Here is one I prepared earlier, 40 minutes of M42 processed by me

[Screwdriverone]

Hi All,

Well, after learning, learning, learning, frustration, hair tearing, grumbles, waiting for progress indicators and giving up a few times after using 3 separate computers to try and speed things up, I have finally processed my own M42 image with data taken on 12/1/12 from my backyard.

There was moonwash in the sky and no coma corrector as I was having the cranks with mirrors, longer screws and bad collimation so I ditched it all, and simply whacked the DSLR on the scope with the original screws and put up with the horrendous coma, more as an exercise in technique and exposure length/SNR/Sky pollution/processing.....

So, here is my result of 3 and a half days of being a processing noob.....

I must say, after my head banging, cursing, screaming and ranting with PS CS3, GIMP, Nebulosity, DSS etc etc, I finally got the hang of the excellent tools (well maybe 25% of them) in Star Tools exclusively and came up with this.....

Please forgive my noobie sins, but I encourage comments and critiques as it helps me understand what I need to do to improve....

The good news moving forward is that these were all taken in RAW, yay for me...no more icky JPEGS to worry about.....but DAMN! 8Mb per sub and 60Mb stacks to work with!!!! :eyepop:

By the way, its not a full frame as Startools autocropped when fixing coma using the lens tool, but I no care.....I will get the hang of repair and go full frame (or get the MPCC sorted soon)

Image details:

Location: Kellyville Ridge NSW
Captured: 12/1/12 between 11:00pm and 11:50pm
Camera: Unmodded Canon 1000D Prime Focus
Capture Mode: RAW
Captured with: Backyard EOS (LOVE this)
Light Frames: 10 x 240 secs (total 40 mins) at ISO 100
Dark frames: 1 x 240 secs
Flat frames: none (yeah yeah, I know, I know!....)
Bias frames: see above....:(
Scope: Skywatcher BD200N on HEQ5 Pro guided with PHD/SPC900NC through Orion 50 mm Mini guidescope

Post Processing Used: Stacked in DSS, Slight luminance boost, processed in Startools 1.1.126 ONLY.

Thanks for looking, I hope I am improving and not committing too many sins, I have more to sort out with the scope, but then.....look out....hopefully...;)

Here (http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz141/Screwdriver1/Astrophotos/firstsuccessfulM42STprocessed160112 .png) is a link to an uncompressed PNG on Photobucket (16Mb)

Cheers

Chris

[Mighty_oz]

Hey not bad, seems to have a little less nebulousity than i would have thought for 40 mins with a 200mm scope even at the 100 asa ? Try upping it to 400 or 800, why even 1600 will still give reasonable results with the grain.
I'm sure u can pull more out of it :)
Now your on your way , exciting yes :)

Marcus.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Marcus,

Yes, there is more there but until I tried to keep the core tight with the low ISO and there is a LOT of skyglow and moonwash when I captured these so I didnt want to blow the core by stretching it too much or clipping the black like I normally do, so I tried a softly softly approach.

Some of the coma fixing has left some strange effects behind, near the core, but its better than coma, I have noticed the diffraction spikes also suffered from the repair module....need the MPCC in line to eliminate the need to process the faults out!

As you say, I am on my way, this was predominately a test with exposure length and more importantly some smooth data without a lot of high ISO noise and pollution so I could test out Star Tools with some better data.

Once I sort out the final bits such as coma, exposure length and masking different exposures in processing, I will be hopefully churning out some nicer, smoother and deeper images.

Cheers

Chris

[LightningNZ]

Hi Chris,

The black is being heavily clipped it seems. Any chance of getting to play with result straight out of DSS? One thing I've learnt is to never try and do any further processing in DSS, it's too cumbersome to get far. As soon as DSS has done its magic I save the resulting image and reopen it in PhotoShop.

Cheers,
Cam

P.S. One way to keep the detail in the middle down (since you're using PhotoShop) is to duplicate the image into another layer. Process one like you've done here to keep the bright details and another to keep the faint details, merge them as you see fit. You can do most of this just with the Curves too, but not everything.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Cam,

Thanks, I will try the tip of stacking only in DSS and process in Photoshop or like I did here, in Startools.

Thing is, I am a complete noob when it comes to processing, so I was bumbling around for hours before I changed some settings in Startools and found the "slight" changes that made a difference but tried not to over do it...RAW files and TIFF are SOOOO big, compared to JPG it takes 30 mins just to stack a decent set on my cruddy PC's. Forget about processing, I have to shave while I wait for change to show its result on the display....:(. I even had to borrow my son's Quad Core AMD 3.2Ghz Phenom X4 system to stack three sets of data so I didnt go insane waiting for my laptop to grind its way through it......

I am learning the tricks of layers in PS now, this pic was basically exclusively run through about 3 modules in Star Tools and it turned out quite nice, a good start, so I will keep playing with this data set and capture some more to hopefully get better as I go.

Sometimes I jump in when I have a nice"ish" looking result as I have spent so long processing badly that its almost a relief to throw it out there for comment because my brain has turned mushy from looking at the same thing for hours with no discernable improvements....and I need some feedback to keep me sane.

Frustrating, but challenging. I am still keen so just need some more play time and some more targets to get my teeth into.

Cheers

Chris

[LightningNZ]

Hi Chris,

I know exactly what you mean about it taking 30 minutes to complete the stacking. I have a new PC now and it only takes about 2 minutes. In some ways at least computers have continued to improve at a crazy rate.

If it's any consolation, I never fiddle with DSS at all. I just leave it on the default settings. Maybe if I took heaps of subs and I knew some were marginal I'd put it on sigma-clip rather than median or average and tell it to stack just the 85% best images or something. Otherwise I just throw the lot in and go to bed. The real fun is in the PhotoShopping or whatever anyway.

There are some great image processing tutorials out there on the web. There probably are some good ones here but I haven't checked. Cloudynights is a goldmine of good tips and information.

Unfortunately my ability to process images has now far outstripped any ability to take said images... :shrug:

I'm sure there's quite a lot to be seen in your image that's currently not there. I'm currently laid up with chicken pox, so if I can be of any help then I'd grateful for the opportunity.

Best,
Cam

[Ross G]

Nice shot Chris.


Natural and smooth.

Ross.

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Ross, I keep coming back to the data and playing with it, but I too like how this one is subtle, not too overprocessed...

Cheers



Hi Cam,

Frustrating is the word for processing on sub standard PCs....!

I do a small change in Startools and then wait for 3 mins to see it render the result, drives me nuts. I have been using my dual core work laptop but its slightly less painful. I need to commandeer the kid's quad core 4GB RAM dedicated graphics card beasts to grind away, but getting them off them during school holidays is harder than finding a performing investment in Europe these days....;)

Shoot me your email address via PM Cam, and I can add you to the google docs folder where I have this and some flame nebula data stored and you can go to town if you like....sorry to hear about the chicken pox, I had shingles a few years back and that was worse than the original chicken pox....drives you nuts it does....

Cheers

Chris