AP Processing Challenge No. 4 - The Needle Galaxy

Every month a new challenge!
User avatar
Jockinireland Ireland
Milky Way Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 1920
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:56 pm
4
Location: Galway
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#21

Post by Jockinireland »


Graeme1858 wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 6:23 am
Jockinireland wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:48 pm

That's a very fine go at it David. I don't know if Photoshop is the same but when I opened the fits file in Gimp there were two seperate images, an rgb and a green version. I only used the rgb. When you say you used the Green chanel as a luminance layer was that the seperate green image?

Regards

Graeme
Hi Graeme, thanks. Your is good too.

Now when I open the fits in PS there is only one file. I saw you mention that earlier but have no clue what thats about :?

What I did here was to copy the mono image from the green chanel to a seperate document, worked on it to increase contrast and reduce noise then copied it back into the green channel. it is a technique explained well by this astrobackyard video. Although its on Photoshop I think it would translate easily to GIMP.


It is a really nice technique and can make great improvements - I have used it recently to remove red halo's on a l-enhance duo band image by doing star reduction on the red channel and it worked fairly well. I think I could make it better by taking a bit more care in getting but thats a Work in Progress!

Good luck.
Scope: Skywatcher Evostar 80ED (SW 0.85 FR/FF) on a SW NEQ6Pro
Guiding; SW Evoguide 50ED, ASI 120mm mini
Meade 8" LX200 GPS on wedge (Guided with a cheapo 50mm guidescope and a ZWO ASI 120mm mini)
Sharpstar 61EDPH II (with dedicated 0.8 reducer) with wiliam Optics 32mm uniguide
Camera: ASI2600MC pro. QHY 163M with ZWO 7nm NB filters, Canon EOS700D astro mod
Secondary mount: Skywatcher StarAdventurer

My Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/users/mackiedlm/
User avatar
Jockinireland Ireland
Milky Way Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 1920
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:56 pm
4
Location: Galway
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#22

Post by Jockinireland »


Graeme1858 wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 6:23 am
Jockinireland wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:48 pm
David

That's a very fine go at it David. I don't know if Photoshop is the same but when I opened the fits file in Gimp there were two seperate images, an rgb and a green version. I only used the rgb. When you say you used the Green chanel as a luminance layer was that the seperate green image?

Regards

Graeme
Actually what I said above there was incorrect. in this instance what i did was after working on the green layer mono i copied it back as a new layer on top of the full image, layer blend mode to luminosity making this a luminosity layer based on the green channel - sorry about that. I'm not sure GIMP has a luminosity blend mode but i'm sure there will be a way to do it.
Scope: Skywatcher Evostar 80ED (SW 0.85 FR/FF) on a SW NEQ6Pro
Guiding; SW Evoguide 50ED, ASI 120mm mini
Meade 8" LX200 GPS on wedge (Guided with a cheapo 50mm guidescope and a ZWO ASI 120mm mini)
Sharpstar 61EDPH II (with dedicated 0.8 reducer) with wiliam Optics 32mm uniguide
Camera: ASI2600MC pro. QHY 163M with ZWO 7nm NB filters, Canon EOS700D astro mod
Secondary mount: Skywatcher StarAdventurer

My Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/users/mackiedlm/
User avatar
Graeme1858 Great Britain
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Articles: 1
Offline
Posts: 7217
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:16 pm
4
Location: North Kent, UK
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

TSS Photo of the Day

I Broke The Forum.

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#23

Post by Graeme1858 »


Jockinireland wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 7:55 am
Now when I open the fits in PS there is only one file. I saw you mention that earlier but have no clue what thats about :?

It must be a Gimp thing! I'll try opening as layers and use the green looking image as a seperate layer and see what happens. I'm not sure GIMP has a luminosity blend mode either, I'll have a play and get back.

Cheers for the video just going to watch it now.

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
User avatar
Jockinireland Ireland
Milky Way Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 1920
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:56 pm
4
Location: Galway
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#24

Post by Jockinireland »


Graeme1858 wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 12:45 pm
Jockinireland wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 7:55 am
Now when I open the fits in PS there is only one file. I saw you mention that earlier but have no clue what thats about :?

