M81 & M82

[gboulton]

• 2013-02-06 ~ 0100-0400 UTC
• Red Zone just outside Nashville, TN
• Orion ED80T-CF on a Celestron CG-5, Guided by an Orion 50mm w/ SSAG and PHD
• Canon EOS 450D (IR modified) controled by BackyardEOS
• 21 x 360" @ ISO 400 (Stacked 18)
• 5 x Darks, Flats, Bias
• Post in StarTools, final touchup in PS CS2

Finally had a chance to get "significant" data with the new ED80T...I'm incredibly pleased.

StarTools just gets more and more fun to use, too, as I learn more about how it thinks...and as I hand it better data to chew on as well.

[gboulton]

Slightly cleaner version. Didn't see some of the noise until i looked at it on another display.

[Gasman]

Some crisp clean images there Gordon. Can make out some nice dust lanes in M81. I'm just finding my way around Star tools:-)
Best
Steve

[admin]

Wow. Just... wow... You're getting to grips with the new scope fast. Everything is just right!

[gboulton]

Thanks, Steve and Ivo!

Still not entirely pleased with the blue...or lack of it. I keep thinking the dust lanes and arms of M81 are to purple...but I don't seem to quite be able to get St to cooperate. I've tried masking them off and adjusting color, but can't really get it not to look..."blocky". Adjusting color across the image takes the reds out of M82's star formation bulge.

I'm really quite pleased with the data the scope captured, and I feel like i've pulled a very large chunk of that data out of the LP and noise...but I'm just not quite there on the colors yet.

[admin]

Did you process colors and luminance separately?

[gboulton]

I did not...don't know how to. *heh*

Off to look for a tutorial!

[gboulton]

Well, I don't seem to be having much luck.

How do I extract the LRGB data from the original TIF? oir do i do that from the CR2s before stacking?? Or do I somehow split everything in ST?

[gboulton]

Hrmm...

Well, further research suggests I use Photoshop to extract RGB, and then perhaps I can use one of the methods here to create a synthetic luminance channel...and then use the appropriate ST tutorial for processing LRGB.

I'll give it a shot this afternoon/evening, see what I can destroy!

[gboulton]

Decided to get a little less crazy with the noise reduction, and leave some more noise behind in favor of keeping more data.

Then did some color balancing in PS after finishing the processing in ST.

Still not quite where I want it to be...but definitely superior to the first one, I think.