Neowise - Nikon D800E and 180mm F2.8

[tooth_dr]

This is 200s seconds of data.  I have 50 minutes but I cant get it stack so I just picked 10 consecutive subs and stacked them.  I'll try DSS again, but it seems to remove all colour.   I havent done much processing to this, but very happy just to get the Ion tail with some detail in it.  Hopefully I can get the full data set to stack.

 

Nikon D800E, Nikon 180mm F2.8 (at F3.5), 10 x 20s exposures, ISO400, on Star Adventurer mount.  I also took a single 35s image of the MW just as I was packing up - I've OD the processing, it was really nice sight visually.

 

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by tooth_dr

[Davey-T]

Lovely image Adam, hanging around here waiting for forecast clear sky to show up.

Dave

[orion25]

Awesome image, Adam. I just got to see it tonight!

Reggie

[Scooot]

Great image Adam, Milky Way looks lovely too.  

[Roy Challen]

Looks like you caught an early Perseid (maybe) in the Milky Way image.

[tooth_dr]

This is proving difficult to get a decent image with DSS.

I have stretched and inverted one image that I got, and it shows some detail.  I hope I can get a normal colour version like this one.

 

[tooth_dr]

This is me done now I think, I've spent three evenings on the processing and this is the best I can achieve.

 

[tooth_dr]

Final image of Neowise, over to the experts now 🤣

I've looked at my individual subs, and it's really hard to see the blue ion tail against the blue sky. 

 

 

[tooth_dr]

Uncropped version.  I have some artefact running across the middle of the sensor, so I cropped the original (above), but i like this version.

[Alien 13]

Looks blue to me, rough and ready PS colour balance.. Nice capture.

Alan

[Xiga]

58 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Uncropped version.  I have some artefact running across the middle of the sensor, so I cropped the original (above), but i like this version.

Nice one Adam! Were you able to sort out the stacking in the end? Did you do a split approach of comet + stars? How many subs made it into this image? 

The sky background colour looks fine to me. The artefact running across the screen is a strange one alright. One possible solution might be to run starnet+ to get a starless version. Then susbtract it from the full version to get just the stars. Then go back to the starless version and use the clone stamp tool to fix the artefact. Then finally add the stars to this in blend mode lighten. 

ps - Loving the wee galaxy photo-bombing the image on the LHS btw! Crazy to think the difference in distance between the comet and the galaxy! 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Xiga

[tooth_dr]

6 minutes ago, Xiga said:

Nice one Adam! Were you able to sort out the stacking in the end? Did you do a split approach of comet + stars? How many subs made it into this image? 

The sky background colour looks fine to me. The artefact running across the screen is a strange one alright. One possible solution might be to run starnet+ to get a starless version. Then susbtract it from the full version to get just the stars. Then go back to the starless version and use the clone stamp tool to fix the artefact. Then finally add the stars to this in blend mode lighten. 

Thanks Ciarán. You’re guide was helpful. I stacked separately comet and then stars. I did 20+ stacks in DSS and ended up fluking a comet one that turned out ok.  Most were mush.  I ended up with 106 subs in the stack.  I might tackle the background

[tooth_dr]

49 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

Looks blue to me, rough and ready PS colour balance.. Nice capture.

Alan

Cheers Alan. It does look really blue. I tried but didn’t get that result. Overall your colour adjustments looks better 👍🏼I wonder would it be hard to get the background a little more neutral and keep the ion tail blue etc. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by tooth_dr

[Xiga]

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

Cheers Alan. It does look really blue. I tried but didn’t get a result. I wonder would it be hard to get the background back but keep the ion tail blue

It's not hard at all. Create a new layer and do a Selective Colour adjustment. Target the Blues only, then increase the Cyan and Magenta sliders, while decreasing the Yellow slider. You may have to do it more than once. Then just use a layer mask so that it only applies it to the Ion tail and nowhere else. 

[Alien 13]

29 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Cheers Alan. It does look really blue. I tried but didn’t get that result. Overall your colour adjustments looks better 👍🏼I wonder would it be hard to get the background a little more neutral and keep the ion tail blue etc. 

I am sure it will be easy, all I did was a couple of auto colour iterations..

Alan