It must be a Gimp thing! I'll try opening as layers and use the green looking image as a seperate layer and see what happens. I'm not sure GIMP has a luminosity blend mode either, I'll have a play and get back.

Cheers for the video just going to watch it now.

Regards

Graeme
Hi Graeme,

I had a play around with GIMP and now I am even more confused. I have no idea what that lime green image is when you first open the fits. And then the "channels" show up as colour versions. even if i open a tiff. As you'll have seen from that video in PS channels are mono.

So I'm completely at a loss. Sorry!

Rgds

David.
Scope: Skywatcher Evostar 80ED (SW 0.85 FR/FF) on a SW NEQ6Pro
Guiding; SW Evoguide 50ED, ASI 120mm mini
Meade 8" LX200 GPS on wedge (Guided with a cheapo 50mm guidescope and a ZWO ASI 120mm mini)
Sharpstar 61EDPH II (with dedicated 0.8 reducer) with wiliam Optics 32mm uniguide
Camera: ASI2600MC pro. QHY 163M with ZWO 7nm NB filters, Canon EOS700D astro mod
Secondary mount: Skywatcher StarAdventurer

My Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/users/mackiedlm/
User avatar
umasscrew39 United States of America
Jupiter Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 233
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:44 pm
3
Location: Florida
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#25

Post by umasscrew39 »


Jockinireland wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:48 pm i'm coming late to the party because i did not see the new system till today!!

Anyway, in photoshop;
Arcsin stretch
Gradient exterminator
A couple of general gentle stretches in curves and colour balance in levels
HLVG
carbonis local contrast
Carbonis lighten DSO
Noise reduction with Dfine2
selective high pass routine to bring structure to dark lane
Camera raw filter - slight dehaze, tiny bit noise reduction, pulled back the sat just a tad.
I then made a lum lllayer from the green channel as it seemed to have the best dust lane structure (in retrospect i probably should have done this earlier - like before the high pass sharpen. (well dang! I'll just need to try it again :D )
All bringing me to this...
Image
This was great data to work with so thanks very much. I dont really think i've been able to do it justice.

Rgds

David
David........... glad you liked my data and thank you for doing a better job than me with it! I love the adjectives you use, 'slight', 'tiny', and 'tad'. Greta idea about the luminance layer from the green channel. I have never tried that. maybe I should reprocess it and give it a go.

Bruce
Bruce

Astronomy? Impossible to understand and madness to investigate........Sophocles, c. 420 BCE

StarzantiSkies Observatory
https://www.astrobin.com/users/umasscrew39/
User avatar
gcisko United States of America
Saturn Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 336
Joined: Fri May 31, 2019 5:01 am
4
Location: Chicago
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#26

Post by gcisko »


I'm coming in really late to the party. But maybe better late than never.

I opened it in GIMP and adjusted the levels (within GIMP) to bring out the object from the black image. I then saved it as a TIF and opened and edited in Photoshop. The adjustments in PS was mostly levels and curves. But I did apply a AstroFlatPro filter to flatten it more, then I used TOPAZ Studio to remove some noise. I just started playing with Astronomy Tools Action Set, and made some basic adjustments there but nothing I can remember. Sorry.

I am really bad at photoshop and am learning how use it, especially for the assorted adjustments to get a proper color. So this was the best I could do. My focus was to try to bring out as much detail of the dust lanes as possible. Comments and any tips are welcome :Astronomer1:
Umasscrew39 NGC4565 Needle Galaxytry2-1400.jpg
Celestron EdgeHD 8, AVX | StarSense | 2" Star Diagonal | Astrotech Illuminated finder
F/7 Focal Reducer | Powertank | Orion 7x50 Binoculars
Astrotech AT72ED | Star Adventurer by SkyWatcher
Eyepieces: Tele Vue 32mm WideField & 6mm Ethos | Nagler - 9mm & 16mm Type 2
Filters: Lumimcon & Baader OIII, Baader Sky & Moon Glow, 13% Moon
ASIair Pro & ZWO ASI533MC
User avatar
Jockinireland Ireland
Milky Way Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 1920
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:56 pm
4
Location: Galway
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#27

Post by Jockinireland »


gcisko wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:04 pm I'm coming in really late to the party. But maybe better late than never.

