No colour from DSS, and how to combine channels?

[OK Apricot]

Hi guys, 

I'm probably having a brain fart moment or could be missing something, but I'm not getting any colour out of DSS on my Andromeda data? However I am getting colour on M45 for example. I don't change any settings, just let it do its thing, but maybe I need to change something for this? I'm using 30x180s lights and a master dark if that helps. Using ASI533MC-Pro 

Also, I have some HaOIII data for Andromeda that I got through the zwo dual band filter. I'd like to combine this into the RGB image to add the Ha but not sure how to go about that? 

Sorry if a dumb question but I'm new to all this still! 

[ONIKKINEN]

Post the raw stack without any adjustments made for people to have a look, difficult to tell what is going on otherwise.

In case you dont want to i will still have a guess: there is colour but its tricky to get out. Andromeda is not a very vibrant target and you kinda have to work to get any colour out of it. Even then only the outer parts of the galaxy will have a little bit of blue mixed in with the neutral tones that are in the core and elsewhere. If you have not colour calibrated the image well it can easily look overpoweringly green/red/brown/whatever unexpected colour. Im guessing something like that could be going on if you got colour out of M45 with the same setup and settings.

[scotty1]

Hi I don't know if this is any help, I'm a beginner with regards to stacking.

There are several tutorials about combining HA and RGB on YouTube that might help.

This one is how to get colour in DSS. It says convert the RAW files to tiff before stacking. 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by scotty1

[Steve Ward]

Best DSS tutorial I've seen is Doug's one ... 

 

[OK Apricot]

You know what, I'm being a complete fruit cake. My FOV doesn't really extend out to the arms so there isn't a lot of colour to be had anyway. I did the same stacking process with M33 and M45 and they were fine. I will post the stacks of M31 though, both the RGB and Ha, but will be later on tonight. Thanks for the tutorial videos - will take a look as soon as I can.