So I shot the Bubble Nebula in true-color last year, but I decided to shoot it again this past month in false color. It really helps to show the extended nebulosity, and gives me and excuse to compare my image to Hubble’s. This false color image uses the SHO palette, where the sulfur-ii wavelength is mapped to red, hydrogen-alpha to green, and oxygen-iii is blue. I’m really happy with how the colors turned out on this one. There’s also a number of other nebulae and a star cluster in frame. Captured over 14 nights in Jan/Feb 2024 from a bortle 9 zone (I could only get a couple hours max per night on it.
Places where I host my other images:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 37 hours 36 minutes (Camera at -15°C), Camera at unity gain.
Ha - 95x360"
Oiii - 140x360"
Sii - 141x360"
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Preprocessing:
BatchPreProcessing
StarAlignment
ImageIntegration per channel
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
Dynamic Crop
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)
$T * med(model) / model
Narrowband Linear:
Blur and NoiseXTerminator
Duplicated the images before stretching to be used for separate stars-only processing
Slight stretch using HistogramTransformation
iHDR 2.0 script to stretch each channel the rest of the way.
Stars Only Processing:
PixelMath to combine star images (SHO palette)
SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)
StarXTerminator to make stars only image form each channel
SCNR > invert > SCNR > invert to remove greens and magentas
ArcsinhStretch + HT to stretch nonlinear - to be combined later with starless pic
Nonlinear:
PixelMath to combine stretched Ha, Oiii, and Sii images into color image (SHO palette)
StarXterminator to remove stars
HistogramTransformations to tone back the greens and apply a more aggressive stretch to red and blue channels
Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc
LRGBCombination with stretched Ha as luminance
DeepSNR
more curves
ColorSaturation to bring up the blues in the bubble
LocalHistogramEqualization
even more curves
MLT for chrominance noise reduction
Pixelmath to add in the stretched stars only image from earlier
This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before
mtf(.005,
mtf(.995,Stars)+
mtf(.995,Starless))
A round of NoiseXterminator for good measure
Resample to 60%
Annotation
They shut it down last September. It’s nsfw spinoff redgifs is still up.
M17 is also known as The Swan Nebula (the bright core is swan shaped, esp when viewed visually through a telescope). Also pictured it the M18 star cluster off to the right.
I originally shot this back in 2019 and decided to reprocess it since we have fun new tools and techniques (and I kinda know what I’m doing now with narrowband processing). I decided to keep the palettes similar overall, but with a less agressive stretch and more ‘natural’ look to the nebula. The noise reduction is a lot better when comparing the images at 1:1 (long gone are the days of TGV/MMT noise reduction!). Captured over 2 nights at the in May, 2019 from a Bortle 7 zone.
Places where I host my other images:
Equipment:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 8 hours 10 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
Ha- 42x300"
Oiii- 56x300”
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Processing:
BatchPreProcessing
Blink
ImageIntegration
DrizzleIntegration (2X, VarK 1.5)
DynamicCrop
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)
$T * med(model) / model
Narrowband Linear:
BlurXTerminator
NoiseXTerminator
STF Applied via HT to stretch nonlinear
Nonlinear:
R = Ha
G= ((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii
B = Oiii
SCNR Green
LRGBCombination with stretched Ha as luminance
Shitloads of curve transformations to adjust lightness, contrast, hues, saturation, etc
LocalHistoGramEqualization 2x - one at scale 16 for fine details and one at 512 for large structures
More curves
DarkStructureEnhance
MLT for small scale chrominance noise reduction
NoiseXTerminator
Even more curves, some masked to just the core of the nebula
Resample to 60%
Annotation
Mercury would be a denser propellant than xenon/other Nobel gasses used for ion thrusters in orbit. There’s been a ton of other insane fuel types proposed over the years which thankfully haven’t been used (although a lot of rockets have and still use toxic hypergolic fuels like hydrazine)
Good vid going over some of these fuels: https://youtu.be/_wLk2j7_KB0
Funnily enough I used the little guy to replace the smaller red camera on the scope after it started failing on me
Astrophotography. Hell, just photography in general.
