My IFN collection in Ursa Major reprocessed with new tool

[gorann]

After having tried a new star reduction script new to me in PI, called EZ Star Reduction, I have applied it to my little collection of Integrated Flux Nebulae (IFN) in Ursa Major that I have imaged now in March. They are all part of the Angel and Volcano Nebulae complex near M81 and M82. Also known as Mandel-Wilson 2 and 3.

Since IFN is a very faint type of nebulosity (presumed to be illuminated by the collective radiation of our galaxy) the images have to be radically stretched which means that the stars become quite large and abundant. Star reduction really made a major difference and allows the IFN to dominate rather than being overwhelmed by the star fields. I am amazed how effectively the EZ Star Reduction script took care of this without any major artefacts. which is a common problem with star shrinking processes. It is free (except that you need PI) and you can find out how to download and install it here:

https://remoteastrophotography.com/2020/12/use-ez-star-reduction-to-reduce-stars

 

I did do some additional processing afterwards in PS, primarily to make sure that galaxies were not affected, so I used layers and the brush tool to save all the NGC and PGC galaxies annotated by PI.

The data was caught with a RASA 8 and ASI2600MC on an iOptron CEM70 mount from 5th to 21st March. Integration time varied between 4 and 13 hours.

The fifth image show what it looked like before the EZ star reduction.

Edited March 24, 2021 by gorann

[clarkpm4242]

Great collection!  A significant improvement.

Inspired to have a go myself.  Particularly the field with M81 in the corner.

[fwm891]

Great imaging Goran

[gorann]

1 hour ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Great collection!  A significant improvement.

Inspired to have a go myself.  Particularly the field with M81 in the corner.

Thanks Clark, much appreciated! Have a go - the good thing is that the IFN is up there even if it is galaxy season and the Milky Way and most nebulae are gone.

[gorann]

4 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

Great imaging Goran

Thanks a lot Francis!

[tomato]

Great result, thanks for the heads up on the script. Star reduction is some thing else I need to get better at.

[gorann]

3 minutes ago, tomato said:

Great result, thanks for the heads up on the script. Star reduction is some thing else I need to get better at.

Thanks Steve! Yes, this script is something you really have to test.

[gorann]

13 hours ago, tomato said:

Great result, thanks for the heads up on the script. Star reduction is some thing else I need to get better at.

TS. This script was quite easy to use. I used the default settings. It does take a few minutes to run so it is apparently a quite advanced process involving Starnet++ so you need that to be loaded into your PI (it is included in the latest PI version).

Edited March 25, 2021 by gorann