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dgpilot
super member
Reged: 09/25/09
Posts: 105
Loc: San Ramon, California
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Could you guys post some tips on how you process your images? All I see when I open the tiff file is light pollution, I'm not sure how you extracted M16 out of that, but great job!
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LXD75 8" SN f/4
Canon 50D, 350D (unmodded)
Orion ST80 Guidescope
Meade DSI II Pro
San Ramon, California 
My Astro Gallery
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Nils_Lars
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 3457
Loc: Santa Cruz Mountains , CA
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Well im not sure what I did was any better then what you had but I took a shot at pushing as hard on your data as I could.
If I had to say what I did exactly I dont think I could remember because I kind of threw everything at it.
I understand where dgpilot is coming from because it was kind of a trick to even pull anything out of the light pollution so the fact that your pics look as good as they do means when you get things better set and start getting some solid data you are gonna rock your shots cause you have some real processing skills.
Ill see if I can list most of what I did for anyone that thinks it will help.
I ran it through Nebulosity to do a DDP which normally gives me almost a recognizable shot but this shot showed nothing.
Then to Photoshop CS2 where I set black points in levels in each channel then ran a bunch of curves which then started to show some detail but also a lot of noise.
I ran GradX like they recommend on there web site and croped it down a bit.
Then reset black points again in each channel and then using curves and ctrl click on the darkest points and brightest points and then where the pillars were starting to show last and using arrow keys to adjust I was able to pull some detail up and it left a lot of noise.
I then did a inverse mask as shown on the light buckets site with noise ninja to kill some of it but that also left a blotchy background.
I selected stars and desaturated a bit to lighten some color out and then channel mixed some blue back to red in the whole shot , then a final setting of the black point(I always leave some room till the end)
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Erik
Orion Atlas Self Hypertuned (EQMOD)
Orion ED 80
Williams Optics VII reducer
Celestron 8" SCT
Orion Starshoot Autoguider
PHD guide
Canon 400D Hap Griffin Mod w/Baader filter
Astronomik clip-in LP filter and 12nm Ha
Stilleto CVF and Bahtinov mask
Tamron 75-300mm&28-80mm lenses
NexImage webcam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31986095@N05/
Edited by Nils_Lars (10/17/09 09:34 PM)
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dgpilot
super member
Reged: 09/25/09
Posts: 105
Loc: San Ramon, California
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That's pretty incredible, thanks for the tips Erik. I have some images like that of M33 and Andromeda, archived away thinking they were victims of bad LP. I guess I'll have to dig them out and give them a shot!
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LXD75 8" SN f/4
Canon 50D, 350D (unmodded)
Orion ST80 Guidescope
Meade DSI II Pro
San Ramon, California
My Astro Gallery
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villaltame
member
Reged: 09/17/09
Posts: 36
Loc: Cartago, Costa Rica
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I second dgpilot's request.
I am very new to AP and when I opened the tiff file I couldn't pull any decent image out of it. I would like to learn how anti and Nils pulled it off.
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Meade LX90 8" ACF
Nikon D80
My astrophoto blog
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Grouptele
sage
Reged: 08/11/07
Posts: 304
Loc: Qcy, IL
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Very nice image, Anna. Another fine example of what can be done with an 8"SCT on alt-azth.
Victor
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C8-XLT, G5, AT66
EQ-G
Starshoot color CCD
Canon XS, HapMod
SPC900NC webcam
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antimorris
sage
Reged: 08/16/09
Posts: 245
Loc: San Antonio-ish, TX
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The processing I did was similar to what Nils did but not quite as many steps. I did it in a hurry cause I was leaving for vacation so I will probably re-process it once I get home to see what I get (I also didnt crop or flip it back to how it should be (obviously). I think I ran Grad-X first since I know that I get gradient from my DSLR and this helps get rid of most of it letting me stretch a little farther. I think I ran 8-10 renditions of curves, threw in a few levels to channel reset the black point. I also got alot of color blotching, but didnt have time to try to work on it (that is on the list of more processing to do). I get alot of LP in all of my shots since I am so close to San Antonio so I have to kinda be creative in my processing to help get rid of it. I do have the AstroTools plugin which I use for their "space noise reduction" and "deep space noise reduction" as well as "make stars smaller" ... they do have a LP removal action on there but I have found it really clips the black end of the spectrum so I dont use it. Once I get back home and reprocess I will put what I get on here (assuming it will be better).
I do hope to get up to the State Park at some point soon to get some dark sky shots, but I was happy to see anything on M16 through our LP and on an Alt-Az ..... how to see if I can find and shoot the Horsehead on an Alt-Az -- I doubt it, but cant hurt to try one night!
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Anna
CPC 800 XLT w/FeatherTouch micro-focuser
Orion EON 80ED
unmodded Nikon D40
Meade DSI II Pro with ATIK Filter Wheel & Outback Razorback Cooler
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Morris Astronomy
My Astro Blog
"sic itur ad astra"
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Grouptele
sage
Reged: 08/11/07
Posts: 304
Loc: Qcy, IL
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Quote:
to see if I can find and shoot the Horsehead on an Alt-Az -- I doubt it, but cant hurt to try one night!
Depending on how bad your home light pollution is, your C8 should get the horsey. Attached is one of my early 07' captures of the same with a CPC800 on alt-azth from the home backyard. Dark skies will surely make it better!
Victor
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C8-XLT, G5, AT66
EQ-G
Starshoot color CCD
Canon XS, HapMod
SPC900NC webcam
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Nils_Lars
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 3457
Loc: Santa Cruz Mountains , CA
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Noels actions are very helpful , even with his color blotch remover but sometimes they just make better in a trade off for something else getting wrecked.
I have found that all my processing that I struggled with in my first season really taught me a lot of tricks that helps me , I would never have been able to do what you did with processing so you are gonna be fine once you get some better data.
Dark skies are obviously the best thing but I would recommend a good LP filter for home shooting , I like my CLS clip-in for what it did for my Ha shooting before I got my camera modded but other people like the IDAS LPR-P2 which I think does a better job with blue targets.
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Erik
Orion Atlas Self Hypertuned (EQMOD)
Orion ED 80
Williams Optics VII reducer
Celestron 8" SCT
Orion Starshoot Autoguider
PHD guide
Canon 400D Hap Griffin Mod w/Baader filter
Astronomik clip-in LP filter and 12nm Ha
Stilleto CVF and Bahtinov mask
Tamron 75-300mm&28-80mm lenses
NexImage webcam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31986095@N05/
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