I opened it in GIMP and adjusted the levels (within GIMP) to bring out the object from the black image. I then saved it as a TIF and opened and edited in Photoshop. The adjustments in PS was mostly levels and curves. But I did apply a AstroFlatPro filter to flatten it more, then I used TOPAZ Studio to remove some noise. I just started playing with Astronomy Tools Action Set, and made some basic adjustments there but nothing I can remember. Sorry.

I am really bad at photoshop and am learning how use it, especially for the assorted adjustments to get a proper color. So this was the best I could do. My focus was to try to bring out as much detail of the dust lanes as possible. Comments and any tips are welcome :Astronomer1:

Image
Well I'd not call that bad at all. Really nice structure in the gas lanes and a nice level of stretch.

My only comment would be that it seems to have a bit of a green cast. I threw your jpeg through HLVG and it came out like below. Which now has a dirty brown cast :D But i think if you used HLVg earlier in your process you could end up with something different. HLVG is really great and I run it nearly every process as soon after initial stretchin as I can, and most of the time it improves things - even if you dont actually see the green cast starting out. Its free so give it a go.
http://www.deepskycolors.com/archivo/20 ... Green.html

But I'm still very much beginner myself so maybe others more experienced may have better ideas.
Umasscrew39 NGC4565 Needle Galaxytry2-1400 hlvg.jpg
Scope: Skywatcher Evostar 80ED (SW 0.85 FR/FF) on a SW NEQ6Pro
Guiding; SW Evoguide 50ED, ASI 120mm mini
Meade 8" LX200 GPS on wedge (Guided with a cheapo 50mm guidescope and a ZWO ASI 120mm mini)
Sharpstar 61EDPH II (with dedicated 0.8 reducer) with wiliam Optics 32mm uniguide
Camera: ASI2600MC pro. QHY 163M with ZWO 7nm NB filters, Canon EOS700D astro mod
Secondary mount: Skywatcher StarAdventurer

My Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/users/mackiedlm/
User avatar
gcisko United States of America
Saturn Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 336
Joined: Fri May 31, 2019 5:01 am
4
Location: Chicago
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#28

Post by gcisko »


Jockinireland wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:34 pm Well I'd not call that bad at all. Really nice structure in the gas lanes and a nice level of stretch.

My only comment would be that it seems to have a bit of a green cast. I threw your jpeg through HLVG and it came out like below. Which now has a dirty brown cast :D But i think if you used HLVg earlier in your process you could end up with something different. HLVG is really great and I run it nearly every process as soon after initial stretchin as I can, and most of the time it improves things - even if you dont actually see the green cast starting out. Its free so give it a go.
http://www.deepskycolors.com/archivo/20 ... Green.html

But I'm still very much beginner myself so maybe others more experienced may have better ideas.
I didn't try the plugin you mentioned yet. But I did go back and readjusted the RGB balance and then cropped it. Maybe this is less green?
Umasscrew39 NGC4565 Needle Galaxytry2cropRGB-rebalance.jpg
Celestron EdgeHD 8, AVX | StarSense | 2" Star Diagonal | Astrotech Illuminated finder
F/7 Focal Reducer | Powertank | Orion 7x50 Binoculars
Astrotech AT72ED | Star Adventurer by SkyWatcher
Eyepieces: Tele Vue 32mm WideField & 6mm Ethos | Nagler - 9mm & 16mm Type 2
Filters: Lumimcon & Baader OIII, Baader Sky & Moon Glow, 13% Moon
ASIair Pro & ZWO ASI533MC
User avatar
Jockinireland Ireland
Milky Way Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 1920
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:56 pm
4
Location: Galway
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#29

Post by Jockinireland »


gcisko wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:51 pm
Jockinireland wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:34 pm Well I'd not call that bad at all. Really nice structure in the gas lanes and a nice level of stretch.

