Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Questions and answers about processing in StarTools and how to accomplish certain tasks.
fmeireso
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by fmeireso »

Dietmar,

Yes please do i want to try it...

Never used an L-enhance stack as L...curious how that would go...

Regards
Freddy
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admin
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by admin »

Thank you all for weighing in. :bow-yellow:

Side note; if contemplating the purchase of third camera, it may be worthwhile to instead invest in either a mono CCD (the "ultimate"/most flexible gear) or a OSC camera. The characteristics of these are optimized for our purposes and should, when all is said and done (and traded/sold), much more bang for buck in terms of signal quality and flexibility.
Ivo Jager
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decay
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by decay »

Hi Freddy,

https://c.web.de/@334960167135216273/s4 ... GeDFawxamw

Data quality is very limited - it's a bit embarrassing but maybe it's enough to try out. As said, perhaps you can try to extract the Ha channel from the duoband stack for testing.

M1 seems to have strong details in Ha but/and seems to be more broadband in OIII.

Unfortunately my work is calling ;) I will try to reply with some more words this evening again.

Until then, Dietmar.
fmeireso
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by fmeireso »

Dietmar,

So a trial. I put the 'duo' stack in Luminance and the other stack as RGB. I used L,RGB. Personaly i think it came out not that bad at all. Only, i have to admit, i don't realy know how it suppose to look, colorwise. On the internet just about all colors can be found. :think:
Stacks seemed on this well first quick try, very good, no gradients, even. Better then my stacks...

Bottom line i don't find it dissapointing...

It is just still a bit small...i cropped it here, but i think it can use some longer FL to make it appear bigger.

How did you take ? Scopes, integration times?

Kind regards
Freddy
M1Cropped.jpg
M1Cropped.jpg (372.25 KiB) Viewed 10140 times
fmeireso
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by fmeireso »

admin wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 12:28 am Thank you all for weighing in. :bow-yellow:

Side note; if contemplating the purchase of third camera, it may be worthwhile to instead invest in either a mono CCD (the "ultimate"/most flexible gear) or a OSC camera. The characteristics of these are optimized for our purposes and should, when all is said and done (and traded/sold), much more bang for buck in terms of signal quality and flexibility.
yes, i am very well aware of this. But you know Belgium and Holland (you have youre roots in Holland , haven't you? :) ) are not 'astro' friendly countries due to the weather. always clouds, not to mention the rain) Using a pure astro mono would give the best results, but it needs time. 4 session L, r,g,b and that maybe over several days, you might easily wind up with 8 or 12 session, can takes months...before you have a picture...; dunno...AP is complicated enough and i also want to keep it a little bit practical....but yes nonetheless i have been lurking at through mono astro camera's ;)
decay
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by decay »

Freddy, please have a look here
viewtopic.php?p=13683#p13683

As said, I'll try to reply this evening.

Dietmar.
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by admin »

fmeireso wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 10:27 am
admin wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 12:28 am Thank you all for weighing in. :bow-yellow:

Side note; if contemplating the purchase of third camera, it may be worthwhile to instead invest in either a mono CCD (the "ultimate"/most flexible gear) or a OSC camera. The characteristics of these are optimized for our purposes and should, when all is said and done (and traded/sold), much more bang for buck in terms of signal quality and flexibility.
yes, i am very well aware of this. But you know Belgium and Holland (you have youre roots in Holland , haven't you? :) ) are not 'astro' friendly countries due to the weather. always clouds, not to mention the rain) Using a pure astro mono would give the best results, but it needs time. 4 session L, r,g,b and that maybe over several days, you might easily wind up with 8 or 12 session, can takes months...before you have a picture...; dunno...AP is complicated enough and i also want to keep it a little bit practical....but yes nonetheless i have been lurking at through mono astro camera's ;)
I hear you Freddy. An OSC is absolutely a much quicker and easier way to get full spectrum signal in one go.
However I am painfully aware of the challenges of the Belgian and Dutch skies (inderdaad één en al ellende als u van de nachtelijke hemel houdt!). If I'm not mistaken, we have the dubious honor of calling our native countries two of the most light polluted in the world. :cry: And I know that wide-spectrum LED lighting has only made it harder since I left Europe, so that even LP filters don't work that well any more.

In short, I have the deepest respect for a Belgian (or Dutch) person imaging in the visual spectrum; the light pollution noise is just off the charts. And still you are producing very respectable images. Hats off to you.

