M53, 25min, Atlair 72mm, ZWO 178MC, AZGTi

[Bobby1970]

Captured last night. Live stacked using sharpcap, processed in Startools. 25x 60s captures.

 

Thanks for looking 🙂

[Bobby1970]

I think this looks better, thanks to a few tips from the Startool forum.

Need to try for better/more data next time. 

 

[des anderson]

A great image,well done.Des

[happy-kat]

The manual stacked version is much more vibrant, looks good.

[Revs]

The first one is nice, good colour and detail.

If you don't mind me saying; the second one is over-stretched and you've lost detail in both the dark areas and the core/stars. I don't think the extra sharpness gained is worth it. The first looks much more natural imo

[Bobby1970]

3 minutes ago, Revs said:

The first one is nice, good colour and detail.

If you don't mind me saying; the second one is over-stretched and you've lost detail in both the dark areas and the core/stars. I don't think the extra sharpness gained is worth it. The first looks much more natural imo

Always good to hear peoples opinions. I sort of preferred the second one. The sharpness is better I think. Although the core is more washed out. 

[Revs]

I do prefer a softer image. But I didn't used to so I know where you're coming from

[Bobby1970]

1 minute ago, Revs said:

I do prefer a softer image. But I didn't used to so I know where you're coming from

The thing is. With the second image. When I re did the stretch using  Autodev in Startools the whole image was darker so less noise was visible. It didn't seem like I "over stretched" it at all tbh. Lol. 

The good thing about this hobby is that is that everyone has their own taste I guess. Maybe somewhere between the two would be a good balance. Lol

[Revs]

The reason I say that is that the blacks are really black and the stars have less colour than in the first one, suggesting clipping.

As you say, maybe half way. But the first one looks good to me

BTW I'm not professing to be an expert, I'm still very much learning, especially the PP side.

[happy-kat]

I've not viewed yet on the desktop and the mobile phone view clips images regardless of whether it actually is very dark.

Autodev works best with manual intervention, you can adjust the settings to find the middle ground.

[Bobby1970]

49 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I've not viewed yet on the desktop and the mobile phone view clips images regardless of whether it actually is very dark.

Autodev works best with manual intervention, you can adjust the settings to find the middle ground.

Yes, I used the ROI feature. To try and get a balance between how dark the image was v details and noise.  

Maybe I send too dark because I was concerned about how much noise would show with it being lighter. 😞

Going to have another session. Possibly on M51 again and try for more data. And not use the live stacking in Sharpcap. Use DSS instead. See what I can come up with that way. I have always struggled with processing. Despite being into the hobby for years. But I really do need to try and get better at it. Or at least understand a bit better. 

[Bobby1970]

Had one more play with this. I think this is probably the best balance, based on comments received and my own preference.

I "think" I maybe understand some bit of startools a tiny bit better than I did a few days back. maybe...…..lol

Silk purse and sows ear comes to mind though. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Bobby1970

[happy-kat]

That has a better balance between the two definition and colour, just need to work out where you are getting your slight halos from, are using life module isolate

[Bobby1970]

5 hours ago, happy-kat said:

That has a better balance between the two definition and colour, just need to work out where you are getting your slight halos from, are using life module isolate

I usually leave the Life module to what it defaults to tbh. The only thing I touched in there was output glow and strength as I found that a combination of this helps with the background for me.

Definitely didn't touch isolate lol.

EDIT I do have a play around with the repair and shrink modes for the stars, but I don't think this has added the halos as such

Edited May 19, 2020 by Bobby1970

[Bobby1970]

Rework number 3. lol

Left the colour set to "constancy" mode. 

I am leaving it alone now. 

 

EDIT - this looked ok until I closed the curtains lol. oh well

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Bobby1970

[happy-kat]

It's a nice image to use to expand your use of startools as the image lends itself to experimenting without spending time making masks etc.

[happy-kat]

and using the log file you can repeat steps and tweak bits but repeat the rest