the ED80's swansong - NGC3324 Gabriela Mistral Nebula

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Since the TMB92SS arrived yesterday, this will possibly be the ED80's last image for me.

I've been playing with this data since I took it last Saturday night. I've got quite a bit (for me) of Ha, as well as LRGB. Trying to figure out how to combine the 2 in PixInsight. I am comfortable now with PI processing just Ha, or just LRGB, but when it comes to combining the 2 I'm finding there's 6000 different ways of doing it. Trying to find the one that suits me.

In the meantime, this is just the Ha data and a very quick/rough LRGB (with some hot pixels to remove and the nebulosity is a little magenta maybe?) Will play with the LRGB colour balance a bit more when the Ha is added.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Well Troy and even though you have posted a pretty small postage stamp there ... there is enough to suggest the new scope had better be good to see a difference love to see a larger version though.

Mike

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Thanks Mike

Sorry about the image size. Because they're kind of works in progress, I haven't uploaded them to somewhere that will tolerate bigger sizes yet.

Just attached the LRGB quickie. Still needs some work, but was holding off til I get the Ha blending sorted.

[cventer]

Great job. I allways am amazed at the great images you can take with an ED80. It was my first real imaging scope and I loved it.

Bit hard to give any feedback with image that size but its looking very good. cant wait to see larger version.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

A grand finale!!
I like the mono version better. None of that colour stuff getting in the way.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi Troy

A sad day for your ED80 . Ill be watching the progress of your new scope.

Cheers Petra d.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by troypiggo

I've been playing with this data since I took it last Saturday night. I've got quite a bit (for me) of Ha, as well as LRGB. Trying to figure out how to combine the 2 in PixInsight. I am comfortable now with PI processing just Ha, or just LRGB, but when it comes to combining the 2 I'm finding there's 6000 different ways of doing it. Trying to find the one that suits me.

Troy,

I see you've found the HaRGBCombination script on the PI Forum. It has worked quite well for me in the past.

Cheers,
Rick.

[RobF (Rob)]

I wish they'd finished the long promised NB tool with sliders for doing blends and NB colour assignment in PI.

Great colours in the colour version Troy. Hope the new scope gives many years of enjoyment too.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Glad to see you tamed the mistress.

H

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Looks very promising Troy! Your RGB has good colour and your Ha has nice depth. Bring 'em together right and you'll have a wow shot!

Cheers, Marcus


PS: I always do an LHa combination first - L as lighten layer about 50% or to taste to increase the stellar profiles so they match the RGB more closely. BTW, I always do LHa + RGB

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Originally Posted by cventer

Great job. I allways am amazed at the great images you can take with an ED80. It was my first real imaging scope and I loved it.

Bit hard to give any feedback with image that size but its looking very good. cant wait to see larger version.

Thanks mate. Looking forward to finishing it too. Hopefully this weekend.

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

A grand finale!!
I like the mono version better. None of that colour stuff getting in the way.

Thanks Nettie! The Ha definitely looks better at the moment at full size, too.

Originally Posted by spacezebra

Hi Troy

A sad day for your ED80 . Ill be watching the progress of your new scope.

Cheers Petra d.

Thanks mate. Hopefully exciting times ahead with the new beast

Originally Posted by RickS

Troy,

I see you've found the HaRGBCombination script on the PI Forum. It has worked quite well for me in the past.

Cheers,
Rick.

G'day mate. Might have to talk to you about it. Having some problems with it. You saw my post on the PI forum? Development by Silvercup seems to have gone by the wayside a bit? I can see a preview in the script's window that looks exactly like what I want, but can't get the output from the script to look the same. Hard to explain, might need a screenshot that I'll post over at PI forum.

Originally Posted by RobF

I wish they'd finished the long promised NB tool with sliders for doing blends and NB colour assignment in PI.

Great colours in the colour version Troy. Hope the new scope gives many years of enjoyment too.

Thanks mate. In some ways, I think all NB filters with same exposures, binning etc would be easier.

The problem I'm having is the Ha was different to the L, and they're both 1x1 while the RGB was 2x2 and pretty short exposure times. All of the methods I've seen on blending them involves pixel maths. And that's fine, I can do that, but the formulae they all use seem to differ, and none seem to take into account differing exposures. One I saw did, but it wasn't clear about the binning factor to apply. And it was different, I think, to Vicent's method that is supposed to be "the duck's nuts".

Originally Posted by Octane

Glad to see you tamed the mistress.

H

Oh yeah. I made her mine that night.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Looks very promising Troy! Your RGB has good colour and your Ha has nice depth. Bring 'em together right and you'll have a wow shot!

Cheers, Marcus


PS: I always do an LHa combination first - L as lighten layer about 50% or to taste to increase the stellar profiles so they match the RGB more closely. BTW, I always do LHa + RGB

Thanks Marcus! I'm intending to do something like that. Need to get some Ha in the L, and also in the R. I kind of know what I want to do with the data, but can't quite find the conclusive tools/workflow to do it in PixInsight.

[allan gould]

That's a nice and tight Ha image Troy and sharp to the edges. I assume that that was with the field flattener or was that native. Anyway the 80 is a great scope and I hope that the new one serves just as well. You just need some rings for it.
Allan

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Thanks Allan. Yes, this was with the Orion Flattener. Seems to do the trick quite nicely. Think there's just a little bit in the very corners, but it's the best of quite a few flatteners I've tried.

I'll ignore the rings comment.

[Ross G]

Nice shots Troy.

Good luck with the new telescope.

Ross.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Troy,

Why not set RGB to Color layer and luminance to Luminance in Photoshop?

Blend your hydrogen alpha with the luminance at an appropriate opacity, flatten and set the result to the Luminance layer.

Or, pull apart the RGB and add hydrogen alpha to the R component, flatten and then combine with the G and B to form your final (hydrogen alpha)RGB?

H