M101 with a little background noise

[Ivor]

A bit of help please, I'm pretty happy with the detail I've got out of the data but I want to get rid of more of the background noise. Pointers gratefully received.



Telescope : WO FLT110 F6.3
Camera and filters used:SBIG ST8300M LRGB 10x 10m Lum 5 x 10m RGB
Processing applied:   stacked in CCDSoft with darks, CS5

[Ivor]

I was keen to get it up last night (yes I intended that) so I was a little breif in my description but now I've looked on my work screen this look awful, It didn't look so over cooked at home. The original question still stands but I need to see what went work wrong between PS and JPG.

When I tried to use the standard noise options in CS5 I lose too much of the galaxy details so I was thinking of doing some sort of layer and mask combination but wasn't sure how best to approach it. I know I can use the clone tool but I was hoping for something a little less manual.

[RobertM]

Ivor,

I would try calibrating the image first, you'll find it much easier to process.

Robert

[Ivor]

Happy to give it a go and I asked a while ago how to do that but no one came back to me http://forum.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/index.php?topic=8311.0 so I've bee best guessing until now.

Any suggestions how I can do this with the kit I've got?

Cheers

[RobertM]

You should come to one of the monthly imaging nights as that's precisely what they are for.  I'm sure someone would be able to take you through it (though not necessarily with your programs).

Robert

[JohnP]

detail good - need to sort the gradients & like robert says calibrations should take care of this... Much better than my first attempts on this - m101 is tough.. especially from light polluted skies.. John

[Ivor]

Thanks, next imaging session is already in the diary

Cheers