First Nebula Image with OSC camera

[Mr Green]

Hi All,

I got into imaging only last month and quickly realised that an unmodified DSLR wasn't going to cut it for emission nebula. 

This was my main goal therefore rationally purchased a OSC camera and finally had the chance to use it last night for the first time.

I was so blown away that I wanted to share my image with anyone that's interested.

Please bear in mind this is my first processed image other than a couple of basic pictures of a couple of galaxies.

45x Lights @ 5 mins with Optolong L-extreme 2" filter

20x Darks & 20 Flats

Stacked in DSS & processed in PS.

I've noticed egg shaped stars therefore need to get more spacing in image train and the color is a little on the pink side to make the Mrs happy.

Any advice on possible improvements are very welcome.

Thanks,

Jon

[Elp]

The filter works like magic doesn't it?

It's a pretty great image, for me it looks like you've clipped the black end of the histogram when levels stretching, as odd as it may seem even if the emptiness of space is black, when I'm processing astro images I tend to keep it a little on the greyer side, and some of the really faint stuff will remain in there.

[Ouroboros]

Hello @Mr Green.   Nice image. I wish my early images had been as good as that one. I agree with @Elp’s comment. It would also be nice to know the type of camera you’re using and telescope.  

[Anne S]

There are videos on line showing how to process duoband images. Generally you need to separate the colour channels so you have separate red, green and blue images. Ha =red, Oiii= green and blue. You can then adjust stretch for individual channels and recombine in different colour ways. You can even create a Hubble palate version, there's a video on Sgl, I think it's in image procession section, that describes how to do it.

I did the attached image from an Atik428 OSC using the method some years ago. The filter was an L enhance, which isn't as good as your filter.

Anne

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Anne S
Add info

[WolfieGlos]

Great result for a first image, well done! Agree with Elp regarding the black point, but processing will come with time - all in experience sadly.

I take it you went with the asi 2600mc in the end then? 

[Mr Green]

6 hours ago, Elp said:

The filter works like magic doesn't it?

It's a pretty great image, for me it looks like you've clipped the black end of the histogram when levels stretching, as odd as it may seem even if the emptiness of space is black, when I'm processing astro images I tend to keep it a little on the greyer side, and some of the really faint stuff will remain in there.

Hi Elp,

Firstly, thank you for all the help and advice you've given me on my starting out thread. It's helpful people like yourself that has made this possible for me.

The L-Extreme has blown my mind and a huge step up from my DSLR.

Your point on the histogram is valid, I used the black point dropper on the background as my very last part of processing and felt as though it made the nebula pop more. I did sacrifice a very small amount of outer gasses but might crop the image slightly to get rid of the egg shaped stars.

[Mr Green]

27 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Great result for a first image, well done! Agree with Elp regarding the black point, but processing will come with time - all in experience sadly.

I take it you went with the asi 2600mc in the end then? 

Hi Wolfie, I did indeed go for the ASI 2600mc Pro and managed to pocket the last one that FLO had instock when black Friday prices started.

I'll consider not using the black point dropper next time.

[Mr Green]

2 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Hello @Mr Green.   Nice image. I wish my early images had been as good as that one. I agree with @Elp’s comment. It would also be nice to know the type of camera you’re using and telescope.  

Thanks for the kind words.

Equipment used was Sky Watcher Evostar 72ED scope, Star Adventurer GTI mount & ZWO 2600mc pro.

[Mr Green]

1 hour ago, Anne S said:

There are videos on line showing how to process duoband images. Generally you need to separate the colour channels so you have separate red, green and blue images. Ha =red, Oiii= green and blue. You can then adjust stretch for individual channels and recombine in different colour ways. You can even create a Hubble palate version, there's a video on Sgl, I think it's in image procession section, that describes how to do it.

I did the attached image from an Atik428 OSC using the method some years ago. The filter was an L enhance, which isn't as good as your filter.

Anne

Hi Anne,

I wanted to try hubble image processing but could only find a video for splitting colour channels via Pixinsight. 

If there's a way of doing it via PS or Siril, please feel free to share a link to a video guide.

I will have a lot of time on my hands to practice before the sky is clear again.

[Elp]

In PS, there should be a pane on the RHS with a tab "channels". You simply select which r, g, b you want to view separately, select the whole image and copy, paste into a new document. Haven't done it my self but Im usually doing something with that pane when making other images.

[alacant]

42 minutes ago, Mr Green said:

feel free to share a link to a video guide

Hi
I don't much care for false colour, but if you want to have a go with osc data, this Siril video makes it easy.
If you're into this on a regular basis, you may wish to consider StarTools which has a dedicated composition module.

BTW, you'll probably find that a UHC filter gives better results than a duo band; prominent colours, you get to keep the blue and far gentler on the finances!
Here is some UHC HOO stuff we did.
Cheers and HTH

Edited November 26, 2023 by alacant

[Mr Green]

8 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi
I don't much care for false colour, but if you want to have a go with osc data, this Siril video makes it easy.
If you're into this on a regular basis, you may wish to consider StarTools which has a dedicated composition module.

