M2 Globular Cluster (LRGB) - 3 Nov 2018 (Geof Lewis)

M2 Globular Cluster (LRGB) - 3 Nov 2018

This is my 1st DSO since April, having been focused on planetary and lunar imaging during the summer months.

I'm now using a new obs (refurbished Win7) laptop, unfortunately not without issues as my User account got corrupted by a Windows update just as I started imaging on 2 Nov, preventing me from logging in, so most of the data was captured the following night...!! I'm also getting to grips with Registar for better star alignment of the stacked LRGB frames and it really does the job. Most other processing, i.e. calibration and stacking of each filter's subs, then building and post processing the Registar aligned LRGB image was done in ImagesPlus, with final tweaks in PS(CS2).

D

Description: Background noise reduction, reduced saturation in gold stars, applied curves and levels to give the stars more sparkle, then GradX to remove background gradient

Uploaded: ...

E

Description: Reworked with additional curves and star reduction

Uploaded: ...

F

Description: Tweaked blue channel levels to fix overly yellow core

Uploaded: ...

H

Title: RGB via mixed processing using PI and IP

Description: I used PixInsight to build the RGB image, apply GraXpert, BlurXT, NoiseXT and Photochromatic Colour Correction, before taking the linear correct TIFF into ImagesPlus for ArcSinH with HDR pre-stetch as I' find that tool great for stretching GCs. I tried adding the Lum data, but there are some significak cirular artefacts in the RGB data, that gradient correction wouldn't fix and the L data enhanced that, so this is just RG.

Uploaded: ...

I

Title: PixInsight only version

Description: Found MaskedStretch function in PI works brilliantly on GCs, so used that on both RGB and L stacks before combining with LRGB combine.

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Best Messier images
Clusters - Globular
Messier images

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
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Backyard
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Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
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Unknown

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Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3364373
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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