1st image for a while... need advice....

[Lee]

After a bit of an imaging break.... I'm back into it. Now with the observatory I feel I can keep climbing the learning curve bit by bit, rather than starting fresh with alignment night after night!
This image is basically a test shot for Nebulosity, captured under the moon last week.
It is 5x1min subs, luminance (UV filter only), with darks and flats applied. Captured/aligned etc with Nebulosity through ED80/DSI Pro II, converted to a 16-bit TIFF and then stretched in PS CS2, only since my stretching experience is very limited, am unsure if I have under/over done it...... It seemed smoother before I started stretching it.

I have posted the stacked .fit file here (http://www.betweentheclouds.com/sculptor-stack-dark-flat-60s.fit) (900K) if someone would like to have a quick go, show me what I'm missing??? Thanks.....

[[1ponders]]

Lee can you upload a tif one as well. Being at work I cant access programs that will open fits ;)

[[1ponders]]

Lee is your DSI a colour or mono? When I opened the jpeg in PS and stretched it I found what looked like a baayer matrix pixellation.

[Lee]

Okey dokey.... link (http://www.betweentheclouds.com/sculptor-60s.tif)

[Lee]

Mono.... :shrug:

[[1ponders]]

I don't know what is going on with the interlace problem (that is what it looks like) but I had a quick play with it. Do you have an outside lightsource that could be polluting your capture as there was a strong gradient from upper left to lower right.

I'd check your capture settings as well to see if there is an interline option there.

btw the monitors at work aren't the best to try and do image processing on :) it will probably be a bit light on your monitor as these are pretty dark

doesn't look like I got much more noise out than you except by darkening the background

[DeanoNZL]

Hi Guys,
Lee, When you align & combine your darks, did you deselect "adaptive scale to 16 bit"
I use Neb for my Starshoot & 400d, and have had to redo the dark master when I have seen this pattern.
Sometimes, it seems that it gets it wrong.
Hope this helps:thumbsup:

[Lee]

I've noticed that before..... will look into that more....



I think that's from the moon..... :shrug:

I like your result though - is that just using levels/curves???
Going to do it again in a couple of weeks, without the moon, and hopefully guiding.....

[Lee]

Not sure..... Will have a look though.... thanks :D

[ballaratdragons]

Hmmmmm, I've tried every trick in my book.
I did get it slightly smoother but at a loss of Galaxy detail.
I also placed a fake star on 2 images 1/2 a line apart (vertically), then stacked the 2 images, but it blurred a bit too much. Got rid of the lines though :lol:

[[1ponders]]

I did use levels and curves, but I also created an anti-vignetting frame to subtract from the original. As long as the original isn't too complicated (read; has too many differently shaded and toned items like M42 :scared: ) an artifical AV frame will often work wonders.

[Garyh]

Good to see you are ready to get stuck into imaging with your observatory finished..:thumbsup:
Had a fiddle with the tif and smoothed it out ok but I have also clipped out some of the fainter data...Done levels then some very fine curves adjustments then some brightness and contrast similar to what Paul done but more harsher.
Look forwards to your results when this pesty moon is out of the way!!
cheers Gary

[xelasnave]

Lee still a great effort with the DSI ... try a little blur maybe? I dont know what I am doing but I make two images ..turn one black and white ..blur the b/w a little and the merge the two... adjusting till it looks ok.

Others may be horrified but it gets it better for me...generally.

Very encouraging from my point of view I am thinking the DSI was not capable of such a good capture..I hope I can come close to your capture.

It is great not to have to polar align ..must be great to finally have it all working.
alex

[Lee]

Thanks heaps guys.... :thumbsup:
Well, I feel a bit better that I'm starting on the right track processing wise, need more exposure now - good news is my DMK and H-alpha filter arrived today! :party:

[Phil]

How long are your cables because it looks like there is interference in the signal.
Phil

[Lee]

Those subs were done with 4m of USB cable (supplied plus an extension).

[ballaratdragons]

4m won't cause that, but interference from power cables could. Does your USB cable run close to, or cross over any 240v cables?

[Lee]

It may have then - it was plugged into the rear of the computer, so would have scooted past the power lead for it.....
Now I have a powered hub, but the USB lead will cross near one 240V cable - should this be a hassle.... might have to re-route things.....
The USB cable runs in a cable run along with the 13.8V DC supply for the Gemini, but no other 240V runs.

addit - just noticed a deinterlace function in Nebulosity - seems to fix these lines.... :D

[[1ponders]]

Thought they might ;)


:D

[tornado33]

Hi
Heres my effort. I used Gradient Xterminator photoshop plugin,
http://www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator/index.html

then just tweaked Levels and Curves slightly, and used a bit of noise reduction
Scott