Grant Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 We've just released the latest set of data from the Ikarus Observatory project here. Following the wonderful entries from the first and second processing competitions we are running another to see who can get the most from this data and create the 'best' image! The winner will receive £150 of First Light Optics gift vouchers and two runners up will receive £50 of gift vouchers. Details below: Closing date: 3rd May 2021 @ 22:00 Please post your entries into this thread Please only use the data we've released - don't blend it with other data or add to it with other sources Use what ever processing software and techniques you like, potential bonus points for sharing your workflow and techniques with others - that way, we all get to learn as well Multiple entries are allowed but, please refrain form posting multiple attempts that are very similar - better to update an earlier attempt if it's just an incremental improvement but, it would be interesting to see totally different attempts using different narrowband blends etc... If you win or are a runner up, we would really like to use your creation in future marketing materials, on our website etc.. so by entering the competition, you are giving us permission to use your image in this way. Judging will be done by a small team of judges from the FLO team - It's completely subjective but will be based on what image(s) we think do the best job of extracting the most from the data released and, look the 'prettiest' We will announce the winners by the 9th May 2021 live on StarGaZine then on SGL Thanks all and look forward to seeing your entries! 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Darke Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 (edited) Here is my effort processed in StarTools 7. Auto Dev, Bin 50%, Wipe (basic), Film Dev to 96.58%, Contrast (DSO dark preset), HDR (basic and reveal core), Sharp (DSO dark) 400%, Colour ( reduced green and red bias 1.60 and 1.44 respectively), Noise Reduction (2 pixels), Flux ( sharpen 18%) converted to jpeg in GIMP. Edited April 13, 2021 by Graham Darke Processing workflow added 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Newbould Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 (edited) Here's my go, really nice data to work with! done in PixInsight A bit more colourful touch on this one Edited April 21, 2021 by Luke Newbould adding colour revision 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billhinge Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 (edited) All PI LRGB, wavelets, curves and masks Edited April 23, 2021 by billhinge 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budgie1 Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 I had a couple of attempts in PI. Workflow: LRGB Combination - Dynamic Crop - Background Extraction - Background Neutralisation - De-noise using MMT & MLT - SCNR to reduce the green - Stretch - StarNet to remove the stars - increase saturation on the stars - increase saturation on the nebula - a bit of CIE c* - darked background and reduce the core (second image I played about with CIE b* to put some yellow into the cloud and more blue into the background for a little Hubble entertainment - HDR - and finally recombine background & stars with PixelMath. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Darke Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Second attempt. Workflow same as first one but this time used the "Legacy" colour setting. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masjstovel Posted April 14, 2021 Share Posted April 14, 2021 Here's my try. Incredible data. Now i know what round stars look like Workflow: PI: DBE division, DBE subtract, LinearFIT, LRGBcombination, BackgroundNeutralization, ColorCalibration, SCNR, MultiScaleLinearTransform, ACDNR, CameraRaw: Color calibration for more saturation, PS: Dodging & burning based on luminosity masks. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carastro Posted April 15, 2021 Share Posted April 15, 2021 Here is my effort. Processed in Photoshop, mainly using levels and curves, and some selective colour. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alacant Posted April 16, 2021 Share Posted April 16, 2021 (edited) Hi everyone and thanks for looking. Cropped to remove distractions. st 1.7.459 Edited April 16, 2021 by alacant 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Astronomer Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 Hello everyone! Image processed in PI: -LRGBCombination (RGB combine) -DBE -BackgroundNeutralization -EZ Denoise -ColorCalibration -DBE on Lum -Stretching using HistogramTransformation-Applying Luminance Image with LRGBCombination (adjust saturation and check off chrominance noise reduction) -SCNR -MultiscaleLinearTransform-CurvesTransformation-Reducing Star Sizes with MorphologicalTransformation -Dark Structure Enhance 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neko Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 As always, thank you for such awesome data!! here goes my first try StarTools 7 and Lightroom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSeaman Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 I went dark with this one, the process was: - DBE on each RGB layer - MLT noise reduction on RGB - Stretch RGB and L - Combinatoin and Levels/Curves - Starmask/light reduction (0.2) - Selective colour on L - Selective colour on RGB - Combine and brightness/contrast - Removed some green (curves then level offset) from the final image for a moody feel - Finally some selective light blurring to remove any speckles 