nikodemuzz]

Here's my take on the dark nebula. Again, thrilling to work with such good data. 😃 I found controlling noise versus enhancing detail in the dark dust cloud the most challenging aspect in processing this.

 

[Nikodemuzz]

On 27/04/2020 at 22:01, Allinthehead said:

That looks great. Background is tough as there's lots of IFN in the background as seen in this lovely image 

 

That's true! Also the halo of M31 extends quite far, so there probably isn't a real cut-off into "black space" at all in that frame. It's hard processing-wise, because if you stay true to the "correct" circumstances, the resulting photo will likely seem bland.

[Nikodemuzz]

1 minute ago, Nikodemuzz said:

That's true! Also the halo of M31 extends quite far, so there probably isn't a real cut-off into "black space" at all in that frame. It's hard processing-wise, because if you stay true to the "correct" circumstances, the resulting photo will likely seem bland.

Same probably goes for the dark nebula image. I probably took the contrast too far in an attempt to make a pleasing image. 

[Allinthehead]

3 hours ago, Nikodemuzz said:

Same probably goes for the dark nebula image. I probably took the contrast too far in an attempt to make a pleasing image. 

I think you've done a lovely job with that.

[vlaiv]

Thank you for sharing these images.

Nice data, but I feel it should be saved as 32bit float after stacking.

Histogram clearly shows signs of posterization. This is M42 data.

I'll give it a go and see what I can produce.

[smr]

Yeah really nice data, thanks Richard. As a DSLR user its obviously a massive difference being able to cool your sensor. I can stretch much more than if it were a DSLR image. A nice aperture and focal length at f/3.3, 430mm ?

Here's my rendering of Dusty Taurus

Edited May 3, 2020 by smr

[Allinthehead]

7 minutes ago, smr said:

Here's my rendering of Dusty Taurus

Nicely done.

[vlaiv]

Not sure if this version is going to appeal to people - it was more about number crunching than about "artistic impression". I'm quite surprised that it turned so "smokey" and "dust in space" - like (at least to me).

[Paul M]

Thanks for your generous offer.

Just what I need for learning with seeing as I've just subscribed to PS

Distinct lack of my own data to torture and at least I can't blame the data for my novice output!

[Allinthehead]

16 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I'm quite surprised that it turned so "smokey" and "dust in space" - like (at least to me).

Nice, very smokey indeed.

[Allinthehead]

1 minute ago, Paul M said:

Thanks for your generous offer.

Just what I need for learning with seeing as I've just subscribed to PS

Distinct lack of my own data to torture and at least I can't blame the data for my novice output!

Hope you have fun.

[vlaiv]

Here is another one:

[Wyvernp]

Some fantastic processing going on here (yours not mine  ), here's my attempt at orion.

Thank you Richard, for the original data. It was a pleasure to work with and I can only hope I can one day getting data like this.

Edited May 3, 2020 by Wyvernp

[ollypenrice]

Good on you, Richard.

Olly

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Thanks for the thought @Allinthehead. Might be worth posting in the 'Getting Started with imaging' section too, as clean data is much easier to process.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Knight of Clear Skies

[gorann]

Thanks Richard, much appreciated!

[Allinthehead]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Good on you, Richard.

Olly

 

1 hour ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

Thanks for the thought @Allinthehead. Might be worth posting in the 'Getting Started with imaging' section too, as clean data is much easier to process.

 

1 hour ago, gorann said:

Thanks Richard, much appreciated!

👍

[dannybgoode]

Thanks for this.  Need to practice my processing skills and it will be nice to work on excellent data as opposed to my meagre efforts  

[Wyvernp]

Finally got around to your M31 data, again thank you! Being without a camera at the moment it's been great to keep honing my processing.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Wyvernp

[Allinthehead]

On 07/05/2020 at 01:56, dannybgoode said:

Thanks for this.  Need to practice my processing skills and it will be nice to work on excellent data as opposed to my meagre efforts  

You're welcome Enjoy.

23 hours ago, Wyvernp said:

Finally got around to your M31 data, again thank you! Being without a camera at the moment it's been great to keep honing my processing.

Nice. Tiny stars.

[Wyvernp]

Just now, Allinthehead said:

You're welcome Enjoy.

Nice. Tiny stars.

Thanks! I recently learned about masked stretch in pixinsight which seems to work really well for galaxies.

[Xiga]

Very generous of you Richard to share these with the SGL community. 👏

For those who maybe don't know, Richard is one of the elite-level processors on here, so these should be a joy to process. 

I hope to get around to having a go myself at some point, time permitting. I'm especially interested in the Dusty Taurus one, being that i can't capture it that well with my current setup and skies.