Ready to give upon the Squid

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KathyNS Canada
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Ready to give upon the Squid

#1

Post by KathyNS »


I have been working on OU-4, the Squid Nebula, collecting O3 data to go with the HaLRGB date I acquired last year. I have 13.25 hours of O3 (53x 900s), all accumulated on moonless nights, under Bortle 3 skies. While I can see the target, I cannot pull it out of the noise. All I can do is stretch it to a very noisy image.

Any ideas for how to get a clean image from this data? Is it hopeless? Do I need even longer subs?

Here is the calibrated, stacked O3 data, with just an STF stretch for visibility, converted to JPG and reduced in size for posting. The unstretched raw XISF master file is at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ypeu4sffixu5 ... .xisf?dl=0
masterLight-BINNING_1-FILTER_O3-EXPTIME_900-STF-1000px.jpg
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DSO AP: Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian Astrograph; ATIK 383L+; EFW2 filter wheel; Astrodon Ha,Oiii,LRGB filters; KWIQ/QHY5 guide scope; Planetary AP: Celestron C-11; ZWO ASI120MC; Portable: Celestron C-8 on HEQ5 pro; C-90 on wedge; 20x80 binos; Etc: Canon 350D; Various EPs, etc. Obs: 8' Exploradome; iOptron CEM60 (pier); Helena Observatory (H2O) Astrobin
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STEVE333 United States of America
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Re: Ready to give upon the Squid

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Post by STEVE333 »


Hi Kathy - Over 13 hours worth of 900 sec exposures! That is one dim target!

I worked on it a bit using PI and was able to get the following.
Squid.jpg
Work Flow:
  • Stretch with HT until Squid is just starting to be visible.
  • Make a clone and stretch clone further until nebula outline is visible (over-stretched)
  • Using over-stretched image create a GAME Multi point mask (Binary) enclosing the nebula.
  • use Convolution to soften the edges of the Multi mask
  • Create a star_mask and subtract if from the Multi point mask (makes a nebula mask)
  • Apply nebula mask to lightly-stretched image and further stretch with HT (to bring out Squid)
  • With nebula mask still applied, a little work with CurvesTransformation helped to better match the boosted region with surrounding background.
Hope this helps.

Steve
Steve King: Light Pollution (Bortle 5)
Telescope + Mount + Guiding: W.O. Star71-ii + iOptron CEM40 EC + Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro + EFW Filter Wheel + Chroma 3nm Siii, Ha, Oiii + ZWO LRGB Filters
Software: PHD2; APT; PixInsight ***** My AP website: www.steveking.pictures
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KathyNS Canada
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Re: Ready to give upon the Squid

#3

Post by KathyNS »


Thank you!! I figured there must be some way to do it with masks, but I couldn't figure out how. I will give that method a try.
Image
DSO AP: Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian Astrograph; ATIK 383L+; EFW2 filter wheel; Astrodon Ha,Oiii,LRGB filters; KWIQ/QHY5 guide scope; Planetary AP: Celestron C-11; ZWO ASI120MC; Portable: Celestron C-8 on HEQ5 pro; C-90 on wedge; 20x80 binos; Etc: Canon 350D; Various EPs, etc. Obs: 8' Exploradome; iOptron CEM60 (pier); Helena Observatory (H2O) Astrobin
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KathyNS Canada
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Re: Ready to give upon the Squid

#4

Post by KathyNS »


Thanks again, Steve. I have never used the GAME script before. I tried it and found it klutzy for this purpose. I made my mask in GIMP and imported it. Otherwise, I used pretty much the technique you described. I might come back to it for a reprocess at some point, but for now, I am quite happy with the result.

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=18723
Image
DSO AP: Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian Astrograph; ATIK 383L+; EFW2 filter wheel; Astrodon Ha,Oiii,LRGB filters; KWIQ/QHY5 guide scope; Planetary AP: Celestron C-11; ZWO ASI120MC; Portable: Celestron C-8 on HEQ5 pro; C-90 on wedge; 20x80 binos; Etc: Canon 350D; Various EPs, etc. Obs: 8' Exploradome; iOptron CEM60 (pier); Helena Observatory (H2O) Astrobin
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STEVE333 United States of America
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Re: Ready to give upon the Squid

#5

Post by STEVE333 »


Beautiful!! Really nice job.

Steve
Steve King: Light Pollution (Bortle 5)
Telescope + Mount + Guiding: W.O. Star71-ii + iOptron CEM40 EC + Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro + EFW Filter Wheel + Chroma 3nm Siii, Ha, Oiii + ZWO LRGB Filters
Software: PHD2; APT; PixInsight ***** My AP website: www.steveking.pictures
Image
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