Horsehead & NGC 2023

[Atmos]

Still working on how to deal with some reflections on the wider field but I wanted to see what was showing up on a tight crop. I’m slowly getting closer to figuring out a way with pixel math for neatly removing reflections without leaving any other artefacts.

Processing has been very minimal in PI and then some sliders moved on Lightroom for a bit of a bump.

9.5 hours of data has vastly helped over the original 3.4 hours I had with the dusty regions.

[Imme]

That's looking really good Colin, Great color!

It's such a beautiful target........yet so hard to image well due to those nasty bright star reflections.

Well done, love it

[Mickoid]

Nice capture Colin, framing with NGC 2023 in there to add a bit of colour variation to the shot looks good too. What scope did you use to maintain fairly good detail in the crop?

[strongmanmike]

Lovely colouring Col, is that the 8"F3?

Mike

[Atmos]

Thanks Jon, I found that there was quite an increase in colour variation going from 3.4 to 9.5 hours of data. I’ve got around the 15 hour mark but I’ve only selected the best FWHM data. I’m thinking about doing a full set at some stage just to see how it compares.




Thanks Michael^2 ;) :lol:
It was taken with the 8” F/3 and an ASI094 giving a pixel scale of 1.67”/pixel. OSC under dark skies is really growing on me, simpler than dealing with filters and although there is some absolute resolution loss, it’s still doing well.

[DavidU]

Colour is super, awesome work Col.:thumbsup:

[codemonkey]

Nice one Colin. Lovely depth to the horsey, it's clearly showing that nice 3d look.

[multiweb]

Looks great Colin. Lovely colors. :thumbsup:

[Nikolas]

Looking great mate

[Atmos]

Thanks Dave, lots fo data really helps with the colour :thumbsup:


Thanks Lee, I’m finding I need to move images over to Lightroom to get the extra bit of pop and colour out of images. I’m sure there are ways of doing things in PI but Lightroom has nice and simple sliders :lol:



Thanks Marc :)



Thanks Nik :)

[JA]

That's excellent for such a tight crop. The whole vista will be great to see.

Best
JA

[gregbradley]

Its quite nice but a bit soft. I wonder if some selective sharpening on the Horse would lift it and add some pop.

Reflections are tricky. On Photoshop the best trick is to use masks and background replacement tools.

Consider also making a baffle for the front of your Riccardi. Some scopes have issues with reflections more than others.

Greg.

[marco]

Nice one Colin, very good color balance in particular!
Cheers
Marco

[Bart]

Giddy up! Nice shot, great detail, nice close up, gorgeous colour.

[Atmos]

It is at 1.67"/pixel with a OSC so it isn't exactly "sharp" per say haha
I've never really got my head around sharpening, not without it being a bit too destructive anyway. I'm slowly working my way towards a drizzled image that I'm hoping to be able to run some light deconvolution on to help.

You're definitely right about some designs being more prone to reflections than others, this is possibly one of the worst for it :lol: It does have a front baffle at the end of the "light shield" and I have in the past considered talking to Stefan about the idea of adding another shield to the current one (giving it an extension) but it's only really an issue in parts of the sky where there are a few brighter stars around.

I'm currently undergoing some tests to figure out a way remove all of the reflections in PixelMath and I think I'm pretty much there. Should know in an hour or so whether or not my idea works :D



Thanks Marco, I've learnt that the best way to colour balance is not to use the PixInsight PPC script, that never seems to come out right for me.



Thanks Bart, given it's at 1/67"/pixel I'm pretty happy with the detail. It's not meant to be a super high resolution shot :)

[Paul Haese]

Great colour Colin. A tight field of view makes this image.

[topheart]

Very nice Colin!

I also find reflections to be a showstopper and haven't found a good way with software processing for them yet....

:(

Cheers,
Tim

[Atmos]

Thanks Paul, it was Martins recent 60 hour image that had me curious about what a tight crop would look like, lacks the serious resolution of his image but it's not really comparing apples to apples ;)



Thanks Tim,

I'm currently working on the wider field and I think late last night I figured out how to do it. Attached is the 284 subs which have been Max stacked (not average or median) to show all of the satellites, hot pixels but most importantly, reflections.

My original night was centred on NGC 2024 (Flame) but the two subsequent nights were on the Horsehead. The reflections move around a bit on either side of meridian, dithering and what could be considered a LARGE dither, different centre of image. Technically what I have is four images that I can use to remove select reflections from various parts of the image as they show in one stack but not another stack.

[codemonkey]

Oh wow, those are some nasty reflections! Looking forward to seeing the final result.