I was feeling like a bit left out after all the Astrofest M31 images so I had a quick go at it from Leyburn last new moon I didn't have much time to spend on it but I don't think it turned out too badly. The colour is still a bit iffy - part lack of data and part lack of processing skill. Will need to spend a few nights on it another time...
Mount: Astro-Physics AP900
Scope: Tak FSQ-106ED
Camera: Sbig STL11K, Astrodon Gen 2 filters
Guiding: Tak FS-60C and Lodestar
Focuser: Atlas
Exposures: 9x300s Lum, 3x300s each R, G & B
Processing: PixInsight
Just wonderful Rick. Made my night. Don't why more people up here don't have a go at this beauty. It's always a challenge at our latitudes to bring out the colours, but you've got that looking very natural. I'd probably up the saturation curve a bit more, but to do so risks losing the natural touch perhaps.
Just wonderful Rick. Made my night. Don't why more people up here don't have a go at this beauty. It's always a challenge at our latitudes to bring out the colours, but you've got that looking very natural. I'd probably up the saturation curve a bit more, but to do so risks losing the natural touch perhaps.
Thanks, Rob. I used a new trick for tweaking the colour. I'll tell you about it when we compare notes on PI next month.
Love the detail in that, extremely sharp. Any chance you'd be willing to share the PixInsight wisdom more widely? Did you do any deconvolution on that image?
That soothed the eyes alright. A wonderful capture Rick.
Thanks, JJJ!
Quote:
Originally Posted by alocky
Love the detail in that, extremely sharp. Any chance you'd be willing to share the PixInsight wisdom more widely? Did you do any deconvolution on that image?
Thanks, Andrew. I'm happy to share. My processing notes are included below. The "new trick" was to use a module that's under development, InterChannelCurves. It also crashed my session once, so be careful! I did use deconvolution.
Quote:
M31
Taken at Leyburn, 15 Sep, 2012
Objects in image:
M31, M110, NGC 206
Scope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5, Atlas focuser
Mount: AP900
Camera: STL11K
Filters: Astrodon I series Gen 2 LRGB, Astrodon 3nm Ha
Guiding: Lodestar / FS-60CB
Image scale: 3.5 arcsec/pixel
Exposures: 9x300s Lum, 3x300s Red, 3x300s Green, 3x300s Blue
Conditions:
- Variable
Notes:
Processing...
Pixinsight:
- Calibrate (CosmeticCorrection - hot pixels, dark column).
- Register against "M 31-S002-R003-C001-Luminance.fts"
- Integrate R, G, B with parameter tweaks for best SNR
- Crop all
- eXcalibrator RGB ratios combine
eXcal adjusted: 0.7299 0.8605 1.0000
Xcal !adjusted: 0.6423 0.8142 1.0000
- extract Syn Lum from RGB
- integrate L/SynL for best SNR
Lum:
- DBE
- 30 iter deconvolution
- Masked nr with MMT
- stretch
- 8 layer HDRMT
- LHE
- MT star reduction
RGB:
- DBE
- MMT masked nr
- Stretch
- HDRMT
- Agressive nr
- Increase saturation
Combine:
- L(RGB) combine
- Mirror
- Tweak colour: InterChannelCurves ref Blue, target CIE Z and then CIE X
- Convert to sRGB
thats amazing Rick
I love the details in the dust lanes, it is a beauty all right
how high was it during the session? I'm guessing 10deg?
would you have a raw frame you could post as well, just to see the difference.
Cheers
Edit: it does have a pink hue on my laptop, its not calibrated so could be my display but worth checking
That's an awesome shot Rick, those skies at Leyburn certainly produce sensational images, of course good processing helps as well
Thanks, Geoff. The seeing didn't seem that great (of course, everybody told me the night before I arrived was much better ) but it is always nice and dark there.
thats amazing Rick
I love the details in the dust lanes, it is a beauty all right
how high was it during the session? I'm guessing 10deg?
would you have a raw frame you could post as well, just to see the difference.
Cheers
Edit: it does have a pink hue on my laptop, its not calibrated so could be my display but worth checking
Thanks. It wasn't quite that bad - the subs were taken between 16 and 21 degrees altitude. At 10 degrees it would still have been in the trees.
There's a single Lum frame attached. I haven't done anything to it apart from calibration and a quick stretch.
I get a bit of pink on my uncalibrated (and uncalibratable) laptop screen but the colour looks OK on my big calibrated screen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross G
Hi Rick,
My favourite object in the whole sky and wow!... what an excellent photo of it.
Beautiful shot.
Ross.
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Wow! Beautiful colours and details. Well done indeed.
That's a great shot Nick. I think that you have well and truly captured the ethereal beauty of this galaxy. I sometimes wonder whether the over-saturated reds we see in many galaxy shots detract from the images; I think that your shot gets across the majesty of this object very well.
I didn't have much time to spend on it but I don't think it turned out too badly. The colour is still a bit iffy - part lack of data and part lack of processing skill. Will need to spend a few nights on it another time...
) but it is always nice and dark there.
