Would anyone like to take a crack at processing my image of M42?

[White Rabbit]

Hi guys.

I'm putting up my image of M42 for anyone who wants to have a crack at it. The reason I'm doing this is I'm need to find out where my short coming lie, either my gear is the limiting factor or my processing chops. I suspect it's both.
I'll post my version of this shortly after I rework if for the 15th time, but I'd really like to see what someone with better skills than I have can do with my data.

From memory these things never get much interest so we'll see.

So here is a down load link to the tiff. Free to anyone who wants to tinker with it.
files.me.com/sandy073/89a55p


Details as follows:

Taken over three nights. from Haberfield sydney. My sky glow is quite significant.

4h 30min 50sec
5DmkII
iso 800
Orion 102 refractor
WO reducer
CLS light poloution filter hence the blue cast.
Darks were taken at the time using the the cameras ICNR
flats and darkflats where used.
Bias frames subtracted as well.
File size is 144mb
I'd love to see what you guys can do but also would love some feed back if there is anything obviouse that I could be doing better.

Thanks

[Peter.M]

Lovely image you have there, I am by no means experienced at processing but here is my short effort. Just some levels in photoshop vibrance / saturation and some sharpening.

[Peter.M]

Also, Im happy to help if this is different to what you are getting. But without you posing a processed image that might be hard to tell.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Weeee!! Free data!!
I'll give it a whirl.
Thanks.

[asimov (John)]

Yep, even I am having a crack Once it finishes downloading with my really slow connection that is..

[White Rabbit]

Ok, here is my finished one. as mentioned I've had a crack at this about 15 times. This is by far the best result I've had, I cant stress how enough how different this turned out compared to all the rest. I'm actually quite happy with it, and is not indicative of my usual work.

I would have expected more nebula though for 4.5 hours.

I used pixinsight for every thing, and followed a few tutorials on Harrys Astro Shed. I think thats what made the difference.

Thanks

[DavidU (Dave)]

Nice data there.

[DavidU (Dave)]

Nice data there.

[matty84 (Matthew)]

Thought i would have a crack aswell, here it is. Nice work by the way

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I got this funky blue halo thing happening in mine.

[TrevorW]

I had a quick go came up with a cropped version although some more time spent could produce more core detail

also don't know but had an issue with blotchiness in the background when applying curves

thanks

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

This would be fun as a regular monthly thing. Not a contest, just as learning and practice exercise.

[bojan]

Quick, 5 minutes processing using only DPP.

It is very rough as I am not sure how it will look like on proper monitor (I used Lenovo lap for this job, because I am on business trip, in Beijing - and no other monitor is at hand).
There is some very high quality data here

Second attempt..

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Since I was quite fresh with the object I provide you my interpretation as well.
PixInsight:
- Crop
- DBE
- Backgrount neutralization and color balance
- Istogram transormation
- HDR wavelet
- Multiscale sharpening
- Noise reduction

Than in PS a couple fo final touches and color boosting. It seems a lot but all took less than 10 mins..

Clear Skies
Marco

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Gave it another shot. I'm really happy with this version.

[h0ughy (David)]

quick and nasty

[bartman (Bart)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

This would be fun as a regular monthly thing. Not a contest, just as learning and practice exercise.

I agree!
Good to see what people interpretation of the data could be, with varying levels of experience too!
Cheers
Bartman

[White Rabbit]

Wow, thanks for all the effort guys. There are some really good renditions here.
Mark C, my process was pretty much the same as yours.

So it seems that everyone thinks that quality is not an issue with my image aquisition. Thats good to know.
As I said I was expecting to have a lot more detail in the nebulosity, so I thought that I just didnt have the knowlege to tease it out.

Well thanks guys, I did learn somthing.

Again thanks to everyone for participaiting, I agree it would be fun to do it again. I actually have some data colected on the tarantula nebula that I i'll put up next week unless someone else wants to submit something.

Thanks

[White Rabbit]

Perhaps I'll set up a gallery page on my mobile be so people can upload their images at a much better res.

[irwjager (Ivo)]

The obligatory StarTools repro...

EDIT: The data is good enough, so I added another version showing the core, for those who don't mind a bit more over the top high-dynamic-range interpretation of M42. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of heavy HDR treatments.