M 101

[lukepower]

Alright guys,

 

I started to work on quite some data I gathered during the last month, all using Sequencer (beta version). It is totalling about 180 minutes in each channel (LRGB). 

Please note that I  worked alot on the L channel, but had to speed through the RGB to show my wife something, as she wants to see results NOW

 

The RGB data is a bit messy with some color residuals in the corners, mostly beacause of haze and/or the moon being not far away in some frames. The L data on the other side looked very good to me.

 

So, what do you think?

 

Thanks

[robertp]

Hello Lukas,

 

tracking and the resolution of the image is very good so there's a lot of detail. However at least on my computer screen, the background is way too colouful in basically all areas ranging from purple over red to green. I'm quite sure that it's worthwhile to try to get rid of the colour gradients. For me it looks like you stretched the different channels too much. M101 is not a trivial target and I have yet to produce a decent result of it.

 

Best regards,

 

Robert

[lukepower]

Hi Robert,

 

Thanks for your comments

 

Indeed the RGB data has some strong gradients... I was quite happy with the luminance channel but now found out a few ringing artifacts around the center.

My wife was eager to see colors, so this was a quick try. Gonna work on it tomorrow. I still have to learn to use Pixinsight in a decent way, though.

[MarkS]

Hi Luke,

 

Go straight to Pixinsight! Those background colours are removable by judicious use of the DBE tool provided you dont generate too many background samples. Play around with it and examine the background model before you commit.

 

I have got one or two images that really surprised me as they were shot in RGB in Melbourne's appalling light pollution (SQ-L reading of ~18.3) plus some clouds.

 

Regards,

Mark

Edited June 2, 2014 by MarkS

[lukepower]

ALright, now I reelaborated the whole thing. I found out that both in the Green and Red frames I had a set with a huge (say: half of the frame) gradient, probabily caused by the moon (not sure about that, though). I opted to just drop those frames and got reasonable integrated frames for each channel. My processing skills are primordial in Pixinsight, so this is what I got. Later I might give it a try in Photoshop, but it doesn't look too bad to me

[afesan]

Light is OK... background not.. Gradients and artefacts.. LRGB is demanding and you must try to avoid sources of light or Moon... GradientXterminator or PixInsight could be helpful.. but I also think the best solution is trying to image only targets where light pollution is minimal. As  I have some sources of light pollution around my observatory (even at a dark sky site as I am..) ..I plan always hours- Moon- high of targets and which directions of Sky light pollution is minimal. Planning here is essential

 But..yes..I like light details, Luke ¡

Edited June 9, 2014 by afesan

[lukepower]

Thanks Antonio for your comments.

The raws look good and smooth to me, so I guess I am doing something wrong in Pixinsight, possibly adding an uneven background where it wouldn't be

Well, right now working on M27 shot under good seeing, let's see...