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AP Processing Challenge No. 10

Bobharmony has submitted his capture of M33, The Triangulum Galaxy.

Wikipedia: The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.

"This was collected on 9/21/2020. 77 180 second lights, 81 flats, 81 dark flats. I didn't have any darks at the right temp, so I went without. Collected with the C6N and Canon unmodded 60D. Stacked in DSS K=3, S=8. No color calibration or white balancing of any kind done in stacking."

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Just click the link above to download and process Bob's image using your preferred software and methods.

AP Processing Challenge No. 10 starts today and ends on the 15th November.

Please keep the submissions coming in for future challenges. Just send a PM to a Mod or an email to:

tssapchallenge@theskysearchers.com

And don't forget Challenge No 9 is still running. If you haven't already, have a go at processing Bradley Craig's excellent narrow band, widefield images of the North America and Pelican nebulas.

Have fun!

Regards

Graeme

Here is a brief description of the data and what's been done with it so far:

This was collected on 9/21/2020. 77 180 second lights, 81 flats, 81 dark flats. I didn't have any darks at the right temp, so I went without.

Collected with the C6N and Canon unmodded 60D. Stacked in DSS K=3, S=8. No color calibration or white balancing of any kind done in stacking.

Bob

Hi guys, thanks for the new contest.

I have a download problem:
     First I get a message box saying there is no preview. It has a download button. I click it.
     Then I get a message box saying there will be no virus check. A button says 'download anyway'. I click that.
And then I get first message box again, I click, I get the second message box, I click, the first message box, I click
and so on. Much like Groundhog Day.

I haven't been able to download the files yet. Does anyone else have this happening?

I was able to download the file with no problem. I see the "no virus check" message, click "download anyway", and down it comes. Win 10 laptop, Firefox Browser.

Bob

Ruud wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:57 pm Much like Groundhog Day.

Hello Rudd.

I just tried the link again. I get the same scenario as you describe and when I click Download anyway the first message box appears again but at the same time the file downloads. Could you check your Download folder for Challenge No 10 - Bobharmony - Triangulum Galaxy.fts

Regards

Graeme

Thanks for the data Bob!! Going to give it a whirl - what was the focal length and the pixel size of your camera?

bradleybcraig wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:23 pm Thanks for the data Bob!! Going to give it a whirl - what was the focal length and the pixel size of your camera?

Hi Brad -f/l is 750mm, pixel size 4.3um. I think the works out to 1.2arcsec/pixel and my best seeing is about 2 arcsec (3 average), so we are a bit oversampled, but not by much.

Bob

Here is my go at it in PixInsight. Processing steps ... Very nice data Bob! Thanks for letting me play :-)
1. Crop
2. Several DBEs for background modeling and gradient removal
3. Extract Luminance for later processing
4. BackgroundNeutralization on RGB
5. PhotometicColorCalibration on RGB
6. SCNR for greens on RGB
7. MultiscaleLinearTransform on RGB for linear noise reduction with mask
8. Iterative HistogramTransformations on RGB for non-linear
9. Final SCNR on RGB
10. Several CurveTransformations on RGB w/ mask to adjust RGB and Saturation curves
11. MultiscaleLinearTansformation on Luminance for linear noise reduction with mask
12. MaskedStretch followed by iterative HistogramTransformations on Luminance for non-linear
13. CurvesTransformation on Luminance to adjust RGB curve - s-curve shape
14. ACDNR for mild noise reduction on Luminance
15. UnsharpMask on Luminance with mask for sharpening in galaxy.
16. LRGBCombination to overlay Luminance on RGB - increased saturation and applied chrominance noise reduction
17. Final ColorSaturation with mask to boost blue and red.

That's really nice Bradley.

And your workflow list is very helpful too.

You have a great colour balance, I had a quick go at it this morning but then I got distracted! I had the green cast so I was going to have another go by opening in Gimp in channels to play with the curves separately. The colour balance didn't sort it. What is SCNR? (I searched for it and got "sorry, could not resist")

Regards

Graeme

I thought I would give this one a shot.
Processed in StarTools:
Image size is 4278 x 2864
---
Type of Data: Linear, was not Bayered, or was Bayered + white balanced
--- Auto Develop
default
--- Bin
bin to 2139 x 1432
--- Crop
Crop to 1473 x 799
--- Wipe
Default
--- Develop
Adjust to best combination
--- Contrast
default
--- Psycho-Visual Grain Equalization De-Noise
Parameter [Grain Size] set to [2.0 pixels]
--- Repair
Default
____ Color
I did a little tweaking to reduce a blue color cast on the galaxy.
File saved

That's a nice clean look Gordon.

