Pinwheel help

[Anthonyexmouth]

So, I got just over 7h on the Pinwheel the other night and this is the best I can come up with. 

Is this a reflection of 

1. My ability

2. Integration time

3. Limits of my setup. 430mm with a 294mc

Tiff stack if anyone wants a ply themselves. Pinwheel.tif

 

[scotty38]

I'm going to say processing is what will make a difference as points 2 and 3 are not an issue as far as I'm concerned....

[Anthonyexmouth]

6 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

I'm going to say processing is what will make a difference as points 2 and 3 are not an issue as far as I'm concerned....

Well that's not what I wanted to hear. lol. Was hoping to blame the tools. 

[Budgie1]

I managed to get some more detail out of the data, but it was a struggle.

I take it you were using your Stellamira 90mm Triplet with a 0.8 reducer on it to give you the 430mm focal length?

I ended up removing the stars then working on the background using a magenta then green colour masks, then created another mask for M101 using the Extract Lum tool and using histrogramtransformation to bring out just M101 & the other galaxies, then added a blur to the image mask to allow me to work on just the galaxies. 

Adding HRDMultiScaleTransformation using 5 layers brought out more of the dust lanes in M101.

[PeterCPC]

M101 is always a difficult subject as it is so dim. I think you did really well and well done for sticking at it for 7 hours. I usually give up after 3 through boredom.

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 hour ago, PeterCPC said:

M101 is always a difficult subject as it is so dim. I think you did really well and well done for sticking at it for 7 hours. I usually give up after 3 through boredom.

Thank Nina for doing the hard work, I was tucked up in bed. I really need a better setup for small objects but I also want a new IMX571 camera to go a bit wider with the setup I've got. The 294 will sit nicely on a scope with longer reach when I have a bit of spare cash to spend. I'd like a MN190 after I buy a new camera. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

9 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

I managed to get some more detail out of the data, but it was a struggle.

I take it you were using your Stellamira 90mm Triplet with a 0.8 reducer on it to give you the 430mm focal length?

I ended up removing the stars then working on the background using a magenta then green colour masks, then created another mask for M101 using the Extract Lum tool and using histrogramtransformation to bring out just M101 & the other galaxies, then added a blur to the image mask to allow me to work on just the galaxies. 

Adding HRDMultiScaleTransformation using 5 layers brought out more of the dust lanes in M101.

Nicely done. 

Gotta move out of my comfort zone and the regualr tools I use in Pixinsight to get more out of objects like this. In the process of getting to grips with GHS at the moment. 

[Budgie1]

44 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

In the process of getting to grips with GHS at the moment. 

GHS is a handy tool and I used it on your image to see if it would benefit from it's use. It can be a bit fiddley, so I don't always use it when an EZ Soft Stretch or HistogramTransformation looks okay. Sometimes I clone the image and stretch with all three to see what is best and use that.  

[Anthonyexmouth]

53 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

GHS is a handy tool and I used it on your image to see if it would benefit from it's use. It can be a bit fiddley, so I don't always use it when an EZ Soft Stretch or HistogramTransformation looks okay. Sometimes I clone the image and stretch with all three to see what is best and use that.  

That's what I've been doing while I practice with it.

[wimvb]

On 06/03/2023 at 10:00, Anthonyexmouth said:

I'd like a MN190 after I buy a new camera

That's the way to go!

I had a look at your data, and can only say that there's a lot of noise. My guess is that you have a fair amount of light pollution that just needs more data.

[wimvb]

Fiddling in PI resulted in this

[Lumos]

One lesson that I was slow to learn was the importance of integration time. Loads of integration time. I started an M101 project this month and I reckon at f/7 I need something like 20 hours of RGB and I am going to add maybe the same again in Ha as it has some really interesting hydrogen pockets. The first time I opened an image with lots of integration time I could not believe how clean, detailed and contrasty the image was. They are a dream to process. Having said that, the OP is in Rutland and took several attempts just to get 7 hours. I think my plan is to keep my RASA 8 in the UK for the odd break in the clouds here  and keep the Esprit 150 in SW France for summer shooting. I had not appreciated how dispiriting it is trying to catch the odd photon in England.