TheSkySearchers

After our last 2 multi channel challenges I thought it would be good to throw in a OSC challenge.

Also, for a change, as well as the normal stacks I'm putting up the full raw data - Lights, darks, flats, dark-flats and bias. I'm thinking it might be interesting for our newest challengers to be able to take it all the way from raw data to finished image and have the chance to ask for help through the whole process.

I thought it would also be interesting to be able to share each others stacks using different programs and parameters to see how much difference that makes. So if anyone does their own stack from the raw data drop it into the folder linked below - identify it as yours and post below to tell us. Then we can all have a play and see what differences there are.

It may even be of interest to some of you to see raw data from one of the new generation CMOS cameras to see what all the fuss is about. (This is the ASI 2600 mc so the IMX571 sensor)

So this months challenge is a OSC widefield of the whale and hockey stick captured by me back in march. My original post with it is here viewtopic.php?f=66&t=17091 - dont be put off by the widefield - there is good detail in the whale and it will take a fair crop if you want to do that.

For PCC its 510mm FL and 3.76 micron pixels.

Youll get the stacks (fit and both 16 and 32 bit tiff) here https://1drv.ms/u/s!Alj6NhuYfZtW2R6mz94 ... K?e=HnxdFJ

In there you will also find a "Raw files" folder with all the raw data. I've included some bias frames even though current advice is to avoid bias on the CMOS cameras - I have not used bias on any stacks from this camera. Be warned the raw files are a total of 11 Gygs !

Download what files you want and process in your software(s) of choice then post in this thread. The purpose of the APP Challenge is to share techniques so we can all learn and grow in our abilities so please describe your process steps and any special tricks you used to get your result. If you have been finding something difficult to do with this data - tell us and hopefully someone will be able to help.

Please consider submitting some data of your own for future challenges. Just send me PM and I'll take it from there.

Have fun

David.

I will have a play at this soon!

Thanks David!

Thanks for sharing David ,Processed in Startools 1.8 505 alpha ,startools log https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xdeyewctjgp9 ... 3.txt?dl=0 tried three times processing fine line stretching so background wasnt too dark maybe stretched a tad to much ,always looks better on my phone than my poor laptop screen .

Regards Dave

I also would like to thank you David for the data and all the work you are putting in to make the various formats available!

I downloaded the stacked 16-bit .tif file. I haven't processed a OSC image for a while since switching to NB, so, it was a nice trip down memory lane! Also the local fog won't allow any data to be collected at this time.

PROCESSING with PixInsight:
Crop
ABE
ColorCalibration
MultiscaleLinearTransform (noise reduction)
HistogramTransformation (stretch image)
TGVDenoise
EZ Star Reduction
HistogramTransformation (adjust black level)
Curves + star_mask (increase star color)
Curves + nebula mask (increase nebulae color saturation)
Create Luminance image
Curves (increase overall image color saturation prior to LRGBCombination)
LRGBCombination (use sharpened Luminance image for L-channel)
UnsharpMask (use nebula mask so that only nebulae are sharpened)
Curves (use nebula mask so that only nebulae color saturation is increased)
HistogramTransformation (adjust black level and perform any needed color balancing with black level shifts)

FULL FOV
CROPPED FOV Thanks for looking,

Steve

Seems we all had a go today!

Here's my go using the .fits file in Pixinsight.

DynamicCrop
AutomaticBackgroundExtractor
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
ColourCalibration
ScreenTransferFunction/HistogramTransformation
MultiscaleLinearTransform - With a Luminance foreground mask
CurvesTransformation - Increased Saturation and blue - With a Luminance background mask


Regards

Graeme

That's REALLY nice@STEVE333 great colour and definition in the whale.

I still struggle with masks in PI. how have you done your masks for adjusting the nebulas- smoothed range mask?

Rgds

David

Nice @STEVE333 lovely colour in the whale core .

Regards Dave

Not one to be left out, I decided to reprocess my data in different apps to see what I could get.

BTW, I rotate mine the way you see cause i think the whale looks better that way

First in Startools. Now its been a while since I used startools but I downloaded the new version 1.7 and give it a whirl. I'm a bit rusty so my flow was pretty standard

Autodev, crop, Wipe, Autodev, Contrast, HDR, Sharpen, Deco, Colour, Denoise All pretty much at default settings. The full log is placed in the same folder that holds the data for this challenge. Resulting in....
And Sice we are looking at crops.... I'm really quite happy with that - infact its probably my best result with Startools to date. However, I have recently upgraded my processing desktop (not new but with 32g RAM, i5, processor and a SSD) but I was still finding that things like decon and the noise reduction took and age.

Then I gave it a go in Photoshop, using some carbonis action. This was;

Levels, crop, colour balance in levels, Gradientxterminator, HLVG, Curves&levels (several) Some carbonis's actions (Local contrast enhance, make stars smaller, increase star colour) Then Camera Raw filter to adjust saturations using adjustment brush. Note that I did no noise reduction in this PS process - I tried a couple (carbonis and NIK) but it really was not showing much improvement. this gave me..
again its not too bad. needs a bit more stretching I think but still.

