IC410 - Tadpoles - still a work in progress...

[James]

I originally started on IC410 back in January and posted the Ha data full of good intentions to get more data etc. I did get more but have only just got round to having a look at it.

Here's a go at processing the data I have, details as follows:

50x 5min Ha (Green)

50x 5min OIII (Blue)

50x 10min SII (Red)

This is nearly 17 hours of data but I don't feel the image is anything like as clean/good as it should be for the number of exposures taken. Obviously some better processing would help but in hindsight I think I really should have gone for half the number of subs but 10 minutes rather than 5 minutes for the Ha and OIII. With Auriga rising again in the east earlier I'm tempted to try for some 20 minute subs

I also need to work out how to do the equivalent of PS's Colour Select tool in PixInsight.

Taken through my Megrez 72 using a Starlight Xpress H9 camera, mounted on an EQ6, guided via PHD and a Starlight Xpress Lodestar. Captured via Nebulosity and stacked and processed in PixInsight.

Criticism welcomed, even encouraged

Here it is; IC410...

James

[MikeWilson]

That's beautiful, James.

I really like the colour palette that you've chosen, too.

[ollypenrice]

It's good but you are right about the sub length. I like the overall brightness balance very much and you have the little devils nice and clear. Only ten light years long, I believe. They are going to make some serious bullfrogs!!! Reddit.

Olly

[James]

That's beautiful, James.

I really like the colour palette that you've chosen, too.

Thank you Mike. It's meant to be the Hubble Palette but on coming into work and seeing the image on my work monitor it's pretty clear I need to invest in some decent monitor calibration equipment

....and you have the little devils nice and clear. Only ten light years long, I believe. They are going to make some serious bullfrogs!!! Reddit.

Now thats feedback :)

James

[Tim]

You aren't the only one to be pleased that these fellows are coming back around James

FWIW, when I tried this object last year, anything less than 20 mins was a waste of time for the S2 channel, that with the f5.3 MN190. The Ha is very strong, and when you do longer subs, those dark cloudy areas start to reveal a lot of structure too. The S2 tones down the edges of the tadpoles and gives them extra features and definition.

Do you use the deconvulve tool at all?

[James]

I think I'll be doing some more subs

I haven't used deconvolve yet on this ... only got as far as trying out HDRWavelets...

James

[Tim]

When you do, make sure to do the stars and background separately. If you go easy on the background, just a couple of iterations, and play with the stddev and shape a bit, you will find it helps give real definition to the denser parts of the clouds, and the tadpoles. And treating the image to Ken Crawfords layer masking edge sharpening technique would be great, but pretty tricky without PS

[James]

One of the 'joys' of Pixinsight has been figuring out how to mask things... I'm gradually getting the hang of this. One of the reasons I tend to post images as WIP's (apart from the obvious flaws or gaps) is that I know just as soon as I figure out another technique I'll be able to improve on them.

Is there help out there that encourages imagers to be able to draw a line under an image and move on?

James

[Tim]

One of the reasons I took so long to send my version of this target to Grant was that when I went to look for the file, I found that I had done, quite literally, dozens of versions, and couldnt remember which one should go

I've just seen this image with similar fov to yours (and to the one I hope to do this winter with my Borg) and thought it might be of help to you with the colours.

The guy (Neil Fleming) got APOD a few days back with another HST pallette piccy

http://www.flemingastrophotography.com/astropics/IC410-PS_color2_cropped_100pct.jpg

[James]

Yep, that's what mine looks like really - just need a little tweak on the processing

But seriously... that's what I'm aiming for, it just might take a little while to get there :-)

The big difference this winter coming compared to last is that 20 minute subs are now a doddle. Most of the subs taken last year were 5 minutes as I was too impatient to sort out a persistent flex problem.

James

[James]

Well, I did say it was a work in progress so... Almost exactly two years on I haven't made much progress with other targets occupying my attention. However, with a cloudy night (again) I thought I'd do a little reprocess from the same data for fun.

James

[Gina]

That's nice

[Darth Takahashi]

Very nice, I'm also waiting to complete this one. I already have the HA just need the other two components now.