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this is my first go at shooting this iconic target. would appreciate any insight on how to improve this image. this is only a little over three hours of integration so i have more hours i'd like to add to improve detail in the darker less bright nebulosity. any suggestions on how to sharpen the nebulosity without sharpening the stars? i tried a few quick selection masks, ie not very sophisticated, but that didn't work so well. still had a lot of the bg stars selected. A few things i note that i'll address in the next round of processing,
acquisition details: Lights 103x120s 60 darks, dark flats, flats WO GT81 w/.8 reducer ASI294 mc pro camera (120gain, 30 offset)these are the defaults; cooled to -10; no filters asi224 guide camera HEQ5 pro mount Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop, phd2, NINA bortle 4 i'm processing on a color calibrated mac pro. Lots of experience in landscape photography but only been doing AP for less than a year. I use APP and Photoshop for Processing. thanks for any pointers you may have.  The Iconic Horsehead Nebula |
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This is an excellent job, particularly for your first year and for barely three hours of integration time. Seriously, you should be proud. A few ideas: 1) agreed warm things up some 2) get more integration time. 3 hours is really light. I guarantee if you went for 6 or better yet 12 you would see a huge difference, not just in detail but especially noise. 3) the above will get you sharper everything. What you want to avoid is having to do much post-processing sharpening or noise reduction, and when you do it should be a light touch. In this image, I can see the noise reduction and sharpening artifacts. Your image will be a lot cleaner and easier to work with with more integration time. 4) not sure when you shot this, but if you can, try and avoid the moon when shooting broadband. Removing gradients introduces a lot of noise and funky colors sometimes. 5) learn pixinsight. It is superior. I know it might seem kind of scary but I promise it’s not nearly as bad as you think, and there are oodles of videos out there on how to use it. I came from a landscape photography background like you so was comfortable in photoshop / Lightroom, and I still do final color tweaks there, but the first 85% is always in pixinsight. I promise you won’t regret it. All in all, great image! And good luck the next go round. Hope that helps at least a little bit. |
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For your first attempt it's darn good. Like Jonathan said the more data you can get the better the image will get. You got great nebulosaty in the image which will great better with more data and processing. You can always add data to what you have. I also would say learn pixinsight I tried the trial version and got completely scared and confused. However I ended up getting it full time and it's super easy to use. That being said you use what ever you are comfortable with. And bearing mind your image is very good just refine your skills and enjoy this amazing hobby. Also get something like opotolong extreme filter this will help when shooting in light polluting area and also when the moon is out. Keep producing good images like this and you'll never look back. Clear skies |
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Jonathan Piques: Thank you jonathan for your review! definetly will be putting more time on this! Shot this after the moon had set but i have a nearby light pollution so i use the light pollution tool in APP. I did apply local contrast sharpening in ps which may have been a little heavy handed. ive been thinking i need to jump into the deep end and learn pixinsight. I tried the free trial version last year. But it felt like learning photoshop so many years ago. Bewildering and confusing. I know this is the right tool to learn though as it has much more sophisticated methods to achieve the desired result. again thanks for sharing your insights |
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| Dude happy to! If you’re looking for tutorials on pixinsight, Adam block’s site is amazing. |
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For your first attempt it's darn good. Like Jonathan said the more data you can get the better the image will get. You got great nebulosaty in the image which will great better with more data and processing. You can always add data to what you have. I also would say learn pixinsight I tried the trial version and got completely scared and confused. However I ended up getting it full time and it's super easy to use. That being said you use what ever you are comfortable with. And bearing mind your image is very good just refine your skills and enjoy this amazing hobby. Thankyou Gamaholjad! will be adding data for sure! Pixinsight has definitely been on my mind lately! |
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couple of YouTube video`s that may make your mind up for pixinsight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7FuApFSGuA https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=reduce+halo+on+stars+in+pixinsight&view=detail&mid=04678EFE7560A33C778904678EFE7560A33C7789&FORM=VIRE he has a really good channel to learn from. |
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| so far i've got 13 hours of data accumilated and on a new camera (asi071 mc pro). would've added another 5 last night but clouds (thin cirrus) conspired against me from finishing this data collection. should be able to finish it off tonight. i looked at the 13 i have and its way better in terms of noise and detail than what i posted above. can't wait to process it. |
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Theoretically, with your camera and telescope combo you are undersampling which can reduce the effects of guiding error, but you’ll lose fine details. But I’m not sure how that translates to reality. https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability |
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to follow up on this thread, below is my nearly 16 hour version. much much differently processed than my initial one above. i've recently purchased pixinsight and adam blocks fundamentals course. next interation will hopefully be from pixinsight! full rez version here https://astrob.in/7m82tj/0/ |
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| Dude this is killer! Massive improvement: looks amazing. The extra integration time and different processing made a huge difference. Good luck on your pixinsight journey…. |
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Jonathan Piques: Thanks for your comment Jonathan! I really like adam blocks videos so far. Cant wait to see what things look like from pixinsight. |
