Keyhole nebula first processing attempt

[[1ponders]]

I've followed Gary's advice first time round and converted the Tiff images to jpegs, stacked them in registax, basic adjustment with wavelets and colour balance. Then PS, black point adjustment and curves. I couldn't do much sharpening as the original was out of focus

[iceman]

Great shot, the stacked version looks much better.
I reckon you could bring out the nebula a bit more, but that's personal preference of course.

[Mick]

Lovely image Paul, when did you take it? And how many did you stack?

[[1ponders]]

Last Saturday night Mick. Only three images. ISO1600 @ 1 min each, Raw then converted to Tiff to bmp then to jpeg. Round about way I know but I'm trying each one to compare results.

I'll play around with it a bit more tonight seeing the clouds have rolled in and see what I can do with it.

[Mick]

Very good, sorry Paul one more Q are you guiding? Yes the dust has been bad up here; I hope it clears for the weekend.

[[1ponders]]

No guiding Mick. I have done an initial RA PEC training though. Maybe if I'm going to do more Alt/Az photography I'd better to a DEC PEC training too. That could be part of the problem with funny shaped stars, not just being in the Alt/Az position and getting field rotation.

The smart thing would be to start using my wedge. :)

[[1ponders]]

I tried Robby's idea this time and used PS7. Alot more work in it that's for sure, though with these images even registax was a challenge. Its hard for me to tell which would be the better process to use with these unfocused images, though I think that once I've become more familiar with PS I'll use it more often, certainly for detail processing.

Anyway here's my first attempt at full processing and stacking in PS7


ps. there was a fair bit of field rotation to take care of as well. registax rotate command handled it pretty well once I worked out how to use it. Though I like Robby's method for that more hands on approach. This image is only about 1/5 of the total image size

[iceman]

That's really nice Paul! Great shot.. A good idea to crop out the field rotation too :)

Lovely looking neb.

[Robby]

Good work Paul,
Glad you figured out the PShop method. True it is a lot more work and even more if you have field rotation alignment to deal with! I reckon the PShop image looks the best!
Well done, & looking forward to more!
Cheers

[[1ponders]]

Thanks for the support and help guys. Until I can get back outside at night I think I'll keep mucking around with it a bit more and see if I can pull some more out of it.

I'm thinking of getting a new computer, this one nearly drove me nuts last night waiting for changes to be processed. Robby do you have any suggestions as to optimum chip speed, Ram, graphics card etc. I'm currently running 1.2 Ghz chip, 256 Ram and no idea crapics card.

[iceman]

Speak to striker, he's a hardware nut.

[[1ponders]]

Good idea Mike. I'll give him a ring right now. Thanks for that.

[Robby]

Paul,
For processing I use a P4 2GHz machine with 512M Ram. Graphics card is only G-Force16 with 16M Ram.
I could do with extra CPU Ram but all in all it is ok.

I'd go for Intel Pentium P4 chipset (forget Celeron & the likes) 2GHz+, At least 512M DDR RAM (if you can afford it go for 1G), forget shared graphics Ram, go for a dedicated graphics card with 64M Ram. You probably don't need to go over the top with graphics cards unless you want to play games or do serious 3D rendering.

Hard disk size: Even the smallest will be big enough, but don't go for the cheapest as they spin slower and have slower access times. Try for one at at least 7200rpm. Most cheapies are 5600rpm.

Don't forget USB... Make sure it is USB2, although that's pretty standard now. Firewire is good too, but not essential. If you have a camcorder with Firewire output get it, as it will speed up downloads times from the camera massively.

Hope this helps. :) & I haven't blown the budget!!!

[Striker]

I have sent Paul the Specs he needs...he's going shopping today...good luck Paul and remember to ring me on my mobile if you have any questions.

Robby your pretty well spot on with your specs....

[[1ponders]]

Thanks Guys.

You'll be happy to know that thanks to your sagely advice I'm now further in debt:P

I've gone for the Dell 8400 striker with a couple of upgrades. Hopefully it will be here within a fortnight. Then I'll get some serious processing done. I also start an advanced photoshop course at TAFE at about the same time so its all coming together.

Thanks again

[Striker]

I thought you couldn't wait...you said you wanted it today....

Good choice...I dont like purchasing any computer from Harveys Norman or those big retailers......the computer are fine but you pay to much.....

Send me a Pm with the changes you made Paul......

[rumples riot]

Nice work Paul, I think the second shot looks much better than the first, your getting close to rivalling my best shots. Your shots are still a little grainy, but are definitely some thing to be proud of. Keep up the good work.