Stretching

[Nathan593]

I have an old capture of the Heart Nebula that i took with a kit lens, it totalled out to be a 30 min exposure, someone else stretched the image and was able to see the nebula well. I just cant bring the nebula out when stretching the image. Could anyone help??

 

Tiff filed from DSS below

 

Heart Nebula 2.TIF

[CloudMagnet]

I can only JUST get them to show but there are others that can process it better than me. I would be more looking at why the edges of the image seem to be out of focus and producing double stars. Did you stack it with flats?

[Nathan593]

8 minutes ago, CloudMagnet said:

I can only JUST get them to show but there are others that can process it better than me. I would be more looking at why the edges of the image seem to be out of focus and producing double stars. Did you stack it with flats?

It was a while back so I didn't even know what calibration frames were, so no

Thanks for the reply!!

Edited May 4, 2020 by Nathan593

[CloudMagnet]

After some levels, trying to fix the background and some curves:

 

[JonCarleton]

Seems to be a bit of light pollution coming from the lower right corner.  I can't get past it.  As you start to stretch, it overpowers the target.

Edited May 4, 2020 by JonCarleton

[vlaiv]

36 minutes ago, CloudMagnet said:

After some levels, trying to fix the background and some curves:

 

This is as good as it will get

It shows both Heart and Soul nebulae and double cluster.

[Nathan593]

4 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

This is as good as it will get

It shows both Heart and Soul nebulae and double cluster.

Thanks so much! What software did you use?

[Nathan593]

44 minutes ago, CloudMagnet said:

After some levels, trying to fix the background and some curves:

 

Thanks man!! Much better than my attempt, could you recommend where I could get help with processing stacked images?

[vlaiv]

2 minutes ago, Nathan593 said:

Thanks so much! What software did you use?

I just quoted @CloudMagnet and pointed out what can be seen in that particular processing. I downloaded image and tried to see if I can locate anything - but my best effort did not produce anything worthwhile compared to this image.

[CloudMagnet]

5 minutes ago, Nathan593 said:

Thanks man!! Much better than my attempt, could you recommend where I could get help with processing stacked images?

Gimp is a good option for just free software that will give you access to a lot of the basic adjustments that you need for astro images. The image above I used Gimp for starters and then Pixinsight as well to take care of the background light polution. I wouldn't recommed Pixinsight for a beginner though- a very steep learning curve. Youtube has plenty of tutorials for processing so watch some of them to get an idea of how people process and then find your own style

Edited May 4, 2020 by CloudMagnet
Quoting

[Nathan593]

2 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I just quoted @CloudMagnet and pointed out what can be seen in that particular processing. I downloaded image and tried to see if I can locate anything - but my best effort did not produce anything worthwhile compared to this image.

ohhhh, my bad, Im pretty new to this site so. Thanks anyway!

[Nathan593]

1 minute ago, CloudMagnet said:

Gimp is a good option for just free software that will give you access to a lot of the basic adjustments that you need for astro images. The image above I used Gimp for starters and then Pixinsight as well to take care of the background light polution. I wouldn't recommed Pixinsight for a beginner though- a very steep learning curve. Youtube has plenty of tutorials for processing so watch some of them to get an idea of how people process and then find your own style

Thanks, this helps a lot!!

[JonCarleton]

CloudMagnet is quite correct.  I used GIMP for my offering and stopped at the point the background noise was objectionable.  PixInsight does a good job of handling such matters with relative ease...after you get your arms around it.  You -can- do the same job in GIMP or PhotoShop, but it takes hours of creating masks and gradients.  Alas, I am a Linux user and while I am gimpy, I have no pix insight.

Edited May 4, 2020 by JonCarleton

[bottletopburly]

You could try using  startools uses a simpler method to process free to try for as long as you want and reasonably priced  and you may find it easier to understand and use to give a result your happy with at the end of the day you'll find a way of processing that suits you  ,https://www.startools.org/ have a look you will find that  acquiring good data and using calibration files makes processing easier.