Horse head with colour added

[Paul Haese]

Added colour last night to the Ha data.

Detail looks good but lots of noise, not really all that bright either and of course there is a horrid reflection on the left hand side.

However, this is my best effort at this object with this focal length. I welcome your thoughts on the image, how to improve it and where I am going wrong.

Click Here (http://paulhaese.net/HorseheadHaRGB.html)

[CoolhandJo]

This shot is halfway between a wider (traditional) view of the area, and a Horse Head close up. This needs to be considered when viewing as the overall appeal will be different pending taste. Personally I think this is a brilliant image that focuses on the Horse head (with great detail) yet gives the viewer a taste of the surrounding region. I am watching with interest the performance of the QSI range of cameras and this image is good. I can see two relfections (left and right). Any idea of what is causing that in your optical train? Also, not sure if its my monitor but the iamge looks alittle grainy (not much). HAve you used any noise reduction filters?

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Paul, I am just trying to get this nailed. The reflection seems to be present on really bright stars. I suspect it is the distance between the filter wheel and the sensor is at fault. The narrow gap could be producing just enough reflections of the secondary in the image. I could be wrong but that is my guess.

The QSI is a nice camera. I plan on doing some wide field work with it soon and I am sure it will produce much better results than I have now.

[Paul Haese]

Reprocessed, take a look if you like.

[TrevorW]

I like Paul well done

as pointed out maybe a tad too dark

Cheers

[Paul Haese]

Trevor mate I would love to make it brighter. I need about 5 hours of luminence yet and another 3 hours of Ha. It should be pretty bight then.

[leinad]

Great image Paul.

Was your RGB data collected in 10min sets? 6x10 6x10 6x10 ?

Comparing against the Ha shot you took(I don;t know if you included that Ha data with this HaRGB) it looks like the detail has been washed out.

Layers with some Ken Crawford techniques might assist there in processing, and pushing that Ha detail out?

EDIT: ahh more Lum and Ha. Looking forward to reprocess :)

[Paul Haese]

Yes the subs were 10 minute subs but 2x2 binned. The Ha was 1x1.

I use Ken's techniques for sharpening but this has to be done lightly with not enough data.

[multiweb]

That's nice. Colours turned out really good. Of course you'll always need more data on any HH but it's a superb pic as it is. Up close and plenty of details. Well done. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

I recon that's a fine Horsehead Paul. :thumbsup:

The artifacts and noise are easily dealt with.


MIke

[gregbradley]

Gee whiz Paul harsh self criticism. I don't know if the version I looked at now is a later repro but it looks very good.

Reflections in Horsehead shots plague most scopes. It isn't much of a test of your RC as many scopes have a problem with this one.

On another forum a guy with an A&M RC had reflection problems and flocking around the secondary shield solved his. Perhaps that may help.

Horsehead is best shot with either no luminance filter or with a clear filter. You get a brighter image faster.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Greg thanks for the tip on the luminence. I have a clear filter but it is IR I think. I was thinking of doing 3 hours of luminence on it and adding that to the Ha for brightness or combining via the screen function in PS. Would this be ok? Or do you think just doing straight luminence is better?

Yep I am my worse critic. I am forever striving to obtain that one special image, no matter if it is planetary, DSO, Solar or terrestrial. I guess that will never happen though as I will always find something to work on.;)

Mike, would love to know how to sort the artifacts. A brief tut would be helpful.

Thanks all once again for the comments.

[AlexN]

Looking good Paul.. As you say, could be brighter, but it definitely looks the goods thus far! :)

With the Lum layer, As Greg said, the C filter is the go... as you can amass some serious data really really quickly that way.. I'd blend the C data with the Ha, and also blend the Ha say 30/70 with the R channel... So you'd have L+Ha R+Ha G B mapped as LRGB... That way you'll really give it a good strong Ha kick whilst also having tons of data from the C filter, and maintaining the colour balance in the reds... Its a constant game of trial and error I've found...