Help with guide books and tutorials for mono processing

[IDM]

Hi,

I have been doing OSC astrophotography for a couple of years but have just taken the plunge into mono imaging and so I trying to get to grips with a QHY268M camera with QHY filter wheel and Astronomik LRGBSHO filters. What I am struggling the most with is the processing. My first night out was imaging the Rosette nebula in SHO.

I have had some success stacking with DSS and using a reference frame to keep everything aligned but don’t really know what to do after that. Do you process all three images separately and then combine or combine at the beginning and stretch and process together?

I have previously done most processing with Siril and then some input from GIMP. However, mono seems so different. The image below which is far from perfect (the star colour alone are terrible) but this was done by combining the three images and doing separate colour stretches until I ended up with something.

Can someone please recommend some decent books and or Youtube tutorials so I can make some progress up this steep learning curve?

As stated I normally process with Siril and Gimp, but should I now take the plunge with some other software?

Any help and advise is gratefully received

Ian

[Clarkey]

I started with mono, then added a colour camera and had exactly the same problem. It's what you are used to.

However, to keep things simple you can combine the RGB to make a colour image and process in your 'normal' way. I don't know DSS, Siril or Gimp so I can't add specifics. I would tend to process the luminence separately as this gives all the detail. The L and RGB can then be combined. NB is maybe a bit more complex. Getting the colour balance right can be tricky (after 4 years I still struggle at times). Combining NB and RGB is probably the hardest to do well. Adding RGB stars to NB images is common, at least the stars look 'real'. However, sometimes having RGB mixed with a NB pallett can just look wrong.

I have just started using Pixinsight - which was definitely an uphill struggle. However, I'm just starting to understand the software and it has certainly improved my results compared with using APP and Affinity. I still use Affinity for some touching up of final images, but most of my processing is now done with PI. If you want to spend a few months battling with the software - then give it a go. If banging your head against a brick wall is not your idea of fun, maybe not😀

[IDM]

On 17/01/2024 at 21:03, Clarkey said:

However, to keep things simple you can combine the RGB to make a colour image and process in your 'normal' way. I don't know DSS, Siril or Gimp so I can't add specifics. I would tend to process the luminence separately as this gives all the detail. The L and RGB can then be combined. NB is maybe a bit more complex. Getting the colour balance right can be tricky (after 4 years I still struggle at times). Combining NB and RGB is probably the hardest to do well. Adding RGB stars to NB images is common, at least the stars look 'real'. However, sometimes having RGB mixed with a NB pallett can just look wrong.

Thanks for your response and you comments are helpful. I will just have to keep plugging away with the leaning curve.

Thanks,

Ian

[irandar]

I am a beginner but I do know a bit about Affinity Photo. With the macros of Affinity there is an easy way of stacking images from different filters and then choosing a composition (SHO, HSO, LRGB etc) followed by  one of many stretching methods. Also the calibration files are easily included. I have made Youtubes on this. Also there are many by James Ritson, the developer of astro with Affinity. Here is a recent one of mine. Hope this helps. Regards, Irving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMzr5EQbbQA

Astrophotography for Beginners: Affinity Photo Editing of Telescope Live Data of SMC

[wimvb]

After stacking, I combine the three master images into an RGB image, and process from there. If you don't use the RGB palette,(eg in narroeband processing) you may need to do a linear fit before combining the different masters. Linear fit puts the very lowest pixel value at 0, and the very highest pixel value at 1 (or 65000 in 16 bit), without disturbing the linear relationship between pixels.