Orion G3 Monochrome Camera - Assumptions on how to use it

[DJScotty (Scott)]

Dear all,

I am new to this forum and relatively new to astrophotography (15 months).

I have for that period of time, been using my Canon 600D to take photos with fairly reasonable success, especially with the Astronomik CLS clip in filter. Enabled me to take the Lagoon nebula photo attached


Now, I am pretty happy with where I am with the hobby and am looking to delve into the world of CCD cameras and narrowband filters...

I have a process in my head for capturing these images, and wanted to check it with some people who know far more about AP than I do and have plenty more experience.

My proposed imaging process
1: Take the images as normal (lights, darks etc) through each of the filters (Ha, OIII, SII)
2: Process each series of images as normal in Deep Sky Stacker
3: Using Photoshop CS6, use the "Load files into stack" script
4: Convert to RGB
5: Make each image a "screen" layer
6: Adjust the colour, curves and levels of each image
7: Flatten the image
8: Make final adjustments
9: Save a beautiful Narrowand image

Does that sound about right folks?

Thanks in advance for all your help...

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Looks nice Scott. I just got myself a G3 after using a DSLR for a while, so I'll be climbing much the same CCD learning curve. Have you thought about an alternative, astronomy-specific post-processing toolset, like Startools or Nebulosity, rather than just PS? What scope are you using? (must be a quite short FL to get all of the Lagoon in the G3 FOV!)

[DJScotty (Scott)]

I'm using a skywatcher 8" f5 scope.
The Lagoon was taken with my Canon 600D. Haven't got the G3 yet, which is good as it is very cloudy here in Brisbane!
And, no havent really thought about those programs yet. Still trying to get the hang of PS.
Thanks for the reply!

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

G'day Scott,

If you were thinking about Nebulosity I can confirm that it is great, I mainly use it for all my post processing and stacking before moving to something like PS for touching up the colours ect. I have recently purchased StarTools and it is quite a nice program, a lot of in depth features and a little bit of a learning curve but really good for filling the gap between Nebulosity and PS.

I haven't done colour mono imaging before, but it sounds like your work flow should work.

A nice job on M8, I have almost got 8" f5 setup going so am keen to give this object another try.

Cheers
Jo