Adam Y Posted June 2 Share Posted June 2 I think my reach has exceeded my grasp on this one; here is my first nebula - M57 "Ring Nebula". First light on my Optolong L-enhance dual band filter. 78 (out of 120) 180-sec subs. At first, I tried extracting the channels and assigning R to Ha and G&B to Oiii and recombining for a "hubble palette", per some tutorial instructions but it looked horrible so I reprocessed using my normal workflow and it turned out ok. The core is a bit overblown, not sure what I should do to give it that faint, wispy character so that the white dwarf stars in the centre would show, but this is probably the wrong tool for the job really. Maybe shorter subs but more of them? Thanks for looking! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Good colours Adam. M57 was my first deep space "proper" astro image! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaDec Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Nice work Adam - you should see my first one years ago. I used a modified webcam and it was my first ever lx image. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Y Posted June 5 Author Share Posted June 5 Thanks Graeme! It is one of a few that is available to me from my north-east facing patio. I may try it again at a lower exposure time but more of them to try to get more of the faint detail inside and around the edges. Or perhaps a close-up. Keith - would be great to see that, dig it up! 😄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmack1 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 Thats great Adam. What are you using for processing - there may be a way to bring out more of the center. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Y Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 I use Siril, latest release. I typically start off with a crop and background extraction and photometric colour calibration before separating the stars from the object for separate stretching and other tweaks as needed. The problem with this one is I could stretch it a bit more but the main body of the Ring itself over-saturated. So I stretched to just below that point and had to call it good. Added a touch of saturation just to bring the colours back in before recombining. Final processing is typically in GIMP for just a bit finer control over curves and levels and noise reduction. Any additional tips would be most welcome!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmack1 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 8 minutes ago, Adam Y said: I use Siril, latest release. I typically start off with a crop and background extraction and photometric colour calibration before separating the stars from the object for separate stretching and other tweaks as needed. The problem with this one is I could stretch it a bit more but the main body of the Ring itself over-saturated. So I stretched to just below that point and had to call it good. Added a touch of saturation just to bring the colours back in before recombining. Final processing is typically in GIMP for just a bit finer control over curves and levels and noise reduction. Any additional tips would be most welcome!! I use Pixnsight so cant really give any suggestions for Siril/Gimp. But I recon with 180s and the L-enhance (which I also use) there could be more in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Y Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 I might give it another go on the starless one and see what I can do. Then again the seeing was crap so it may be I've done as well as I can. I think the general workflows are similar, though of course, PI has way more tools and options. I will probably end up going that way. What would your suggestions be if I were using Pixinsight? Maybe I can figure out what the equivalent steps are in Siril. Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaDec Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 On 6/5/2023 at 2:08 PM, Adam Y said: Keith - would be great to see that, dig it up! 😄 Here you go Adam. This was circa 2003 to 2004, taken with a modified Logitech 4000 webcam through a (UK) Orion 250 reflector. I was over the moon with it at the time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmack1 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 6 hours ago, Adam Y said: I might give it another go on the starless one and see what I can do. Then again the seeing was crap so it may be I've done as well as I can. I think the general workflows are similar, though of course, PI has way more tools and options. I will probably end up going that way. What would your suggestions be if I were using Pixinsight? Maybe I can figure out what the equivalent steps are in Siril. Thanks!! It would be pretty similar in PI but I would probably use GHS to stretch, that alone might help. Then I'd try some of the tools to give some contrast in the nebula, like LocalHistogramEqualisation or HDRMultiscaleTransformation. If, after that there was something there that could be refined, I might take it into Photoshop and do a Selective High Pass routine. If you would like me to give it a run through PI just to see if we can make a difference, put the raw file straight out of your stacker into a file share location and drop me a link by PM and I'll take a look. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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