Ok Here it again, this time unstretched.
M33
11x180 seconds lights, 3x180 seconds darks. Stacked in DSS Output in FITS (Integer).
Captured in RAW (CR2) on Canon 60Da mounted on TEC 140 APO ED with field flattener.
Captured in Concord California. Bortle Scale ~7
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pe6or0id8t34f ... 0out.FTS?m
I know there are many limitations in this data (Not enough, few flats, no bias etc.) but while I learn to operate the equipment I'd like to learn processing in all these wasted hours called daytime.
M33 Stack unstretched. Really this time.
Re: M33 Stack unstretched. Really this time.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for that!
This is what I did with ST 1.3.5.255 Beta;
I loaded up the image and, as always, do an AutoDev to see what we got.
Before doing the AutoDev though, I was already able to see some things that caught my attention.
The stars look very nice and round - your guiding is very good!
The data also appears very oversampled, so binning to reduce noise (or deconvolution if noise is absent, or a mixture of both) will be in order.
The Autodev turned up some stacking artifacts and a typical sort of red bias.
I got to work, binning the image to 25% and cropping the image.
Next I next used Wipe to get rid of the bias. I set 'Temporary Autodev' to on, so I could see the result a bit better. There are small dust donuts/specks visible and Wipe seems to leave a gradient at the bottom of the image. I went back to crop the image a bit more at the bottom to get rid of whatever was causing the remnant gradient. The lack of flats is probably the culrprit here. In the end I used the Vignetting preset, with a Dark Anomaly Filter setting of 5 pixels.
With that out of the way, I did my final global stretch in AutoDev.
I defined an ROI over part of the galaxy, setting the Outside ROI Influence parameter to something very low like 5% to 10%). I also bumped up the 'Ignore Fine Detail <' partameter to about 2 pixels.
There is noise visible, but we'll take care of that later. As long as the galaxy and its core is readily visible (but neither are too bright).
Not expecting too much, I try my luck with Deconvolution anyway. A Radius of 2.2 pixels gives a slight increase in detail. I'll take what I can get!
Next up is some Wavelet SHarpening (using the same inverted star mask as Decon). I set Scale 12 to 0% (to noi exacerbate fine noise) and let the Intelligent Enhancement do its thing. I use an Amount of approx. 300%.
Final color calibration is next. All done automatically, the only modification is setting 'Cap Green' to 'to Yellow'.
In order to push back noise and isolate the galaxy, I use the Life module's Isolate preset with default settings.
Finally I switch off Tracking and perform noise reduction.
A bit of tweaking was needed to find a balance of signal and noise that I liked;
Parameter [Scale 5] set to [52 %]
Parameter [Color Detail Loss] set to [7 %]
Parameter [Brightness Detail Loss] set to [15 %]
Parameter [Redistribution Kernel] set to [2.7 pixels]
Parameter [Read Noise Compensation] set to [38.44 %]
Parameter [Smoothness] set to [79 %]
And this is the result;
Hope this helps!
Thanks for that!
This is what I did with ST 1.3.5.255 Beta;
I loaded up the image and, as always, do an AutoDev to see what we got.
Before doing the AutoDev though, I was already able to see some things that caught my attention.
The stars look very nice and round - your guiding is very good!
The data also appears very oversampled, so binning to reduce noise (or deconvolution if noise is absent, or a mixture of both) will be in order.
The Autodev turned up some stacking artifacts and a typical sort of red bias.
I got to work, binning the image to 25% and cropping the image.
Next I next used Wipe to get rid of the bias. I set 'Temporary Autodev' to on, so I could see the result a bit better. There are small dust donuts/specks visible and Wipe seems to leave a gradient at the bottom of the image. I went back to crop the image a bit more at the bottom to get rid of whatever was causing the remnant gradient. The lack of flats is probably the culrprit here. In the end I used the Vignetting preset, with a Dark Anomaly Filter setting of 5 pixels.
With that out of the way, I did my final global stretch in AutoDev.
I defined an ROI over part of the galaxy, setting the Outside ROI Influence parameter to something very low like 5% to 10%). I also bumped up the 'Ignore Fine Detail <' partameter to about 2 pixels.
There is noise visible, but we'll take care of that later. As long as the galaxy and its core is readily visible (but neither are too bright).
Not expecting too much, I try my luck with Deconvolution anyway. A Radius of 2.2 pixels gives a slight increase in detail. I'll take what I can get!
Next up is some Wavelet SHarpening (using the same inverted star mask as Decon). I set Scale 12 to 0% (to noi exacerbate fine noise) and let the Intelligent Enhancement do its thing. I use an Amount of approx. 300%.
Final color calibration is next. All done automatically, the only modification is setting 'Cap Green' to 'to Yellow'.
In order to push back noise and isolate the galaxy, I use the Life module's Isolate preset with default settings.
Finally I switch off Tracking and perform noise reduction.
A bit of tweaking was needed to find a balance of signal and noise that I liked;
Parameter [Scale 5] set to [52 %]
Parameter [Color Detail Loss] set to [7 %]
Parameter [Brightness Detail Loss] set to [15 %]
Parameter [Redistribution Kernel] set to [2.7 pixels]
Parameter [Read Noise Compensation] set to [38.44 %]
Parameter [Smoothness] set to [79 %]
And this is the result;
-
- 2013_09_14 M33 Unguided DSS out.jpg (91.92 KiB) Viewed 4932 times
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
Re: M33 Stack unstretched. Really this time.
Ivo, thanks very much for processing this stack. I've posted the same stack at another forum for others to try their hand at. Your result is excellent, particularly because I know the data that you had to work with. Later today I will copy your process so I can see the step by step changes to the original image. This will be a great step toward learning to use the excellent tool you have created.
Thanks again!
Mike
Thanks again!
Mike