If of interest at all, a fantastic alternative for exploring the deep night skies, is through exclusive narrowband. For some astrophotographers in light polluted areas, it's all they do. You don't even have to do multi-bands (SHO for example); some even stick to just H-alpha only (e.g. they just produce mono images, but with amazing detail). The important thing is that light pollution noise is *much* less of a problem all of a sudden; you collect good, strong, unpolluted(!) signal quite quickly with a modern mono camera.

As they say around these parts; if life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Something to think about?

Clear skies! (I know you'll likely need them more than anyone ;) )
Ivo Jager
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decay
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by decay »

Hi Freddy,

scope was my 8" f/5 GSO newtonian. Integration time each a ballpark 1.5 hours.
2023-01-09 18_19_18-Window.jpg
2023-01-09 18_19_18-Window.jpg (42.44 KiB) Viewed 10122 times
This is left to right the stack with visual spectrum, your combined [L, RGB] rendering and duoband stack HOO rendering.
My attempt with [L, RGB] looked much the same like yours (I haven't saved it). I think your intention is to get a rendering with detail from NB data and colouring from visual spectrum data? I also tried with [L + Synthetic L From R(2xG)B, RGB (Color from OSC/DSLR)] and I think I remember it looked much better - but I'm not sure if this is what you want :think: My skills and knowledge end at this point, maybe you or someone else here can do better ... (but as said, I would try to extract Ha channel before)

But this is possibly data (in terms of spectrum coverage for both data sets) like you can expect if you would have a modded DSLR (or astro OSC cam). Maybe this is a way to find out whether your 'Ha-as-L' style is possible using StarTools plus you could try to ask someone else to do it with PI or whatever (like discussed in your other thread). :think:

One more word regarding a third camera: I too think a new modded DSLR would not be the step in the right direction for you. It is much too expensive and even a modification (about 350 EUR?) of your existing camera is too expensive in my eyes. And of course you already own a mono DSLR so like Mike and Ivo suggested, you could do NB imaging with your mono DSLR and Ha filter. As a next step you could buy an OIII filter and aquire sufficient duoband data for emission nebulae maybe in one single night. And in very clear nights you could do broadband imaging (reflection nebulae, galaxies) with your unmodded DSLR.

I hope this somehow helps. :confusion-shrug:

Best regards, Dietmar.
fmeireso
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by fmeireso »

Hi Dietmar,

I think in this case i really don't think you need to put the L-enhance stack in de L channel. I processed it 'as is' and indeed it came out like the third image right . I find it also the best looking.

What i did in the past at times , was taking Ha mono , put that in the L-channel and use my L-enhance on my color unmodded OSC. Many say that duoband filter is not ment to put on a unmodded DSLr but actually i got descent results on some bright objects. I used it on the Soul and processed it as HOO and it came out pretty well. Unfortunately i dither not severe enough (miscalculated the distance) and i had some pattern noise in the image.

The one below is even taken with the L-enhance on my unmodded DSLR nothing else, a bright object. Not the best picture but the point is that it comes out alot better then just taking a shot without the filter.

https://www.astrobin.com/cdn9ij/

Kind regards
Freddy
Mike in Rancho
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Re: Settings in the compose module v 1,8

Post by Mike in Rancho »

I'm not sure that's really the issue, Freddy. :?

It's not that a stock DSLR is blind to Ha (though my Nikon is worse than your Canon), but that it will be relatively weaker and more inefficient. Compared to someone else, you also have to factor in system speed and sky darkness as to what you can pick up and how long integration it takes.

Also, in a duoband, you are only acquiring two fairly narrow color slices, and often many areas of OIII will also have some Ha. So, when using Ha for L, you will still have luminance lighting up those pixels, which the filtered OSC file can colorize. It just won't quite be a correct match of the OIII luminance with the OIII color. This will be target dependent as to how things pan out.

Things are going to be rather different I'd surmise when using Ha as L to try to provide the underlying luminance for visual spectrum OSC color. There, a stock DSLR filter will really fall off in reds, especially deeper ones, no filter will be in place to isolate and increase the contrast of special color lines like Ha against the full continuum, and the disconnect between Ha luminance and full visual color will be great - leading to potentially strange colors, including pink in areas you would rather not have pink.
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