M27 - First go with APP

[neurosis3000 (Reggie)]

First attempt using the trial version of Astro Pixel Professor and Photoshop CC.

Very low in the sky and a nearly full moon.

25 x 120s lights using ZWO Duo Band filter 1.25”.
Darks and Flats. No bias frames.

[PKay (Peter)]

Not bad at all, well done.

I find this attempt interesting for a few reasons.

1: The Dumbbell nebula is my next target, just waiting for that big bright thing to go away.

2: You have used a duo band filter.

It allows OIII (35 nm Bandwidth) and H-Alpha (15 nm Bandwidth) wavelengths whilst blocking all other wavelengths
thus reducing the effects of light pollution, natural skyglow and moon light.

3: I have taken the liberty of analysing your image to see how well the filter worked.

Firstly I zoomed in on the nebula.

There is still considerable noise to be found,
so that suggests the filter with it's relatively wide bandwidth is still affected by moonlight.

I guess careful processing to remove (subtract) background gradients would help a lot.

Just for fun, removed some noise (after masking the neb), and then pushed the saturation a bit!

And remember I am new to this as well, we are all learning in this forum.

So keep em coming!

[Craig_]

Nice effort! I've started using APP in the last month and I've been pretty impressed with it.

[neurosis3000 (Reggie)]

Originally Posted by PKay

Not bad at all, well done.

I find this attempt interesting for a few reasons.

1: The Dumbbell nebula is my next target, just waiting for that big bright thing to go away.

2: You have used a duo band filter.

It allows OIII (35 nm Bandwidth) and H-Alpha (15 nm Bandwidth) wavelengths whilst blocking all other wavelengths
thus reducing the effects of light pollution, natural skyglow and moon light.

3: I have taken the liberty of analysing your image to see how well the filter worked.

Firstly I zoomed in on the nebula.

There is still considerable noise to be found,
so that suggests the filter with it's relatively wide bandwidth is still affected by moonlight.

I guess careful processing to remove (subtract) background gradients would help a lot.

Just for fun, removed some noise (after masking the neb), and then pushed the saturation a bit!

And remember I am new to this as well, we are all learning in this forum.

So keep em coming!

Wow! I like it! I must learn how that’s done! Thanks for the tip😃

[neurosis3000 (Reggie)]

Originally Posted by Craig_

Nice effort! I've started using APP in the last month and I've been pretty impressed with it.

Yes I’ve actually got the trial of both APP and PI which was a mistake. Should have done one at a time Hahaha

Now the trials will probably expire before I get a chance to learn both. I found APP the less daunting of the two so tried it first 🤪

[Nikolas (Nik)]

APP is a very good kit as your results show

[Sunfish (Ray)]

A lot of detail and colour in the dumbbell. I expect to see more of those.

[LostInSp_ce]

Very nice looking dumbbell. Well done!