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckieEddie Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 Here's my attempt... My processing was entirely using StarTools (which I've only started with in the last week), other than final format conversion in GIMP. Workflow was: Compose>AutoDev>Bin50%>Wipe>AutoDev>Contrast>HDR>Deconv>Colour>Shrink>Entropy>SuperStructure>Denoise>Flux. Full processing log (minus mask data - default auto masks used) is attached. Iris.log 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neko Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 (edited) Second try This time StarTools 1.7 only. Similar workflow but less aggressive and cropped a bit. colors came out better too So didn't think the need of exporting to lightroom this time Edited April 17, 2021 by Neko 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne S Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight. RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE. Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT. Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne S Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight. RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE. Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT. Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne S Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 1 minute ago, Anne S said: Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight. RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE. Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT. Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly. It hasn't posted my image! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne S Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Anne S said: Here's my version. All processed in Pixinsight. RGB image produced from original colour stacks then DBE and Photometric colour calibration. Luminance image just DBE. Both images permanently stretched then luminance had HDR at level 5 applied. RGB image colour saturated before combining with the luminance image. Light noise reduction using MMT. Finally check sncr and background colour, gentle curves applied to bring out the dust and brighten slightly. It hasn't posted my image! Edited April 18, 2021 by Anne S remove image which has now posted 3 times 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Hale Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 (edited) Affinity Photo. Recolour, Levels, several Curves, Clarity, Noise reduction and Selective colour. Second image same initial process then moved into Photoshop and then used Photokemi and Annies Actions - Space dust, star reduction, dust lanes and noise reduction. Edited April 27, 2021 by Dean Hale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neko Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Last try for now Similar as before, but with a more conservative process (less HDR in the core..) and different color StarTools and LightRoom. one with aggressive noise reduction and one without hope you like! Really impressive data to work with! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spikey Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Here's my effort. Pixinsight and Photoshop hybrid. Histogram equalistion of B & G to R channel then RGB combination. ArcSin then Masked stretch and RGB as a tiff for photoshop. Lum just a tiny histogram and then a masked stretch saved as tiff. RGB saturation boost and gaussian blur then lum added as luminosity. Noels smaller stars and increase star colour then local contrast enhance. Back to PI for dark enhance. Saved as a PNG for faster loading on site. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy-kat Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 The data is super clean thank you for sharing and this is my favourite subject. I didn't rush this I took my time enjoying reviewing each step and tweaking adjustments. StarTools_1.7.458MR3, highlights of settings used, Compose loading all four but with lum as 20m of the others 60m | Bin 70% | crop reducing by 30 pixels | Wipe | Auto Develop with ROI inset by 45 pixels ignore fine detail 1.1 pixels and outside ROI influence 2% | HDR reveal DSO core strength 1.3 | mask on core area Deconvolution primary radius 1.4 iterations 23 | mask of large central area Wavelet Sharpen , then a second smaller mask used for a wavelet pass | mask cleared Colour scientific colour, bright saturation 2.6 dark saturation 5.2 | star mask used Shrink mode set dim classic | mask of large central area Fractual Flux | mask cleared Unified De-Noise grain 5.3 pixels | Photographic Film Development Emulation skyglow 1% | file save as tiff, opened in Irfanview and saved as png for upload 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spongey Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Fantastic data once again, and on a beautiful target. I found this one very difficult to process but after a few iterations managed to get something I was happy with Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom. Cheers 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aramcheck Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 Here's my attempt - processed in Pixinsight. Cheers Ivor 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroExploring Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 Thanks for the amazing quality data! Really enjoyed processing this one. Here's what I did in Photoshop: Created RGB image Lots of curves/levels adjustments Made stars slightly smaller Used a few actions with the Astronomy Tools Action Set Processed Lum data separately and then blended with RGB data 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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