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AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:35 am
by Graeme1858
A new year and a new AP Processing Challenge!

Gordon has submitted his three narrow band Ha, O3 and S2 capture files of IC5146 the Cocoon Nebula.

IC 5146 (also Caldwell 19, Collinder 470, Sh 2-125, and the Cocoon Nebula) is a reflection/emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus and a cluster of 9.5 mag stars in a bright and dark nebula. The nebula is about 4,000ly away and the central star that lights it formed about 100,000 years ago. The nebula is about 12 arcmins across, which is equivalent to a span of 15 light years. When viewing IC 5146, dark nebula Barnard 168 (B168) is a dark lane that surrounds the Cocoon and projects westward.

Just click the link below to download Gordon's files and process using your preferred software and methods. Then post your results to this thread for us all to enjoy!

AP Processing Challenge No.13 files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... p=sharing]

This is Gordon's original posting: viewtopic.php?p=130239#p130070

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

tssapchallenge@theskysearchers.com

Have fun!

Regards

Graeme

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 5:33 pm
by Gordon
This data was captured on the evening of December 21st, 2020.

I was using my Explore Scientific ED80cf scope, with a .80 Orion Focal reducer on my Orion EQ6 mount with a guide scope. The camera used was a ZWO ASI1600mm-C with ZWO narrowband filters.

Data capture was:

Ha 7 each 4 mins @ 200 gain / 50 offset / -10degC
O3 8 each 8 mins @ 200 gain / 50 offset / -10degC
S2 9 each 8 mins @ 200 gain / 50 offset / -10degC

Stacked and registered using DeepSkyStacker No 'preprocessing' applied.

I processed the data using StarTools. The data is pretty good so there wasn't much to do other than a crop to remove the tell-tale dither. I played with a number of different color options that StarTools offers until I found something that was appealing to me.

I hope you have fun with this data.
Cocoon.jpg

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 10:06 pm
by Ruud
Thank you Graeme, Gorden, for this month's challenge.

In fitswork Ha came out strongest and O3 came out well too. I'm afraid I couldn't get much useful information from the S2 exposure.

Having little experience I let fitswork automatically combine all three into one RGB image, ending up with an all red nebula and yellow stars. I made a separate B&W image from the O3 data because I realised I'd have some corrections to perform

In Photoshop I combined the stars from the the B&W O3 image with the RGB image that fitswork had produced. This removed the yellow cast from the stars. To break the uniformity of the red nebula, I blended a weakened green version of the O3 nebula with the one I had already, which turned the centre of my red nebula into a reddish orange and gave a yellowish hue to its edges.

This is the result:
Challenge 13.png
  
Best wishes to all! 2021 is bound to be a much better year than the one we just escaped.

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 6:16 am
by Graeme1858
Gordon wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 5:33 pm This data was captured on the evening of December 21st, 2020.

Thanks for the rundown Gordon.

Regards

Graeme

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 6:20 am
by Graeme1858
Ruud wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 10:06 pm Thank you Graeme, Gorden, for this month's challenge.

In fitswork Ha came out strongest and O3 came out well too. I'm afraid I couldn't get much useful information from the S2 exposure.

Having little experience I let fitswork automatically combine all three into one RGB image, ending up with an all red nebula and yellow stars. I made a separate B&W image from the O3 data because I realised I'd have some corrections to perform

Your mono addition was a good idea! You have finished up with some nice colours there Ruud.

Regards

Graeme

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 4:48 pm
by Graeme1858
Here's my go!

Opened in Gimp as Layers
Stretched Curves on each layer (x3)
Moved black point on Levels
Colour Balanced Ha Level to boost Red
Colour Balanced O3 Level to boost Green
Colour Balanced S2 Level to boost Blue
Saturate each level
Set Ha and O3 Layers Visibility to 60% (I think it was 60%!)
Crop asymmetric to show dark nebula
Sharpen (Unsharp Mask)

Cocoon C#13.jpg

Thanks for the data Gordon.

Regards

Graeme

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 6:20 pm
by Gordon
Great work guys!

I like seeing others methods and the end results!

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 8:33 pm
by andrewsscope
Hi all here is my attempt at the cocoon nebula from Gordon.I used Adobe cs2 and 1st did light pollution software,anstronomy tools for vertical and horizontal banding,space light pollution,enhance the nebula.I constructed the image using Ha as red,03 as green and s2 as blue.I decided to crop the image and ended up with this result.Thanks again for the data.I forgot to say I used dust and scratches for the noise reduction.
cocoonnew6at.jpg

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 9:03 pm
by Graeme1858
Nice one Andy.

I like the close crop.

What's dust and scratches part of?

Regards

Graeme

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 9:10 pm
by andrewsscope
Graeme1858 wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 9:03 pm Nice one Andy.

I like the close crop.

What's dust and scratches part of?

Regards

Graeme
Hi Graeme is under the filter tab and is the noise sub menu where you can adjust the noise and scratches.I find it works quite well and is in Adobe cs2.
Thanks
Andy

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:35 pm
by Jockinireland
First thanks @Gordon for the data.

I decided i wanted to try something really different with this - i wanted to get the cocoon really bright and contrasty and get away from the standard colours.

So, in PI
registered and cropped the 3 files
Gradient removal with ABE
Very little in Sii so decided to work HOO only
Noise reduction on HA
gentle stretch
remove stars
Several iteration of HT and CT
Gentle stretch on Oiii
Masked and stretched only nebula
Pixelmath to combine as HOO
into Photoshop for some selective colour saturation and
pack to PI
Convuluted the HOO
added Ha as a luminance
Some curvs transform
Back to PS for some selective high pass to improve contast in the nebula

and save as JPG to give....
Gordons-cocoon_DLM.jpg
So i definately got "diffrent" and "contrasty" but I'm not sure I like it very much :lol:

But it was fun to work with and i may go back and try something more conservative if the skys stay cloudy.

thanks again Gordon

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 6:55 am
by Graeme1858
That's an interesting take on it!

What's HT an CT?

Regards

Graeme

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 11:34 am
by Jockinireland
Graeme1858 wrote: Thu Jan 21, 2021 6:55 am That's an interesting take on it!

What's HT an CT?

Regards

Graeme
"Interesting" :lol:

These are processes within pixinsight

HT = Histogram Transformation - pretty much like levels in PS
CT= Curves Transfomation - pretty much like curves in PS

Although in PI both of these processes have a bit more depth and complexity.

Thanks for the comment.

Rgds

David.

Re: AP Processing Challenge No.13 - The Cocoon Nebula

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 12:34 pm
by Graeme1858
Levels and Curves then!

Everybody that uses it rates PI highly (except for its absurdly long function names!) I might have to invest.

Thanks for the explanation. and thanks for your submission.

Regards

Graeme