m31 first half decent atempt

[astrokat]

last night i did my first run at leaving my scope setup imaging well i went out for 3 hours over the mrs house, i think this has been some of my best data so far though not on my fav subject, i know this is goin to be hard to process so ive posted my first go at processing the beast.

question when i use curves i find the image gets brighter each time ,i do check levels each time ,though after finishing using curves five six time the screen has a bright pinky colour how do i sort this? ive been using the 3 boxes in the corner of curves!!! i hope this makes sence i have read martin process for steching ,but im dyslexic and find it easyer seeing than reading

any advice would be greatly recived

thanks toby

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[Tim]

Hi Toby. Looks like you have some very nice data there to play with. Have a read of the M31 thread started by Euan, because a lot of the same principles will apply.

You'll get the hang of curves in no time with practice. Each time you adjust them, then go back to levels and just nudge up the black point ONLY to the start of the data, as indicated by the spike.

M31 is a devil to process, huge range of brightness within it.

What processing software are you using? Photoshop?

[astrokat]

ive been pushing up the black point each time by pink brightness i mean the hole of the image should i not have to play with the three boxes in the bottom right hand corner on curves i have cs3 and noels actions

thanks toby

[Tim]

A simple technique with curves, which works for about 3 - 5 times, depending on the quality of the data is this.

After doing the initial Levels (set the black point only, by dragging the icon to a point close to but not touching the data spike)

Open curves.(Ctrl+M) Move the cursor over the image to a faint part of the galaxy, hold down CTRL, and left click. You will see a point appear on the curve line. If you now press the UP ARROW key on your keyboard, that point will rise and you will see the number for OUTPUT will go up too. Keep pressing until the output is about twice as much as the input, but still with a nice gentle curve. You can bring the top of the curve down a bit with another point if you have to to avoid blowing out the stars.

Re-do levels and repeat. the numbers will go up a bit each time. Stop when the image gets too noisy.

I do each new step in a duplicate layer, and then compare each layer with the last.

There is no substitute for practice practice practice, and you will soon find a technique that suits your style and produces results that please you, but this simple technique might help you along the way.

You'll have to come along to one of the star parties and watch one of the guys working an image perhaps.

cheers

Tim

[astrokat]

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this is how i have been doing it ,i was lucky enough to meet rob h and he showed my some of the basic steps ive had anouther go

[astrokat]

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ive had another go think its better

[greenkat]

Hi Toby

Fantastic image, so much detail .

I have had a couple of tries at M31 but get nothing like this

Can I ask how you captured it?

What scope? how many subs & exposure length ect & what camera ?

Ide be realy proud of taking an image like yours

Cheers

Greenkat

[roundycat]

strongly recommend you have a look here Mono to RGB at the first three tutorials.

Dennis

[astrokat]

thanks dennis

gk i used my will optics zenithstar 70 apo with a modded canon 1000d and my expo are only 3 min at iso 800 and there is about 60 of them then played about with in ps cs2 and a bit of noels actions

thanks toby