Leo Trio: now with more data

[OzRob]

A while ago I posted a field process of this target. I have reprocessed it with another 100 minutes of lum. The image now contains 190 minutes of lum with 10 minute subs and 40 minutes in each of RGB binned at 2x2 in 5 minute subs.

[Astroman]

Very very nice image, very clean and lots of detail, even showing the tidal tail of NGC 3628. I think with even more data you could pull out the tail some more, well done. great job.

[OzRob]

As I reported in the original thread I had a bit of a reflection problem in the top left corner of this image. It occurred in every frame over 3 nights. Data rejection reduced it but not totally. As a thanks for looking here is how I corrected it in Photoshop CS5.

To correct the problem I used the very useful content aware fill. This routine looks in the areas surrounding an area being deleted and fills the area. Here is the process I used:
- selected the area to be repaired and saved the selection.
- copied the area to a new layer (for reference and extracting stars later)
- On the original layer loaded the saved selection and hit delete. This brings up the content aware fill option window. I just hit OK.
- I then again reload the selection and copy to a new layer.
- On the new layer I selected as many stars as I could. I used the magic wand and found I could select them all.
- I then expanded the selection by 7 pixels.
- I then again deleted the selected areas and used the content aware to fill the deleted areas. I then had an area that closely matched the background on the original layer. You could also use the dust and scratches option to get rid of any dim stars not deleted.
- Returning to the first layer created with the area that contained the error I selected all the stars and a couple of galaxies that were there.
- expanded the selection enough to look natural, feathered a few pixels and copied them to a new layer.
- Just having visible the original layer, the layer with the newly created background and the layer with the stars should resulted in the corrected image.

Attached are the original corner and the corrected one. The small differences between them is due to different curves being applies to the two images. In the early stages of processing there was a lot less diference between the stars in the two images.

[Craig_L]

Very nice Rob. Lots of detail. My only comment is it worth pushing the saturation a little more for a bit more colour?

Great image.

Craig

[OzRob]

Thanks for that. Unfortunately, I suspect my data collection nights will be extremely limited between now and December. The rain has arrived early this year...:(

[starfinder]

Very, very nice. Smooth with excellent detail and nice composition. Well done. Russ

[Astroman]

A bit unfortunate, but I don't think the trio will go very far in the future, maybe next year you could add to the data? Keep dry.

[Hagar]

Very nice collection of galaxies Rob. Getting some nice detail in the dustlanes in these little treats.
Well done.

[richardo]

Looks great Rob.
The extra time with lum really helped bring some nice detail out within the galaxys lanes.
Certainly have your colours spot on.

Well done!

Rich

[multiweb]

Good stuff. Real nice. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Nice and smooth Rob. Great detail too. Nice image.