Soul nebula in SHO

[Gary Clayton]

My first mono SHO image of the Soul nebula and a question for the  mono experts, as the HA signal is the strongest what ratio do you use?.
As this was my first attempt at SHO using NINA I setup the filter focus offsets and then ran with just doing two subs of 5 minutes on each channel.
Antlia 3.5nm HA 20 X 5 minute subs
Antlia 3.5nm OIII 20 x 5 minute subs
Antlia 3.5nm SII 20 x 5 minute subs
Altair Astro Hypercam 26M
StellaMira 90ED at it's native focal ratio

[carastro]

I generally do twice as much Ha  to the other filters, despite it being the stronger signal as you need that for the fine detail.  Generally the other colours are just that, colours,  with a few exceptions.  I use photoshop and adjust the colour sliders in image adjust selective colour using green to adjust the Ha in the green channel and lifting the Cyan in the Cyan channel for the blue and reducing yellow in the Cyan slider also brings out the blue.  This might not help with the software you are using though from the colour adjust point of view. 
 

You look to have done an excellent job.  

Edited August 27, 2023 by carastro

[Gary Clayton]

2 hours ago, carastro said:

I generally do twice as much Ha  to the other filters, despite it being the stronger signal as you need that for the fine detail.  Generally the other colours are just that, colours,  with a few exceptions.  I use photoshop and adjust the colour sliders in image adjust selective colour using green to adjust the Ha in the green channel and lifting the Cyan in the Cyan channel for the blue and reducing yellow in the Cyan slider also brings out the blue.  This might not help with the software you are using though from the colour adjust point of view. 
 

You look to have done an excellent job.  

That's interesting I had not thought of it like that, something for me to try next imaging session.

Thank you.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Gary Clayton

[Stuart1971]

It does depend a lot on the target, and the amount of each signal present in a given target, some targets that are rich in OIII and low in Ha you may want to change your thinking and also your personnel preference for the final colour, there is no “one fits all” but I think you have this image spot on, personally, you nailed the colour for me…well done…👏🏻👏🏻

[windjammer]

>>as the HA signal is the strongest what ratio do you use?

I use PixInsight for the early stages of processing, which includes a function called linfit which basically brings the peaks of each of the Ha/Sii/Oiii histograms into alignment before channel combination.  So they are evenly balanced, which I guess answers your question !  I find this avoids a load of issues down the road.

You might this further info on carastro's selective colour useful if you haven't come across it:

http://bf-astro.com/hubblep.htm

You have done a great job already BTW!

Simon

[Gary Clayton]

8 hours ago, windjammer said:

>>as the HA signal is the strongest what ratio do you use?

I use PixInsight for the early stages of processing, which includes a function called linfit which basically brings the peaks of each of the Ha/Sii/Oiii histograms into alignment before channel combination.  So they are evenly balanced, which I guess answers your question !  I find this avoids a load of issues down the road.

You might this further info on carastro's selective colour useful if you haven't come across it:

http://bf-astro.com/hubblep.htm

You have done a great job already BTW!

Simon

Thanks for your insight and the link, I will look into these options

[Marvin Jenkins]

Just wanted to mention that this post is in the observing section and as such may well get over looked by other imagers.

Marv

[Gary Clayton]

Could Admin please move it to the correct section please

[Lee_P]

Just out of curiosity I ran the image through PixInsight's CorrectMagentaStars script. I rather like the shade of blue that came out. Just my personal taste! It's a great image either way, congrats to @Gary Clayton

[Gary Clayton]

1 hour ago, Lee_P said:

Just out of curiosity I ran the image through PixInsight's CorrectMagentaStars script. I rather like the shade of blue that came out. Just my personal taste! It's a great image either way, congrats to @Gary Clayton

One area that I struggle with is colour balance, with not be very arty in nature. This version looks a lot calmer than my original.