A tepid Lagoon

[sjastro]

An experimental HaRGB image designed to preserve star colour and not lose the bluish hues that can occur when blending Ha and R data.

2 hrs Ha, 1 hr each RGB images.
BRC-250 scope and STXL-11002 CCD.

Large image.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~sjastro/LagoonHaC.jpg

Comments welcome.

Steven

[rustigsmed]

I like that a lot Steven.
nice work.

Russ

[Slawomir]

Very nice Lagoon Steven. Skillfully processed image, but a little bit too much magenta for my liking. Also, I would probably frame it differently - rotate the camera 90 degrees? Nevertheless, a nice image :thumbsup:

[topheart]

Great image Steven!

Lot's detail in the bright areas....did you use HDR techniques to process?? The Ha data comes through very strongly. I see you also have a BRC 250....you don't seem to get reflective halos with your setup.....what filter set do you use??

Cheers,
Tim

[multiweb]

Very nice details. :thumbsup:

[sjastro]

Thanks Russ.



There is a method to this madness of orientating the camera.
It's the only configuration where torque is applied rather than a side load due to the weight of the STXL11002/filter wheel assembly which would result in the chip not being square to the optical axis.

Rotating the image 90 degrees results in strange star shapes.

Thanks for your comments.



Thank you Tim.
No HDR here. I developed the process to avoid blending R into the Ha channel which results in contrast reduction.
Basically the process is to use the Ha luminance as a mask on the HaRGB image and reduce the luminance component using curves.
Still a work in progress.

Halos are definitely a problem which can be reduced by processing.
I use Baader filters for the STXL-11002 and Astrodon with my ST-X10ME.




Thanks Marc.

Clear skies

Steven

[DJScotty]

There is a lot of very fine detail in the image. Beautiful.

Just thinking about your processing... wanting to preserve the star colours when blending Ha and RGB...

Looks like Straton might be an alternative if you haven't already thought of Star Removal as a processing technique for the Ha layer...

Seems to do a fine job. haven't bought it myself YET... Might one day when the clouds disappear...

Anyway, love the image! :thumbsup:

[sjastro]

Thanks Scott.

Pixinsight does a good job in dealing with the star colours.

[sjastro]

Used the Ha mask on the HaRGB image as is without push processing the mask in curves.

A better colour balance resulted without the overwhelming magenta.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~sjastro/LagoonHaC.jpg

Steven

[Rex]

That's a stunning shot Steven, and superb processing. You can really see the curvature of the edges coming up and wrapping around the centre. Very 3D. Lovely details, and those globs look like little jelly fish swimming around in the lagoon. Well done mate, something to aspire too.

[RickS]

The second version is very nice, Steven!

[sjastro]

Thanks Rex and Rick.

Clear skies

Steven

[Geoff45]

Well, it all worked Steven. Star colours are good. The lagoon colours are nice and there's lots of delicate detail. Nicely done.
Geoff

[sjastro]

Thanks Geoff.

The next step is to apply the procedure on some old data.

Steven

[sjastro]

Rotated the image 90 degrees.

I'm reasonably pleased with the final result as contrast and star colour hasn't been compromised by avoiding blending the Ha and R data.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~sjastro/LagoonHaC_rot.jpg

Clear skies

Steven