NGC1499 - The California Nebula in three different flavours

[mightymonoped]

Captured 4 hours worth of narrowband using the ASIair's fantastic Planning Mode last night.

 

Have been playing with the data today to extract and combine in various forms.

 

Here's a Mono extract of just the Ha data, a false SHO version using Mono Ha-OIII as a false SII channel and finally a more traditional HOO palette using individual Ha and OIII extracts recombined as Ha, OIII (50%), OIII (50%).

 

WO Redcat 51 with L-eNhance filter and ASI294mc pro OSC camera

 

Processed using Astro Pixel Processor, starnet++ and Photoshop CC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by mightymonoped

[Astrobdlbug]

I think the California nebula is a very difficult image to process - it’s a huge lump of hydrogen and not much else

You have pulled out some great detail in the outer regions which is most apparent in the Ha process.I like your Ha mono version out of the 3 processed images.

If you are up for a bit of feedback then I would try and increase contrast slightly in the mid tones with curves and a little sharpening to emphasise the contrast with unsharp mask layer applied with a mask (basically analogous to Pixinsght local histogram equalisation)

 

Bryan 

 

 

 

[mightymonoped]

30 minutes ago, Astrobdlbug said:

I think the California nebula is a very difficult image to process - it’s a huge lump of hydrogen and not much else

You have pulled out some great detail in the outer regions which is most apparent in the Ha process.I like your Ha mono version out of the 3 processed images.

If you are up for a bit of feedback then I would try and increase contrast slightly in the mid tones with curves and a little sharpening to emphasise the contrast with unsharp mask layer applied with a mask (basically analogous to Pixinsght local histogram equalisation)

 

Bryan 

 

 

 

Bryan, 

 

I’ll give that a go when I get a chance. I did a little stretch in the mid with curves and also ran a Local Contrast Enhancement from Noels Tools (but usually only run that at 70%). 
 

If I remember rightly, I may have shied off from Sharpening in both Topaz and Camera Raw Filter and just went with the noise reduction at a greatly reduced rate. 

 

Also, the Ha was just an experiment really, so I didn’t go to town on it processing wise. As it turned out to be the best of the bunch it may be worth doing it properly this time. 😊

 

Tony

[Astrobdlbug]

15 minutes ago, mightymonoped said:

may have shied off from Sharpening in both Topaz and Camera Raw Filter and just went with the noise reduction at a greatly reduced rate. 

Tony, I would agree with that, initially I thought Topaz was a huge game changer when it came out a couple of years ago but more recently have come around to the view that it’s too invasive especially the sharpening tool in astroimages . I bought Rus Cromans NoiseExterminator and use that at only 30-40 pct and set detail down at 10 in my view results are much better than Topaz.  
another interesting sharpening tool is a PSCC plug in called Absolute Point Focus - recursive APF-R which applies unsharp masking in many layers with different blur to sharpen at different structures scale. 
Anyway I digress - as it’s looking cloudy over next week or so there’s plenty time to experiment with the processing options - have fun

Bryan
 

[Dmack1]

I'd agree with Bryan on sevral things - 1. this target is much more difficult to process than it should be, 2 alittle bump in the contrast would be good and 3 NoiseXterminator - its really good - Topaz - not so much!.

 

But these are nice images, well done.

[mightymonoped]

Thanks for the comments all, they're really appreciated and very helpful.

 

I've been growing gradually disillusioned with Topaz AI and using it much less in every session. May be time to call it a day and look at NoiseXterminator and APF-R I think (will wait until payday though 😂).

 

In the meantime, I had a little play with contrast (inside the nebula, using a Curves mask) and a wee bit of sharpening with Camera Raw Filter. Did have a play with starless/starry process but found that introduced way too much noise into the proceedings.

 

Here's another quick and noisy shot, hopefully (a little) better than the first. Actually finding just working on Ha extracts is very rewarding, may have to have a go with some other captures.

 

Tony