Bunch of dust and gas floating in space
Figured today is an appropriate day to post this. This nebula is also known as NGC 2264 I’m fairly certain the christmas tree is the entire nebula when the photo is inverted, and not just the cone nebula at the very end of it. Captured on November 17th, 2022, from a Bortle 4 zone.
Places where I host my other images:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 4 hours 2 minutes (Camera at half unity gain, -15°C)
L- 62x120"
R- 20x120"
G- 20x120"
B- 19x120"
Ha -47x300" x 2 panels
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Processing:
BatchPreProcessing
SubframeSelector
StarAlignment
ImageIntegration
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
Linear:
DynamicCrop
automaticBackgroundExtraction
EZ Decon
NoiseXTerminator
Stretching Luminance:
MaskedStretch to 0.1 background
Starnet++ starmask made, subtracted from 0.3 Gray image and colvolved
Previous image used as a mask to stretch nebulosity without stretching stars
Normal HistogramTransformation
RGB Linear:
Channelcombination to combine monochrome images into RGB image
SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration
SCNR green
HSV Repair
ArcsinhStretch + HT to bring nonlinear
Nonlinear:
LRGBCombination with stretched luminance
Shitloads of CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, saturation, contrast, hues, etc.
Extract L --> LRGBCombination for chrominance noise reduction
More curves
SCNR to remove some background greens
LocalHistogramEqualization
Two rounds of this. one at size 16 for the finer ‘feathery’ details and one at size 500 for large scale structures
ColorSaturation
even more curves
NoiseXTerminator
EZ Star Reduction
noise generator to add noise back into star reduced areas
MLT for chrominance noise reduction
Resample to 60%
Annotation
This target has always been a goal of mine since starting in this hobby. While the Flying Nebula (aka Sh2-129, all the red stuff), the Squid Nebula (aka OU4, the blue stuff) was only discovered in 2011. It’s stupidly faint. Because of this, and my horrible light pollution, I had to get a ton of exposure time to bring it out, and ended up getting 110 hours total time on it. This is a combination of images taken through hydrogen-alpha and oxygen-iii filters for the nebulosity, plus RGB filters for true-color stars (the nebulosity is kinda close to true color). I have no clue why the Ha region is called ‘the flying bat’, but the Oiii structure sure looks like a squid alright.
Captured over a shitload of nights from September to December, 2023. Broadband data from a Bortle 9 zone.
Places where I host my other images:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 110 hours 15 minutes (Camera at -15°C)
BB exposures at half unity gain (76/15), Ha at unity gain (139/21)
Ha - 212x600"
Oiii - 428
L - 200x120"
R - 69x60" 69 71 66
G - 71x60"
B - 66x60"
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Preprocessing:
BatchPreProcessing
StarAlignment
ImageIntegration per channel
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
Dynamic Crop
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)
$T * med(model) / model
**Narrowband Linear:
Honestly just StarXterminator and EZ soft stretch to bring them nonlinear.
Duplicated the Oiii before stretching to be used for advanced narrowband combination:
Oiii advaned narrowband combination:
These steps largely follow the ones in Jimmy/NightPhoton’s advanced narrowband combination guide.