My only comment would be that it seems to have a bit of a green cast. I threw your jpeg through HLVG and it came out like below. Which now has a dirty brown cast :D But i think if you used HLVg earlier in your process you could end up with something different. HLVG is really great and I run it nearly every process as soon after initial stretchin as I can, and most of the time it improves things - even if you dont actually see the green cast starting out. Its free so give it a go.
http://www.deepskycolors.com/archivo/20 ... Green.html

But I'm still very much beginner myself so maybe others more experienced may have better ideas.
I didn't try the plugin you mentioned yet. But I did go back and readjusted the RGB balance and then cropped it. Maybe this is less green?

Image
Personally I think that looks much better. Well done!

But what do you think? If I've learned one thing it is that for every five astroimagers you'll get 7 opinions. So you should go with your own tastes as much as possible.
Scope: Skywatcher Evostar 80ED (SW 0.85 FR/FF) on a SW NEQ6Pro
Guiding; SW Evoguide 50ED, ASI 120mm mini
Meade 8" LX200 GPS on wedge (Guided with a cheapo 50mm guidescope and a ZWO ASI 120mm mini)
Sharpstar 61EDPH II (with dedicated 0.8 reducer) with wiliam Optics 32mm uniguide
Camera: ASI2600MC pro. QHY 163M with ZWO 7nm NB filters, Canon EOS700D astro mod
Secondary mount: Skywatcher StarAdventurer

My Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/users/mackiedlm/
User avatar
Graeme1858 Great Britain
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Articles: 1
Offline
Posts: 7217
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:16 pm
4
Location: North Kent, UK
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

TSS Photo of the Day

I Broke The Forum.

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#30

Post by Graeme1858 »


Nice go at it Gcisko.

I usually deal with the Green cast by raising the Red and Blue levels. There's a choice of Shadows, Mid tone and Highlights. Shadows deals with the background.

When you open the fits file in Gimp there's a few options to select, the default is Grey Scale (I see where your 5 files comes from now!). I always change to Naxis 3 for RGB.

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
User avatar
gcisko United States of America
Saturn Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 336
Joined: Fri May 31, 2019 5:01 am
4
Location: Chicago
Status:
Offline

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#31

Post by gcisko »


Jockinireland wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:58 pm
Personally I think that looks much better. Well done!

But what do you think? If I've learned one thing it is that for every five astroimagers you'll get 7 opinions. So you should go with your own tastes as much as possible.
After checking this a bit I do think the adjusted image looks better than the greenish hue image. Thanks!
Celestron EdgeHD 8, AVX | StarSense | 2" Star Diagonal | Astrotech Illuminated finder
F/7 Focal Reducer | Powertank | Orion 7x50 Binoculars
Astrotech AT72ED | Star Adventurer by SkyWatcher
Eyepieces: Tele Vue 32mm WideField & 6mm Ethos | Nagler - 9mm & 16mm Type 2
Filters: Lumimcon & Baader OIII, Baader Sky & Moon Glow, 13% Moon
ASIair Pro & ZWO ASI533MC
User avatar
Graeme1858 Great Britain
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Articles: 1
Offline
Posts: 7217
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:16 pm
4
Location: North Kent, UK
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

TSS Photo of the Day

I Broke The Forum.

Re: AP Processing Challenge No. 4

#32

Post by Graeme1858 »


AP Processing Challenge No. 4 is now closed.

Thanks to Bruce (Unmasscrew39) for the data, greatly appreciated.

The next one is AP Processing Challenge No. 6, starting today, which will be a chance to have a go at processing an image of Comet 2020 F3 Neowise with data submitted by Greg ([mention]gcisko[/mention]).

If anyone would like to submit some data for a future challenge please send an email with a cloud storage download link to tssapchallenge@theskysearchers.com

Stay safe.

Regards

Graeme
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
Locked

Return to “AP Processing Challenge”