This was my original in PixInsight for quick comparison. All three are at full res in ....


Now I'm off to try my PI one again to see if I can get anywhere near @STEVE333 's great result above.

I did a bit more on the previous posted image with a LocalhistogramEqualisation and an Unsharp mask (as per David's advice last week!) and a bit more saturation through a mask.

The Unsharp mask made the image pixelate a bit when zoomed in so I pulled the amount setting back to 0.5.

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:12 pm I did a bit more on the previous posted image with a LocalhistogramEqualisation and an Unsharp mask (as per David's advice last week!) and a bit more saturation through a mask.

The Unsharp mask made the image pixelate a bit when zoomed in so I pulled the amount setting back to 0.5.

Looking Good Graeme!

Try running SCNR on it, the stars look a tiny bit green on my tablet.

Rgds

David

@Jockinireland if your pc has a dedicated gpu then use the gpu version of startools its so fast .

UkDave wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:02 pm @Jockinireland if your pc has a dedicated gpu then use the gpu version of startools its so fast .

Thanks Dave but no - no graphics card - although I may be thinking of putting one in - what would you recommend - 4gyg enough?

So as stated above, I have gone back and redone my PI one using some of @STEVE333 s steps. I started with my already stretch version then mostly followed Steves. Definite improvement I think. Thanks Steve!

Full and crop This was my process

Original;
Crop
ABE
PhotometricColourCalibration
EZ-Deconvolution
EZ_Denoise
HistogramTransformation (stretch image)

Then I moved to (mostly) Steves workflow

EZ Star Reduction
Curves + star_mask (increase star color)
Curves + nebula mask (increase nebulae color saturation)
Create Luminance image
Curves (increase overall image color saturation prior to LRGBCombination)
Slight Concvolution on RGB to blur
LRGBCombination (used Luminance image with HDRMT for L-channel)
SCNR
Curves (use nebula mask so that only nebulae color saturation is increased)

Take care

Jockinireland wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:16 pm

UkDave wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:02 pm @Jockinireland if your pc has a dedicated gpu then use the gpu version of startools its so fast .

Thanks Dave but no - no graphics card - although I may be thinking of putting one in - what would you recommend - 4gyg enough?

I use my sons old gaming pc it’s actually not that old that’s running an ASU’s Gtx 1060 6gb card , there is a thread here
https://forum.startools.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2186
A 4gb I’m sure will be fine .

Dave

It took a few days to find the time but here was my go at it.

Most of the processing was in StarTools (see log) Then just a final sharpen in PS.

I condensed the log down a bit but most of the settings are default.

Enjoy:
StarTools 1.7.458
Sun Jul 11 11:57:57 2021
-----------------------------------------------------------
File loaded [D:\My Documents\TSS stuff\AP Challenge stuff\Whale_Galaxy.fits].
Image size is 6269 x 4244
---
Type of Data: Linear, was not Bayered, or was Bayered + white balanced
--- Auto Develop
--- Bin
Parameter [Scale] set to [scale 50.00% / +2.00 bits / +1.41x SNR improvement]
Image size is 3134 x 2122
--- Crop
Image size is 1970 x 1425
--- Wipe
--- Photographic Film Development Emulation
--- Contrast
--- HDR
--- Wavelet Sharpen
Mask used (BASE64 PNG encoded)
--- SNR-aware Wavelet Sharpening
--- Deconvolution
--- Color
--- Unified De-Noise
File saved [D:\My Documents\TSS stuff\AP Challenge stuff\ghsWhale_Galaxy.tiff].

Gordon wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 7:27 pm It took a few days to find the time but here was my go at it.

Most of the processing was in StarTools (see log) Then just a final sharpen in PS.

I condensed the log down a bit but most of the settings are default.

Enjoy:

Beautiful job Gordon.

Steve

UkDave wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:58 pm I use my sons old gaming pc ....

Same as that Dave! I put my son's motherboard and video card into an old second hand case when he upgraded!

Regards

Graeme

Jockinireland wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:26 pm Try running SCNR on it, the stars look a tiny bit green on my tablet.

Well spotted David! I tweaked the green up a tad in curves, I meant to reset it because it didn't look right, but forgot!

Regards

Graeme

Thanks for all your effort! I'm downloading the raw files now... I'll report back in a few days!

Larry

Thanks for the nice data! First of all, your stars look great! Guiding must be really good!
I downloaded the raw data and used DSS to "blink" through it and it doesn't appear you're dithering... I hardly see any image shift between images...
Maybe it's just me, but if you're not dithering, you probably should... I also noticed 5 satellites but Kappa Sigma clipping should handle them.
I'm going to load these into APP and let the stacking process run overnight...

See you all tomorrow!

Larry