M20 Lagoon Nebula 26-05-2017 France

[The Thing]

This is the distillation of 11.5 hours of data using 300s exposures, captured using APT, PHD2, EQMOD, Cartes de Ciel. I am still gettign to grips with PixInsight and have spent at least 11.5 hours getting this far.:{  List of processes underneath. There is a lot more in the data, I just need to learn to get at it!



Image date, time and location:   26-05-2017 France
Telescope aperture and focal ratio:   TS1506UNC f4 6" 620mm fl
Camera and filters used:   Canon1100D defiltered, Baader MPCC
Processing applied:   Pixinsight

ImageCalibration
Debayer
StarAlignment
SubframeSelector
Local Normalisation
DrizzleIntegration
BackgroundNetralisation
PhotometricColorCalibration
MorphologicalTransformation (as suggested on CloudyNights)
Arcsinh Stretch (Marks wizzy PI tool, three small iterations)
StarMask
LightnesMask
CurvesTransformation
ColorSaturation
SCNR
HistogramTransformation
SampleFormatConversion
Save as JPG
Resample in Irfanview

No attempt at deconvolution or unsharpmasking as even using my new i7 super PC it all takes a long time!

[Carole]

Err, isn't this the Trifid nebula.   

You've done very well with this for a DSLR.  It's a really busy part of the Milky way with loads and loads of stars. 

Also well done on Pixinsight, I have never even attempted to learn it. 

A few comments:
It looks like you have captured the blue all the way round which is not easy to do but it's hard to see because the Trifid itself the colour looks washed out.  Also I think you've slightly overstretched the brighter stars. 

But some good data is there so I am sure this can be sorted.  Shame you didn't get this in a few days ago, you've missed the deadline for inclusion in the 2018 calendar.

Carole

[The Thing]

Somewhere along the line I've gone and put M8 in a folder called Lagoon and M20 in a folder called Triffid. What a twerp! I should have done a mosaic of both to avoid confusion;)

I've got to get a monitor calibrator as my two screens show very different images despite my every attempt to manually calibrate them with various methods and tools. I'm not surprised its looks washed out out there in the wild.

[ApophisAstros]

Processing applied:   Pixinsight

ImageCalibration
Debayer
StarAlignment
SubframeSelector
Local Normalisation
DrizzleIntegration
BackgroundNetralisation
PhotometricColorCalibration
MorphologicalTransformation (as suggested on CloudyNights)
Arcsinh Stretch (Marks wizzy PI tool, three small iterations)
StarMask
LightnesMask
CurvesTransformation
ColorSaturation
SCNR
HistogramTransformation
SampleFormatConversion
Save as JPG
Resample in Irfanview

No attempt at deconvolution or unsharpmasking as even using my new i7 super PC it all takes a long time!

Your processing list is nearly as long as DNA , you may have created a new lifeform Dunc,

Roger

(Edit: Quote trimmed -- Rick)

[NoelC]

Lovely Duncan!
I'm not sure whether I am more jealous of your image or the fact that you could see it at all...
Well done.
Have you used PI much before? - results look good, will pick your brains as I've only got as far as calibration, alignment and background (prefer some of the gradient removal tools to their background neutralization tool).
Have you found any instructions for it yet?? - every link seems to bring up a tutorial.  Nowhere have I found an explanation of what the processes do or what the parameters should be, just endless popup tool tips.  It seems very daunting.

[MarkS]

Looks great Duncan!  However it looks completely blown out (overexposed) on my monitor - not sure why.  I'm sure I'm not seeing it as you intended it to be viewed.

Glad you like the Arcsinh Stretch.  I've created a new version with some extra functionality and I'm working with Juan to make it part of the official release of PixInsight.  I spent the weekend tidying up the code and writing the documentation before adding it to the PixInsight repository.

Mark

[The Thing]

Thank you all. The image looks fine if a little bright on both my monitors, one LCD and old, one LED and fairly new. They are both calibrated with the manufacturers tools and the graphics card utility. An automated solution is on order...

[Carole]

Yes there must be something wrong with your monitors Duncan, as I was showing the images yesterday of 2016/2017 for the image choosing and your Lagoon looked the same on Hugh's PC as it does on mine. 

Carole