Heart & Soul

[Nikodemuzz 171]

First completed image for the season, and the first completed image with the ZWO ASI 071MC Pro!

Taken from our backyard with the SpaceCat, using the Optolong L-Enhance filter. No calibration files besides bias (flats would be a good idea, but I don't have a good way to take them yet). Roughly 7 hours of integration time over 2 nights, 15min subs. Processed in PixInsight with finishing touches in Photoshop.

Struggled again quite a bit with the background, which I suppose is not really uniform in the area anyway. Despite the L-Enhance being a multi bandpass filter, I couldn't really get more than a slightest hint of the colour from the oxygen that is also present here. Whether that is due to my inadequate processing skills, or the signal just being so faint compared to the hydrogen, I don't know. Overall I'm still very happy with the result!

[bottletopburly 1,543]

Nice work 

[mackiedlm 806]

That's a nice image and I'm sure you could get more blue in it. Have a look at this tutorial. 

I have used that technique with L-enhance data to produce some reasonable results like

https://astrob.in/gc842f/B

And

https://astrob.in/ye7dzb/0

Good luck.

[MarsG76 4,844]

First image of the season, and what a way to start a season.... well done.

 

 

[Nikodemuzz 171]

On 14/02/2021 at 01:38, mackiedlm said:

That's a nice image and I'm sure you could get more blue in it. Have a look at this tutorial. 

I have used that technique with L-enhance data to produce some reasonable results like

https://astrob.in/gc842f/B

And

https://astrob.in/ye7dzb/0

Good luck.

Great Scott, with the lack of a better expletive!

Thank you very much for this tutorial! I went straight away to try it, and sure enough, the signal is indeed there. Pretty laborious process though, one has to be very prudent with masking in order to keep things in control. And still, a lot of tinkering, at least for me, to get the color balance at least somehow in order. Still it is a bit pink, I think.

Here's the first stab at this technique, does make quite a difference. The blue stars are a good example of the masking challenges:

 

 

Edited February 15 by Nikodemuzz

[Nikodemuzz 171]

On 14/02/2021 at 12:22, MarsG76 said:

First image of the season, and what a way to start a season.... well done.

 

 

Thanks for the compliment! To clarify a bit, I have gathered data on a few subjects over several nights. This was the first image I thought had enough data in it to be "final".

[Nikodemuzz 171]

Interestingly, my phone shows the images with a hefty boost in contrast and saturation compared to my (calibrated) display. I wonder which version you see.

[MarsG76 4,844]

34 minutes ago, Nikodemuzz said:

Thanks for the compliment! To clarify a bit, I have gathered data on a few subjects over several nights. This was the first image I thought had enough data in it to be "final".

Still makes it the first completed image of the season....

[Nikodemuzz 171]

3 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Still makes it the first completed image of the season....

Yes it does!  I'm very excited about the night skies again! If only I had a scope with a bit more focal length, the large nebulae and Orion are not very well placed for me at the moment.

Edited February 15 by Nikodemuzz

[mackiedlm 806]

8 hours ago, Nikodemuzz said:

Interestingly, my phone shows the images with a hefty boost in contrast and saturation compared to my (calibrated) display. I wonder which version you see.

Great first go with this technique . Well done indeed. I'm looking on my phone and for me the colours look really good, red is very slightly pink but not enough to worry about and contrast is spot on. I'll look on the computer later but I've had that same problem in the past sometimes with wide variation between monitor and phone / tablet. I think I read somewhere that its an intrinsic difference in the way the screens work. I have adjusted my monitor to try to get them close as I think in this day and age our images are seen more on mobile screens than computers.

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your images.

[Nikodemuzz 171]

10 hours ago, mackiedlm said:

Great first go with this technique . Well done indeed. I'm looking on my phone and for me the colours look really good, red is very slightly pink but not enough to worry about and contrast is spot on. I'll look on the computer later but I've had that same problem in the past sometimes with wide variation between monitor and phone / tablet. I think I read somewhere that its an intrinsic difference in the way the screens work. I have adjusted my monitor to try to get them close as I think in this day and age our images are seen more on mobile screens than computers.

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your images.

Thank you @mackiedlm! Yeah that is true that the variation between screens is quite large. And spot on that mostly people look at the photos on mobile devices these days. I probably should adjust my monitor to account for that better.