Combine Oiii with Green broadband channel channel (OGG palette)
BackgroundNeutralization
ColorCalibration
StarXterminator to completely remove stars
PixelMath to subtract green continuum spectrum, leaving just Oiii signal
HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear
NoiseXterminator + a little concolution
CurvesTransformation to adjust black point/contrast
Clone stamp to remove a couple background artifacts
image saved as ‘NB’, to be combined later on in nonlinear processing
RGB Linear:
this is really just to have natural star colors
SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration
BlurXTerminator
Really loving the star correction with its new AI v4 update
HSV Repair
StarXterminator to make a stars-only image
ArcsinhStretch + Histogram transformation to bring stars nonlinear
Nonlinear processing:
R = Ha
G= ((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii
Oiii
Background Neutralization
Shitloads of Curve Transformation to adjust lightness, saturation, contrast, hues, etc with various masks
LocalHistogramEqualization
Added in NB image from earlier per the advanced narrowband guide
only difference from the pixelmath in the guide is that I added NB to the green and blue channels (0.6 and 0.9, respectively) instead of red
HistogramTransformation to adjust the black point
More curves
MLT for medium scale noise reduction in the squid
ColorSaturation to slightly desaturate the red nebulas
NoiseXterminator
Even more curves
Pixelmath to add in the stretched stars only image from earlier
This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before
(Jimmy is a processing wizard when it comes to writing up this independent starless processing stuff)
mtf(.005,
mtf(.995,Stars)+
mtf(.995,Starless))
Guess what more curves
Another round of NoiseXterminator
MLT for some small scale chrominance noise reduction
Few more slight ColorSaturation adjustments
Resample to 60%
Annotation
At least for us amateurs satellite trails get completely rejected out during image stacking. They’ll definitely be more of a problem for professional observatories, especially large survey scopes like Vera Rubin
it takes a few hours to process it all. I have a general workflow that I use, but it’s not like I can just copy/paste all the processing steps from one image to the next
So this is my third time shooting NGC 7380 (previous pics were from 2018 and 2020). This time around I decided to go with a different false-color palette (exact details below) compared to my prior true color and Hubble palette pics. Captured over 4 nights in Nov/Dec, 2023 from a Bortle 9 zone.
Places where I host my other images:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-120mc for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 12 hours 48minutes (Camera at unity gain, -15°C)
Ha - 33x360"
Oiii - 52x360"
Sii - 43x360"
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight processing:
Preprocessing
BatchPreProcessing
StarAlignment
Blink
ImageIntegration per channel per panel
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5) per panel per channel
StarAlignment in mosaic mode to align the two panels, then GradientMergeMosaic to combine them
Linear:
duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)
$T * med(model) / model
BlurXTerminator
NoiseXterminator
Duplicated images, to be used later for stars only processing
STF applied via HistogramTransformation to bring nonlinear
Stars processing:
Extracted stars-only pic using StarXterminator
Pixelmath to make color SHO --> RGB image
SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)
ArcsinhStretch + HT to bring nonlinear
SCNR > invert > SCNR >invert to remove greens and magentas from stars
Stars only pic saved for later addition to starless pic
Nonlinear:
StarX to remove all stars
PixelMath to create color image in OSH --> RGB palette
PixelMath to make a second image using Jimmy’s Royal Palette:
R = 0.3*Oiii+0.7*(Oiii^~(0.7*Ha+0.3*Sii))^1.2
G = ((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ((Oiii*Ha)^(Oiii*Ha))*Sii
B = 0.9*Sii+Ha-Oiii
PixelMath to blend OSH and Jimmy pics together 50:50
LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance
shitloads of CurveTransformations to adjust hue, lightness, saturation, etc. (some with lum masks)
another round of NoiseXTerminator
Extract L --> LRGBCombination for chrominance noise reduction
LocalHistogramEqualization
More curves
MultiscaleLinearTransform
Relinearized narrowband and stars images to add in the stars only image
“unstretched” both images with histogramtransformation midtones set to 0.9999
pixelmath to just add those two images together
histogramtransformation to un-relinearize them by setting midtones to 0.0001
Even more curves
Resample to 60%
annotation
A few years ago I shot just the core of NGC7822, and I’ve decided to reshoot it as a 2 panel mosaic to get some of the outer structures. The whole nebula is actually pretty big in the sky (over 3 degrees!), but I did not want to deal with processing another 8+ panel mosaic to fit the whole thing.
Captured over 23 nights from September through November, 2023 from a Bortle 9 zone.
Places where I host my other images:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-120mc for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 51 hours 30 minutes (Camera at -15°C)
Left panel:
Ha - 54x360"
Oiii - 130x360"
Sii - 101x360"
Right Panel:
Ha - 46x360"
Oiii - 94x360"
Sii - 90x360"
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight processing:
Preprocessing
BatchPreProcessing
StarAlignment
ImageIntegration per channel per panel
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5) per panel per channel
StarAlignment in mosaic mode to align the two panels, then GradientMergeMosaic to combine them
Linear:
duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)
$T * med(model) / model
BlurXTerminator
NoiseXterminator
STF applied via HistogramTransformation to bring nonlinear
Nonlinear:
SHO --> RGB (classic Hubble Palette)
removed stars and processed stars-only image separately with invert>SCNR and curve adjustments, to be added to starless image later.
