ASTRO: ST4000 First Light, M42 & NGC1977 ReProcessed - 1 attachment

ASTRO: ST4000 First Light, M42 & NGC1977 ReProcessed
..
....Rick, Thx for your time & your advise, still not sure
exactly what was happening with CCDops, but it didnt give
enuff control over the processing and the stock image it
exports is just garbage.. i got off my but and RTFM
CCD-Stack, went thru the tutorial, and reprocessed..
i extracted the color channels from 8ea images @480sec,
followed the procedure and ended up with what i consider
to be a fair image (all things considered), still has
gradient issues, (gradientXterminator didnt help..)next
i've got to get off my butt and get to a Dark Site..!
again Thanks...
..
IIIDaemon
www.GasRecovery.net

Joseph Schmosovich wrote:
ASTRO: ST4000 First Light, M42 & NGC1977 ReProcessed
.
...Rick, Thx for your time & your advise, still not sure
exactly what was happening with CCDops, but it didnt give
enuff control over the processing and the stock image it
exports is just garbage.. i got off my but and RTFM
CCD-Stack, went thru the tutorial, and reprocessed..
i extracted the color channels from 8ea images @480sec,
followed the procedure and ended up with what i consider
to be a fair image (all things considered), still has
gradient issues, (gradientXterminator didnt help..)next
i've got to get off my butt and get to a Dark Site..!
again Thanks...
.
IIIDaemon
www.GasRecovery.net


Much improved, but you know that! It didn't dawn on me that yours was
the one shot color version. Guess the mono is only in the STL line. I
hadn't paid that much attention. You have to debayer OSC images before
stacking. Apparently CCDOpps doesn't make that clear. I don't use it.
Never installed it in fact. I don't know much about one shot color
imaging having never done it. Those who take the best images with it
all separate the LRGB images and process each as if it were a separate
image, same as a mono camera with filters would require. Sounds like
that's what you did. That way you can work on the L image for maximum
detail and contrast then use the RGB for color.

If the core is saturated on the subs then you'll need to take short
exposures and merge the two for a final image. Though with OSC camera's
rather low quantum efficiency it may not be saturated. If not process
the core separately and merge the two to prevent the loss of detail in
the core.

I don't think you used GradientXTerminator correctly. I've ran it with
equalize background turned on, plus a bit of noise reduction with good
results. It is still noisy as you will need quite a few more subs with
OSC under your light dome. Even under very good skies 1 hour would be a
bit light on data. It takes a bit of practice to learn how and what to
exclude from the background determination in GradientXTerminator. I
selected out Running Man and M42-3 as well as the brightest stars. I
then ran it at the maximum settings though that likely wasn't necessary
in this case it is what I usually use.

One thing that will help with noise is to dither your subs. I don't
know if CCDOpps will do that or not. CCDSoft takes a free third party
plug-in. By moving the image a couple pixels each sub then stacking
(after separating the colors) using a noise rejection routine, there are
several in CCDStack, you will have less noise than if dithering wasn't done.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Joseph,

this version looks good, you are off to a very good start with the new
camera.

Stefan

"Joseph Schmosovich" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
0...
ASTRO: ST4000 First Light, M42 & NGC1977 ReProcessed
.
...Rick, Thx for your time & your advise, still not sure
exactly what was happening with CCDops, but it didnt give
enuff control over the processing and the stock image it
exports is just garbage.. i got off my but and RTFM
CCD-Stack, went thru the tutorial, and reprocessed..
i extracted the color channels from 8ea images @480sec,
followed the procedure and ended up with what i consider
to be a fair image (all things considered), still has
gradient issues, (gradientXterminator didnt help..)next
i've got to get off my butt and get to a Dark Site..!
again Thanks...
.
IIIDaemon
www.GasRecovery.net