Leo Triplet - M65, M66, and NGC 3628... My humble first attempt..

[oymd]

65 subs x 180s

It was quite low in the sky, with the moon out.

DSS and processed in GIMP

Still working on improving in PixInsight, and will process it later...

Apologies...don't think it turned out great. I had hoped for better. Because of my very poor processing skills, its hard to know whether my issues are with the ACQUISITION, or the actual PROCESSSING?

Please be gentle...don't hurt my feelings...

Edit: to answer the above question, I think its best to attach the TIF file as well.

 

Autosave001.tif

Edited April 15, 2020 by oymd

[Camalajs525]

What did you use for the picture? If you mind me asking. 🤭

[oymd]

50 minutes ago, Camalajs525 said:

What did you use for the picture? If you mind me asking. 🤭

Do you mean image acquisition?

I use APT

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

18 minutes ago, oymd said:

Do you mean image acquisition?

I use APT

I think the question is more about the scope and camera used

Very nice result

[ollypenrice]

The moon really is bad news on broadband imaging targets but the galaxies look very promising.

The stars are a little strange, though focus looks OK. They are very blue-dominated which suggests you may have to work on balancing the colours.

Olly

[geeklee]

As Olly mentioned above, with the moon near, everything gets really washed out and detail/resolution lost.  For some days during April in UK, the moon would have been very close to these targets for a good portion of the evening IIRC.

Assuming the TIF is straight off the stack with no processing, look how bright it is (with no stretch), with the histogram way over on the right:

There's some data in there though as you showed above.  You mentioned some potential PixInsight rework you'll go for... so with just ABE, ColourCalibration, SCNR (green), HistogramTransformation (really bringing that black point in a lot) and cropped, I found this:

With some further work (inc masks) with colour, star reduction, saturation, histogram and curves - some other minor stuff is brought out:

I initially thought focus was a touch off, but perhaps not!

Hope this helps.

[ollypenrice]

3 minutes ago, geeklee said:

As Olly mentioned above, with the moon near, everything gets really washed out and detail/resolution lost.  For some days during April in UK, the moon would have been very close to these targets for a good portion of the evening IIRC.

Assuming the TIF is straight off the stack with no processing, look how bright it is (with no stretch), with the histogram way over on the right:

There's some data in there though as you showed above.  You mentioned some potential PixInsight rework you'll go for... so with just ABE, ColourCalibration, SCNR (green), HistogramTransformation (really bringing that black point in a lot) and cropped, I found this:

With some further work (inc masks) with colour, star reduction, saturation, histogram and curves - some other minor stuff is brought out:

I initially thought focus was a touch off, but perhaps not!

Hope this helps.

Nice. Way better with the colours balanced.

Olly

[wimvb]

As @geeklee already wrote: the image seems very over exposed, If the background level is at 50%, you lose half the dynamic range of your camera.

Also, after this high background level is corrected, there are several strong gradients in your image. You will need to examine your calibration process.

That being noted, here's what's in your image after gradient removal, colour calibration, stretching and colour saturation, using PixInsight:

[oymd]

6 hours ago, geeklee said:

As Olly mentioned above, with the moon near, everything gets really washed out and detail/resolution lost.  For some days during April in UK, the moon would have been very close to these targets for a good portion of the evening IIRC.

Assuming the TIF is straight off the stack with no processing, look how bright it is (with no stretch), with the histogram way over on the right:

There's some data in there though as you showed above.  You mentioned some potential PixInsight rework you'll go for... so with just ABE, ColourCalibration, SCNR (green), HistogramTransformation (really bringing that black point in a lot) and cropped, I found this:

With some further work (inc masks) with colour, star reduction, saturation, histogram and curves - some other minor stuff is brought out:

I initially thought focus was a touch off, but perhaps not!

Hope this helps.

 

6 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Nice. Way better with the colours balanced.

Olly

 

3 hours ago, wimvb said:

As @geeklee already wrote: the image seems very over exposed, If the background level is at 50%, you lose half the dynamic range of your camera.

Also, after this high background level is corrected, there are several strong gradients in your image. You will need to examine your calibration process.

That being noted, here's what's in your image after gradient removal, colour calibration, stretching and colour saturation, using PixInsight:

Thanks Olly, Lee & Wim

That is much much better than what I processed.

I have yet to go through the tutorial very kindly given to me by Lee.

With regards to calibration, can I please double check that I am doing it right:

1- DARKS: I match the LIGHTS SUBS duration and CMOS TEMPERATURE, so if my lights were 180s -10C, I do about 20 subs @ 180s DARKS @ -10C. 

Focus is not important with DARKS. I do the DARKS inside, with the camera in a jet black small closet, cooled to -10C

2- FLATS: I match the FOCUS & same scope setup as the LIGHTS. Aim is to remove the OTA with the camera, and leave it untouched till next day to do the flats, or if I setup early afternoon, I start with the subs, but only if the focus was FIXED from the previous day's imaging session. In APT, I aim for about 30000 to 40000, which shows below the histogram. Aim for 3 peaks, no clipping, and use the T-SHIRT method. Morning or late afternoon, AWAY from the sun, directed at the sky. Usually it turns out to be anywhere from 0.02 to 0.05 seconds, based on the light. I do about 50 @ -5C.

3- DARK FLATS: I match the FLATS exactly, which ever exposure I took in the FLATS, for example if I went for 0.02 seconds, I repeat with the Dark Flats. also about 50 @ -5C.

4- BIAS: I was advised NOT TO DO BIAS, as it is detrimental to CMOS results

Of course, ALL imaging, including LIGHTS has a COMMON setting in ASCOM, which I choose first:

a- GAIN: 120

b- Offset: 20

c- USB set to lowest at 40.

Is that right??

Many thanks