M101 troubles - very grainy

[LanFeusT]

Hi all!

I processed my subs from Saturday and the end result is very grainy.
Acquisition details:
- 45 x 240s @ ISO 1600 on a Canond 60D
- 15 Darks
- 18 Bias

No flats cause I haven't figured out how to make them yet, so I mostly just crop the image a lot to get rid of vignetting for now.
I'm can definitely see my subs have a lot of grain (though am not entirely sure why there is that much), but I was wondering if there was anything else that can be done?

Here's my processed image: http://www.astrobin.com/187245/0/

I've setup a dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8279angfaq7d ... Cddga?dl=0 with all the raw subs and the Autosave.FTS if anyone wants to have a try at it.

Processing order:
- Bin 50%
- AutoDev
- Crop
- Wipe with mask on background
- AutoDev with ROI on nebulosity
- Decon (though that did not seem to do anything)
- HDR (Optimize and Reveal)
- Sharp using same mask as Decon
- Color (and using the click a white star to get color balance)
- Noise Reduction

On a side note, is there a way in StarTools to automatically export all the processing details?

[Landbo]

Yes it looks odd.

I can try and stacking them for you. But it will require you collect all the files in a single zip container/folder so they can be downloaded in one go. Downloading file by file will take me about 2 hours.

[almcl]

I had a go at your lights only fts file but am not sure the result is an improvement.

There was some horizontal banding visible, does the 60d suffer from that? But also some diagonal streaks of the sort that I have also suffered from and which may be caused by thin upper cloud passing by during the imaging session.

Anyway, see what you think?

[LanFeusT]

I only just noticed the banding after you mentioned it, it's the first time I see it on any of my images, not sure what causes that.

Regardless the image you came up with looks much better I think than what I did I think, do you remember what steps you did took to get that result?

Thanks!

[almcl]

Not sure about banding, maybe someone else will chime in?

Here's the logfile for the work flow (not suggesting this is the best way to do it as some runs counter to Ivo's advice)

Ivo's tutorial on separate processing of stars and background is here:
http://forum.startools.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=244

-----------------------------------------------------------
StarTools 1.4.301
Tue Jun 16 18:36:52 2015
-----------------------------------------------------------
File loaded [...\...\Autosave_lights only.fts].
---
--- Bin
Parameter [Scale] set to [(scale/noise reduction 35.38%)/(798.89%)/(+3.00 bits)]

--- Develop
Parameter [White Calibration] set to [Use Stars]
Parameter [Gamma] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Skyglow] set to [0 %]
Parameter [Digital Development] set to [53.35 %]
Parameter [Blue Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Green Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Red Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Headroom] set to [5 %]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [7.4 pixels]

--- Crop
Parameter [X1] set to [87 pixels]
Parameter [Y1] set to [85 pixels]
Parameter [X2] set to [1752 pixels (-88)]
Parameter [Y2] set to [1199 pixels (-26)]

--- Wipe
Parameter [Mode] set to [Correct Color & Brightness]
Parameter [UNKNOWN] set to [No]
Parameter [Precision] set to [128 x 128 pixels]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [3 pixels]
Parameter [Drop Off Point] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Corner Aggressiveness] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Aggressiveness] set to [75 %]

--- Develop
Parameter [White Calibration] set to [Use Stars]
Parameter [Gamma] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Skyglow] set to [0 %]
Parameter [Digital Development] set to [79.11 %]
Parameter [Blue Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Green Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Red Luminance Contrib.] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Headroom] set to [5 %]
Parameter [Dark Anomaly Filter] set to [7.4 pixels]

--- Band
Parameter [Algorithm] set to [Algorithm 1]
Parameter [Orientation] set to [Horizontal]

--- HDR
Parameter [Small Detail Precision] set to [Max]
Parameter [Channels] set to [Brightness Only]
Parameter [Algorithm] set to [Optimize Hard]
Parameter [Dark/Bright Response] set to [Full]
Parameter [Detail Size Range] set to [21 pixels]
Parameter [Noise Suppression] set to [Off]

--- Wavelet Sharpen
Parameter [Intelligent Enhance] set to [Yes]
Parameter [Scale 1] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 2] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 3] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 4] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Scale 5] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [8.0 pixels]
Parameter [Amount] set to [240 %]
Parameter [Small Detail Bias] set to [75 %]

--- Deconvolution

[made no difference so not included]

--- Life
Parameter [Detail Preservation] set to [Min Distance to 1/2 Unity]
Parameter [Compositing Algorithm] set to [Power of Inverse]
Parameter [Inherit Brightness, Color] set to [Off]
Parameter [Output Glow Only] set to [No]
Parameter [Airy Disk Sampling] set to [128 x 128 pixels]
Parameter [Airy Disk Radius] set to [8 pixels]
Parameter [Glow Threshold] set to [12 %]
Parameter [Detail Preservation Radius] set to [20.0 pixels]
Parameter [Saturation] set to [50 %]
Parameter [Strength] set to [100 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]

--- Color
Parameter [Cap Green] set to [No]
Parameter [Bias Slider Mode] set to [Sliders Reduce Color Bias]
Parameter [Style] set to [Scientific (Color Constancy)]
Parameter [LRGB Method Emulation] set to [Straight CIELab Luminance Retention]
Parameter [Dark Saturation] set to [1.70]
Parameter [Bright Saturation] set to [Full]
Parameter [Saturation Amount] set to [200 %]
Parameter [Blue Bias Reduce] set to [1.00]
Parameter [Green Bias Reduce] set to [1.46]
Parameter [Red Bias Reduce] set to [1.45]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]

Switch tracking off

--- Wavelet De-Noise
Parameter [Scale 1] set to [90 %]
Parameter [Scale 2] set to [90 %]
Parameter [Scale 3] set to [90 %]
Parameter [Scale 4] set to [90 %]
Parameter [Scale 5] set to [0 %]
Parameter [Mask Fuzz] set to [1.0 pixels]
Parameter [Scale Correlation] set to [6]
Parameter [Color Detail Loss] set to [12 %]
Parameter [Brightness Detail Loss] set to [12 %]
Parameter [Grain Size] set to [11.0 pixels]
Parameter [Read Noise Compensation] set to [Off]
Parameter [Smoothness] set to [75 %]

[Then follow Ivo's tutorial on spearating the background]

--- Repair
Parameter [Radial Samples] set to [32]
Parameter [Sub Sampling] set to [4x]
Parameter [Algorithm] set to [Warp]
Parameter [Grow Mask] set to [0 pixels]
File saved [\\\lights only.tiff].

[LanFeusT]

You rock thanks! I'll be dissecting this over the week end!