BTW, you'll probably find that a UHC filter gives better results than a duo band. 
Cheers and HTH

Thanks for the video link, I'll check it out along with StarTools.

I don't have a UHC filter but was planning on adding more data with the Optolong L-Pro at some point to see what that would do.

[alacant]

5 minutes ago, Mr Green said:

I don't have a UHC

Well worth a go. The 2" version is around €30. Not sure where you are but they also have a European warehouse. e.g. ~5 days to Spain.

[Mr Green]

10 minutes ago, alacant said:

Well worth a go. The 2" version is around €30. Not sure where you are but they also have a European warehouse. e.g. ~5 days to Spain.

I'll definitely look into a UHC filter, that's cheap for this hobby, let's be honest.

I'm a southerner now living in St Helens (near Liverpool).

That siril video was very interesting, will be trying that out later today for sure.

[WolfieGlos]

15 minutes ago, Mr Green said:

I'll definitely look into a UHC filter, that's cheap for this hobby, let's be honest.

I'm a southerner now living in St Helens (near Liverpool).

That siril video was very interesting, will be trying that out later today for sure.

I’ve done it a few times in Siril, using my lenhance filter. Takes a few try’s and playing with the settings to get a desirable result. Most recent I did is here;  https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415494-heart-and-soul-54hour-6-panel-mosaic/  in a post further down. Funnily enough on the same target.

Best of luck, can’t wait to see what you can do 🙂

 

[Mr Green]

1 hour ago, WolfieGlos said:

  https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415494-heart-and-soul-54hour-6-panel-mosaic/  

 

This looks amazing, you've done a great job with this mosaic. That many hours of integration would take me months to achieve.

[Mr Green]

Hubble palette is definitely out of reach for me at the moment unfortunately. Spent a couple of hours in siril with no luck getting anything but the golden colour. 

I might try it with an easier target like the California nebula in the future 👍

[Ouroboros]

On 26/11/2023 at 11:43, alacant said:

I don't much care for false colour

Blimey! I thought it was just me!  

[IDM]

Deep Space Astro has an automated Siril script for Hubble pallet if you want to try something easily. If you are using Siril then his other tutorials are also superb.

Cheers

Ian

 

[alacant]

3 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

I thought it was just me!

LOL.  At the risk of putting Optolong out of business, I'm sure the craze will pass.
Take butter for example. Next year, it's bad for you.

Cheers and with my sincerest apologies to the OP, but please keep the reds coming, do.

Edited November 27, 2023 by alacant

[ollypenrice]

ELP is right, but you white point is also clipped. Here's your image with its histogram in Photoshop.

A healthy histogram looks like this. (I'll use my own Heart Nebula here.)

On the left to right axis the histogram goes from dark pixels to bright. On the vertical axis it shows the pixel count at a given brightness.

What we see in your histo is no thin line on the left. That's because you have 'black clipped' your data, cutting out pixels with slightly more light than the background sky. This leaves you with a jet black background sky and your faintest signal discarded.

On the right hand side we see, also, that the line exiting the graph is not dead flat either. Your brightest pixels and your slightly less-then-brightest have been cut off before they can be distinguished from each other.

This is, without doubt, the most common beginner error and is easily fixed, but only by stretching from scratch. When it's clipped, it's clipped.

It is very tempting to try to fix sky gradients by clipping them out. My advice is never to do this. Gradients must be fixed by gradient removal tools which are now many and various - and very good.

Olly

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by ollypenrice

[Mr Green]

Thanks Olly, very helpful of you to go to the length you've gone with viewing the histogram.

It's my first proper image and will hopefully improve my processing skills (or lack of) with practice. 👍

 

[Mr Green]

2 hours ago, IDM said:

 

 

Appreciate the video link, I think I watched this last night and will be trying hubble again when I get the time.

I think I might need to use some different settings in DSS as well.

[Mr Green]

So I managed to get a couple of hours on the Elephant Trunk nebula last night and thought that this would be a good target to practice the hubble palette with.

I took 5 minute subs at gain 100 with the L-Extreme as I did with the heart nebula, went into DSS to stack my images.... and hit an issue I've not had yet. 

Star detection was between 4 & 9 stars with the detection slider all the way down to 2% therefore couldn't stack my images.

Have to say I was a bit gutted! 

Is this a common problem with this target when using the L-Extreme filter and would I need to raise the gain or exposure.... or both to have success?

Honestly no idea where I went wrong as the individual subs looked good and I was perfectly focused and tracking was also on point.....

[Elp]

Sometimes if DSS does this theres usually an issue with the stars, have you made sure they're round? You can look at each fits if they're loaded as the lights and use your mouse cursor to hover over a star in each image to see if the zoomed in preview in the corner shows them as being round.

Lextreme is fine on this target as it's a popular narrowband one too.