NGC 6723 - 1st image post here

[vlazg]

This is my first post on this forum, the only way to improve is to be scrutinised by experts.

13 x 5min -RGB Baader
FLT 132, Atik 11000, SGPro, PHD2, PixInsight.

Taken here in the tropics, ambient temperature was 20 deg, with some smoke haze due to the constant burning up here. Cooler was operating at near 100% so about -13deg was about the best i could do.

Any comments most welcome. Don't hold back

George higher res but still jpeg http://www.astrobin.com/full/253767/0/

[Andy01]

Hi George, nice first post on the Deep Space Forum! :thumbsup:
Well done, I'm thinking that's your best image to date :)
Colour & details look good, but can you pls post a link to a high res version so we can have a proper look?
Cheers
Andy

[Atmos]

It looks nice so far, nice FOV. The dust is showing up well :)

[vlazg]

Thanks Andy and Col, posted a link to Astrobin but still a jpeg


http://www.astrobin.com/full/253767/0/

[Atmos]

What I would suggest doing is drizzle integrating, you'll be surprised just how much more shows up :) I usually drizzle and my camera already has pixels half the size of yours! Makes the stars a lot nicer and brings out a bit more detail.

[DJT]

Excellent first, George.
Great framing and the processing looks good on the jpeg.

[Placidus]

Very fine image, George. Nice feeling for the area.

[vlazg]

Thanks David, Mike and Trish.

Col, i've tried with drizzle and i think it has improved, more detail, less busy

[Stevec35]

Looks good to me. Nice tiny stars and good colour. What's not to like?

Cheers

Steve

[RickS]

Great job, George! My only suggestion is to bring out a little more colour in the stars.

Cheers,
Rick.

[vlazg]

Thanks Steve, its great when things come together.
and thanks Rick, would a star mask inverted in PI work if i saturated it or is there a better method ?

[Atmos]

That's what I usually do but there may be a better way.

[Andy01]

Got Photoshop?
There are some easy actions you can download that enhance star colour.
Just google Astronomy Tools &/or Annies Astro Actions.
Both work well, and have a bunch of other useful goodies.
Cheap as chips too :)

[vlazg]

I tried those Andy but they seem to affect the whole image and not just the stars.
I tried a duplicate layer and then a copy of the original as a mask which seemed to produce more control

[MarkMas]

I haven't done anything like this, Looks great to me.

[vlazg]

Thanks Mark

[vlazg]

Revised version, i really like the look of this area.
Andy and Rick, i tried to enhance the colour of the stars, using a masked stretch in Pix seems to be a great technique for controlling stars and the new Neat image v8 for photoshop is great.

[Andy01]

Looks good George, much sharper and more definition. :)
There's a bit of a yellow/green colour cast showing now though.
A few more tweaks and I think you'll have a cracking image :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Quite a lot of colour in the stars now, George. Some colour tweaking as suggested by Andy and you'll really be in business.

[vlazg]

Thanks Andy, i worked on it in the second image posted, i think it is improved



Thanks Rick, what further colour tweaking do i need , i am at a loss as to where to go from here,

[gregbradley]

George.

You need a few tools. First is the HLVG free plug in for Photoshop from Andrea Rogelio. This is similar to the ACDNR tool in Pixinsight. It gets rid of excess green in an image. Its very handy as light pollution and airglow is greenish and the excess green throws off colour balance.

http://www.deepskycolors.com/archive/2010/04/26/hasta-La-Vista-Green.html

That will correct the excess green easily. Medium strength will work here.

Some of the stars are excessively yellow/red. Best to select the brighter stars (the best tool around for that is Noel Carboni Photoshop actions "select brighter stars". Once selected you'll need to expand the selection probably about 5 pixels so the circle of selection covers the outer halo.

Now you simply use the saturation tool to reduce reds/yellows or just saturation generally. If you hit control H the selection circles will be hidden and you will be able to see the effect of your changes easily. If you have too large a selection circle then the background will be affected and you don't want that as it could leave ugly circles of different colour. So its good practice to feather the selection say 3 pixels so any changes feather out to nothing and don't leave a harsh edge of correction.

The globular cluster colour looks a little off and it should really be brighter as its a bright little glob.

Overall an excellent image and its a bit of tough area because you have massive dynamic range where the glob is very bright, those 2 central hot stars are very bright and then there are very dim dust areas.

The 2nd of the 2 bright stars in the blue reflection nebula is shown as yellow. I have never seen that before and I am assuming its some sort of processing artefact or is it real? Images I have taken and others show both those stars as blue. So its got me wondering now.

Greg.

[vlazg]

WOW :) Thanks Greg, i will work on it and see how it turns out using your suggestions

[vlazg]

Greg, i tried your version to desaturate the stars but could not use HLVG as i use a mac so i went from ps to pix and used the scnr and then back to ps to finish.
I think you get the stage after many processes of the same image you can't see the forest for the trees but i think this is better

[gregbradley]

Ah yes well done. Now that is nicely done now. It looks great now.

Greg.

[Andy01]

Well done George, you nailed it! :thumbsup:

Nice work and a testimony to your persistence. :)