Does Startools natrally keep the colouring subtle? Or is that a result of your tweaking?

Psycho-Visual Grain Equalization De-Noise sounds intriguing!

Regards

Graeme

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:23 pm That's a nice clean look Gordon.

Does Startools natrally keep the colouring subtle? Or is that a result of your tweaking?

Psycho-Visual Grain Equalization De-Noise sounds intriguing!

Regards

Graeme

ST by the default set them pretty strong. I have a tendency to make them more subtle as that’s what I like.

Here's my go!

Curves and Levels
Colour balance
Saturation
S Curve
Unshsarp mask



I have to say, I'm struggling to get the colours out of the image! I've had a few goes at it and I know the colours are there because they can be seen in the submissions above! Probably a Gimp problem. If I open normally and convert to RGB all colours behave as one. If I open as Colour composing = Naxis 3 (dunno what that means!) then all the signal is in the green channel.

Any suggestions?

I'll have a go in Photoshop 2 tonight.

Regards

Graeme

I used Fitswork and Photoshop.

It wasn't easy! But separating the stars with StarNet_Win and using the Topaz plugins on the galaxy revealed some clear detail and even a hint of colour. This is attempt 6. I don't think I can get it any better:

Click for a larger view

Hi all I used my Light pollution software first on the image,used Vertical line removal,horizontal line removal.I then created a duplicate layer and used colour and adjusted the levels and deepsky colours for Hlvg.Then I re used my light pollution software for the second time and ended up with this image.Thanks for the data.

Ruud wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 7:17 pm I used Fitswork and Photoshop.
It wasn't easy! But separating the stars with StarNet_Win and using the Topaz plugins on the galaxy revealed some clear detail and even a hint of colour. This is attempt 6. I don't think I can get it any better:

Is that the Photoshop Topaz plugin that has brought the blues out?

andrewsscope wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:42 pm Hi all I used my Light pollution software first on the image,used Vertical line removal,horizontal line removal.I then created a duplicate layer and used colour and adjusted the levels and deepsky colours for Hlvg.Then I re used my light pollution software for the second time and ended up with this image.Thanks for the data.

Is that HLVG that has brought the colour out?

Regards

Graeme

Hi Graeme I used it as a duplicate layer in Adobe cs2 and used the colorize to bring out the colour by altering the hue and saturation.Thanks Andy

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 20, 2020 12:14 pm Is that the Photoshop Topaz plugin that has brought the blues out?

Hi Graeme, no the blue is not from Topaz. Initially, after Fitswork, the image was mainly green. So in PS I separated the R, G and B channels into three 16bit grayscale images. Those I combined as layers in a new RGB image, each in its own group. I added a colour layer and curves layer to each of the three groups, so that I effectively had three colour 'channels' that I could manipulate independently. This was how I got rid of the green cast that I had before. In the blue group I dimmed the brightest tones somewhat so that the stars and core of the galaxy became a bit warmer than the disk.

I made a new top layer that combined the result. From this I separated the stars.

In Topaz Adjust I increased the local luminosity contrast as well as the colour contrast of the galaxy. That brought out much detail and even a few red patches. I used the luminosity and the red details and blended them into the galaxy. I added the stars and that was it.

I haven't been happy with my results so far, so I gave it another try. One of the biggest problems I have had with all my M33 data collected over the past few years is that the gradient seems especially obnoxious in this part of the sky.

I made one change in my StarTools processing this time. When doing the Wipe, I used the Vignetting preset instead of Gradient. It seemed to do a better job in evening out the background.

Process was Bin, Crop, WIpe (vignetting preset), Autodev (with ROI and "ignore fine detail"), deconvolution, HDR, Color, Life, and noise reduction. I am making progress but still not thrilled.
I am going back to DSS and restacking, removing the lights with the highest sky background values. I'll try processing that and put the result in a different thread if there is significant improvement.

Thanks everyone for showing your processes and results. It is always interesting to see what folks can come up with.

Bob

My quick take. Similar process as yours, Bob, except I tried another Life module at a strength of 25% just to reduce the background unevenness. Dropped the background a bit more in Photoshop using levels.

Pretty much the same result.

Thanks for the opportunity to try a shot at it. I am imaging the Bubble tonight and gave me some exercise while waiting for the meridian flip.