HistogramTransformations to adjust channel intensities
Invert > SCNR > Invert to remove magentas
CurveTransformations for slight hue adjustments
LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance
shitloads of CurveTransformations to adjust hue, lightness, saturation, etc. (some with lum masks)
MLT chrominance noise reduction
NoiseXTerminator
LocalHistogramEqualization
Two round of this: one at kernel radius 16 for the finer ‘feathery’ details and one at 512+ for larger structures
More curves
Relinearized narrowband and stars images to add in the stars only image
“unstretched” both images with histogramtransformation midtones set to 0.9999
pixelmath to just add those two images together
histogramtransformation to un-relinearize them by setting midtones to 0.0001
ColorSaturation
Even more curves
Extract L > LRGBCombination for some chrominance noise reduction
Slight SCNR to remove some greens from the bright parts of the nebula
DynamicCrop to remove a few artifacts around the edge where the panels overlap
Resample to 60%
annotation
Will do!
The Deer Lick Group (right) is a group of galaxies with NGC 7331 in the foreground, and the galaxies surrounding it. NGC 7331 is approximately 40 million light years away, with the other Deer Lick members ~300 million light years behind it. Stephan’s Quintet (left) is a grouping of 5 galaxies. It was also one of the first targets photographed by the JWST
Much like deerlick, one of them is in the foreground ~40 Mly away from us, and the other 4 are 210-340 Mly distant. These distant galaxies are interacting and will eventually merge together. Here is an annotated image showing more galaxies in the uncropped FOV. Captured on November 16th, 17th, and 18th, 2020 from a bortle 6 zone.
Places where I host my other images:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 12 hours 38 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
Lum- 235x120"
Red- 48x120"
Green- 47x120
Blue- 49x120"
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Processing:
BatchPreProcessing
SubframeSelector
StarAlignment
Blink
ImageIntegration
DrizzleIntegration (Luminance only)
DynamicCrop
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
Luminance:
EZ Decon and Denoise (Luminance only)
ArcsinhStretch
HistogramTransformation
RGB
StarAlign RGB stacks to Drizzled Lum
LinearFit to Green
ChannelCombintion
PhotometricColorCalibration
HSV Repair
ArcsinhStretch
HistogramTransformation
LRGBCombination with Lum
Nonlinear:
Several CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, saturation, etc
ACDNR
LocalHistogramEqualization
More Curves
EZ Star Reduction
Resample to 60%
DynamicCrop
Annotation
For those who don’t see the ghost
Really glad how close I managed to get this to true color using just hydrogen and sulfur filters. My one complaint with this image is the halo around Gamma Cass present in both filters. Somehow my previous photo of Alnitak using an identical imaging train didn’t have it this extreme. The glow around the bright star isn’t nebulosity, but an artifact from the microlenses in the ASI1600 camera. Captured on December 8th, 14th, 22nd, and 26th, 2020 from a bortle 6 zone
Places where I host my other images:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 18 hours 36 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -20°C)
Ha- 94x360"
Sii- 92x360
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Processing:
BatchPreProcessing
StarAlignment
Blink
ImageIntegration
ImageIntegration to make a superluminance channel (just chucked every frame into a stack)
DrizzleIntegration per panel(2x, Var β=1.5)
Linear:
DynamicCrop
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
Ha and Sii Stacks
Red = Ha
Green = Sii
Blue = Sii
PhotometricColorCalibration
HSV Repair
ArcsinhStretch
HistogramTransformation
LRGBCombination with nonlinear superlum
Superliminance
EZ Denoise
ArcsinhStretch
HistogramTransformation
Nonlinear
CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, and saturation
ACDNR
LocalHistogramEqualization
HistogramTransformation to reduce black point
More Curves
EZ Star Reduction
DynamicCrop (lotta empty space on my original framing)
Resample to 70%
Annotation
deleted by creator
I ended up getting their PM. I’m not touching their stock with a 20ft pole.