M45 - widefield and a very rough process from QLD Astrofest

[avandonk]

h0ughy your image does what you set out to do that is record the faint dust. Consequently the blue reflection nebs are over exposed and saturated. That is why they are white, RGB are all at maximum. Most people have trouble recording the faint blue reflection nebs let alone a hint of the faint dust.

The lens you used at this focal length is about as good as it gets. Using an aperture in front of the lens rather than the lens's iris will also help contrast. Could I suggest when you try this again take sets of exposures eg 1m 2m 4m 8m 16m? and I will process the data for you using my hdr method. That way you get both the dim dust and no stars saturated. All faint stuff will have colour.

If your guiding software is capable, dithering really helps to suppress the noise when you median stack.

Bert

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by avandonk

h0ughy your image does what you set out to do that is record the faint dust. Consequently the blue reflection nebs are over exposed and saturated. That is why they are white, RGB are all at maximum. Most people have trouble recording the faint blue reflection nebs let alone a hint of the faint dust.

The lens you used at this focal length is about as good as it gets. Using an aperture in front of the lens rather than the lens's iris will also help contrast. Could I suggest when you try this again take sets of exposures eg 1m 2m 4m 8m 16m? and I will process the data for you using my hdr method. That way you get both the dim dust and no stars saturated. All faint stuff will have colour.

If your guiding software is capable, dithering really helps to suppress the noise when you median stack.

Bert

thanks Bert. I would love to do what you suggest and will endeavour to achieve this next new moon. i kneww i really pushed the image and could have processed it only for the bright neb around the stars. could still do this

[avandonk]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

thanks Bert. I would love to do what you suggest and will endeavour to achieve this next new moon. i kneww i really pushed the image and could have processed it only for the bright neb around the stars. could still do this

Yes you could. Process the data again and dont push anything and we can do a hdr from the original image and the darker one. I can PM you the details to ftp the full size 16 bit tiffs to my GIG of web space. That way I can put up the result for you to download as a full res 16 bit tiff and you can then produce jpgs etc.

Bert

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by avandonk

Yes you could. Process the data again and dont push anything and we can do a hdr from the original image and the darker one. I can PM you the details to ftp the full size 16 bit tiffs to my GIG of web space. That way I can put up the result for you to download as a full res 16 bit tiff and you can then produce jpgs etc.

Bert

ok , but i now have to cook for the family

[avandonk]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

ok , but i now have to cook for the family

That is far more important. Take your time. PM when ready.

Bert

[h0ughy (David)]

I did a little repro at lunch today, tried to integrate a few differently processed frames in photoshop (flying blindly) and came up with this poor excuse. Reprocessing is Fun