EOS CLS Test #2 - M8 Lagoon - 4th May

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hello Space Cadets,

I am actually enjoying this processing caper I think..... (FINALLY)

Considering this is another 10 mins of data during Super Moon Week, from last Friday....I dont think its too bad for what it is?

Each 60 sec sub was @ ISO 1600 and I stacked these in Nebulosity and then did my "bend and stretch, reach for the stars" in PS CS3....

I am getting better at shaping the histogram like a piece of clay and this EOS clip blue cast seems to be a doddle to remove now that I am getting a hang of what the hell I should be doing.

Please take a look and let me know your thoughts.... I may be off the mark, but it looks 100% better than anything I have done before on the Lagoon, back when I was processing JPEGS from 4.5 mins of unguided data. Still some noise on the edges, but I can live with this until I sort this out with a flats box....

Comments and criticisms welcome, I may not care too much if anyone criticises, as I am on a high from being simply able to reproduce a work flow WITHOUT having to swear every five minutes and use a supercomputer to process this. This was even done on my trusty slow ass Compaq NC6220 astro computer that I use to capture with rather than my 4GB RAM, SSD Hard Drive equipped dual core work laptop. Thats GOT to be a bonus

Here is the photo (4MB Jpeg)

Thanks for looking,

Cheers

Chris

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Nice! Looks like you need to divide by the flat field - it's a bit brighter in the centre than near the edges. Just drop the brightness back a little and the contrast up. I'd do it myself to show you but I still haven't reinstalled PS yet since my hard drive died a month back. Congrats and keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Cam

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

There is a lot of promise in this one too, without the moon and a little longer subs and exposure you could have a cracker there Chris

Mike

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Originally Posted by LightningNZ

Nice! Looks like you need to divide by the flat field - it's a bit brighter in the centre than near the edges. Just drop the brightness back a little and the contrast up. I'd do it myself to show you but I still haven't reinstalled PS yet since my hard drive died a month back. Congrats and keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Cam

Thanks Cam, yes, the vignetting from the scope is still an issue I have yet to pull my finger out and make a light box.... I kept the dark and noisy edges as I was playing with the central data and avoiding the rage that builds when I try to make the picture perfect and overprocess it. I have found my photoshop processing zen point whereby I realise the data is NOT perfect and I can live with the faults for now, once I sort out a flats box, I should have no problems cranking out some bragworthy shots. This filter brings out so much more details and nebulosity, its well worth the time invested to get something out of it to see what my rig can do. Im very happy with how things are progressing now.

Thanks for the comments, they all help.

Cheers

Chris

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

There is a lot of promise in this one too, without the moon and a little longer subs and exposure you could have a cracker there Chris

Mike

Thanks for stopping by Mike, its nice to know I am on the right track and you can see some promise from these. Its a bit like coming up with your own idea.....it seems perfect in your own mind unless someone else subjectively looks at it from the outside. My mission from here on in is to gather some quality data and take flats and darks with the camera cooling down in the winter months, seems the old hotbox 1000D holds some promise after all. MUCH cheaper to buy the CLS and the bahtinov mask, dew heater and the DBK for more accurate guiding than splash the money on a better CCD cam and still have issues that end up driving me to the point where I throw my hands up and walk away....

I look forward to the new moon now. I was getting jack of setting up to churn out rubbish or nothing at all sometimes. Now at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel and I am over the next barrier and into some promising territory. Its exciting!

I really do appreciate the feedback, it stokes the ego and feeds the hunger to get more data that will be easier to process, now I have beaten back the processing gremlins a bit. I almost went postal a few weeks back.....

Thanks mate.

Cheers

Chris

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Good crack of the whip chris. Some pointers for you in PS

in Levels

there are 3 sliders Black, White and grey.

Grab the Grey one and slide it to the right a few ticks. this will bring the middle to a more natural look. not so much a look of a photo of a photo if you know what i mean.

Have you looked at "match colour" there is a function in there called vibrancy. very handy for getting colour back into your system.

Learn how to use layer masks. it will allow you to leave the edges alot darker but bring the central nebulosity out a long long way. Further this will allow you to kind of leave your stars while processing other parts.

Also using a high pass blended layer can give you some contrast and pop of clarity to the image

Keep it up, once you have good data then processing is even more fun!

BM

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Thanks for the PS tips Brendan,

I will definitely give them a go, now that I am more familiar with what to do and how to drive it.

Yup, using layer masks is my next challenge, I was going to try them on these, especially a radial gradient one and blend it, but chickened out.

Looking again (and after my son poked his head in) this has a slight green tinge to it, so I may have a try at reprocessing this one night

Thanks mate

Cheers

Chris