Help processing the Sadr region

[Pangolino Astronomico]

Hi guys!
I took a photo of the Sadr region using a Canon EOS 500D, stacking 7 photos with 4 mins exposure and ISO 800 each. I tried to process it with Siril and Graxpert, but since I am new to astrophotography I don't really know what the result should be, so I don't know if I am doing the right things. I attach here the initial stacked fits image and my attempt. Can you help me with some quick processing (I don't want to waste your time) so that I understand what is the direction to follow?

 

result_1680s.fit

[TiffsAndAstro]

trying a "quick preview process" on this atm. having internet issues because virgin media are a fantastic company, so bare with me

also, lol, my pc is old so i might have to bin your image 2x2 to stop starnet blue screen of deathing it.  so it will be a quarter of the size

Edited August 30 by TiffsAndAstro

[TiffsAndAstro]

i think this came out pretty nice for a quick 20 minute process. Im certain other would do much better.

did a tiny crop, then background extraction and noise reduction in graxpert. back into siril to run starnet, stretched background, ran unpurple tool on stars in gimp to remove some slight purple fringing then put stars and starless back together in siril

 

 

[Pangolino Astronomico]

@TiffsAndAstro thank you! 😄
It is way better, I think I have to run starnet to stretch the background only because I stretched the whole image in siril.

[Pangolino Astronomico]

@TiffsAndAstro what do you think the next steps are to improve the image? (although you did an excellent job 🤩)

[TiffsAndAstro]

12 minutes ago, Pangolino Astronomico said:

@TiffsAndAstro what do you think the next steps are to improve the image? (although you did an excellent job 🤩)

honestly, ive been doing this only a few months so bare that in mind. sadly, the best thing is more total integration time. possibly many hours, depending on your gear and your light pollution situation.

more total integration time is something im trying but failing to do myself. there's so much stuff i want to image

also the reason your stars have the big blue fringing is because you're stretching the whole image and not the background seperately from the stars.

get starnet++ installed and working in siril  its pretty easy. 

[ollypenrice]

On 30/08/2024 at 14:41, Pangolino Astronomico said:

@TiffsAndAstro what do you think the next steps are to improve the image? (although you did an excellent job 🤩)

Twenty times as much exposure. That's astrophotography. Just check out the exposure times of good deep sky images here and elsewhere.

Olly

[Pangolino Astronomico]

@ollypenrice I was just trying to learn and improve my skills. Everyone starts somewhere, right? 
It even started raining that day, and I was just asking about the next steps to process my images. I thought this community was about helping each other…

[Pangolino Astronomico]

@TiffsAndAstro Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it! I’m sorry for the late response, I’ve been caught up with a few things 😄

[ollypenrice]

16 hours ago, Pangolino Astronomico said:

@ollypenrice I was just trying to learn and improve my skills. Everyone starts somewhere, right? 
It even started raining that day, and I was just asking about the next steps to process my images. I thought this community was about helping each other…

I understand that and my reply wasn't hostile. I've worked with many beginners as part of the services I offer and it genuinely can be difficult to persuade newcomers of the importance of long, long, long integration time.

When I looked at your data I found star colour but very little colour in the nebulosity. In fact I think TiffsAndAstro did well to find as much as he did. I found less. This will, in large part, be caused by the filter used on your chip. As you probably know, older DSLRs have a cut-off filter which blocks the critical H alpha line in the deep red.

Olly

[TiffsAndAstro]

i am trying harder to stick with one target, but i still feel like a kid in a candy shop. im sure that feeling drops over time, so my total integration times will go up eventually

plus weather here sucks. 

[ollypenrice]

17 hours ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

i am trying harder to stick with one target, but i still feel like a kid in a candy shop. im sure that feeling drops over time, so my total integration times will go up eventually

plus weather here sucks. 

I think everyone does this. I used to take 3 images per night and this became 3 nights per image. In the case of large mosaics, we are now in the twilight zone of 3 years per image...

lly

 

[TiffsAndAstro]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

I think everyone does this. I used to take 3 images per night and this became 3 nights per image. In the case of large mosaics, we are now in the twilight zone of 3 years per image...

lly

 

I like having the option of doing mosaics., but after veil 4panel is completed this month, I'm going to try a 2 panel on cocoon nebula (if needed to get trail)  2 panel again on m31 see if I can do better then that's it for mosaics and me, at least for a while