The Flying Bat and Squid Nebulae [OC]
lefty7283 @ lefty7283 @lemmy.world Posts 41Comments 110Joined 2 yr. ago

Lmao the SPMT reminds me of the festive raptor engine from a couple years ago
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:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
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:
- DynamicBackground Extraction
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 = 0.3Oiii+0.7(Oiii~(0.7Ha+0.3Sii))1.2
G = ((OiiiHa)
(OiiiHa))Ha + ~((OiiiHa)(OiiiHa))SiiB = 0.9Sii+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:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
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:
- DynamicBackground Extraction
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:
- PixelMath to combine stretched narrowband masters into color image
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
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:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
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:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
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
- ChannelCombination to combine channels
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
Every dot in this image is a star.
Messier 7 is an open star cluster in the core of the Milky Way, so it's an incredibly dense star field compared to most of my other astro photos. If you're in dark enough skies it's possible to see the cluster with the naked eye in the summer (it's also great to view through binoculars). I wish I had gotten more time on this to bring out the dark nebula before some haze came in, but I'm still extremely pleased with these results for just 25 minutes of exposure time. Captured on June 25th, 2020 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 ScopeZWO ASI-120MC for guiding- Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 24.5 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
- Lum- 25x30"
- Red- 8x30""
- Green- 9x30"
- Blue- 7x30"
- Darks- 30
- Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
- Captured using N.I.N.A.
and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
- BatchPreProcessing
- StarAlignment
- Blink
- ImageIntegration
- DynamicCrop
- AutomaticBackgroundExtraction 2X
- Luminance:
- TGV/MMT Noise Reduction
- ArcsinhStretch
- HistogramTransformation
- RGB:
- LinearFit to green
- ChannelCombination
- AutomaticBackgroundExtraction
- PhotometricColorCalibration
- SCNR
- HSVRepair
- ArcsinhStretch
- HistogramTransformation
- LRGBCombination with Lum
- CurveTransformations
- HistogramTransformation
- UnsharpMask
- MorphologicalTransformation to reduce star sizes
- Invert>SCNR>Invert
- More Curves
- Annotation
Glad you like them!
Went to visit my in-laws and and took advantage of their dark skies and (fairly) new moon. I wanted to shoot other targets throughout the night but fog or clouds came in every night around midnight. Overall I'd consider this image an improvement from my first attempt at M33 back in 2018.
This image was taken with a monochrome camera through filters for luminance (all visible light), red, green, blue, and Hydrogen-alpha (656nm), which were combined into a true color image. The Hydrogen-alpha was combined with the RGB data (described below) to enhance the hydrogen nebulae in the galaxy (all the pink splotches in the spiral arms). Captured on October 8-10, 2021 from a bortle 4 zone (Ha data from my bortle 6 driveway on the 12th).
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: 11 hours 53 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
- Lum - 103x180"
- Ha - 16x300"
- Red - 36x180"
- Green - 36x180"
- Blue - 36x180"
- Darks- 30
- Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
- BatchPreProcessing
- SubframeSelector
- StarAlignment
- Blink
- ImageIntegration
- DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
- DynamicCrop
- DynamicBackgroundExtraction
Luminance:
- EZ Decon + Denoise
- ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear
RGB:
- ChannelCombinaiton to combine monochrome R, G, B stacks into color image
- PhotometricColorCalibration
- SCNR green
Adding Ha:
I followed this tutorial which does a great job explaining how to isolate and enhance just the Ha signal
http://www.arciereceleste.it/tutorial-pixinsight/cat-tutorial-eng/85-enhance-galaxy-ha-eng
- PixelMath to make Clean Ha. This effectively isolates just the Ha regions from the red continuum spectrum
Ha-Q * (Red-med (Red))
Q=0.08
- PixelMath to combine Clean Ha
- PixelMath to add Ha to RGB image ($T)
R= $T+B*(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))
G= $T
B= $T+B0.2*(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))
B=3
HaRGB:
- HSV Repair
- ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear
Nonlinear:
- LRGBCombination with nonlinear L as luminance
- LRGBCombination again with galaxy masked, chrominance noise reduction applied to background
- HistogramTransformation to lower black point
- ColorSaturation to slightly desaturate Ha regions (clean Ha mask used)
- Shitloads of CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, colors, saturation, etc. (various masks used)
- LocalHistogramEqualization
- ACDNR
- Extract L channel > LRGBC again for chrominance noise reduction in the galaxy itself
- EZ StarReduction
- NoiseGenerator to add noise back into reduced stars
- More Curves
- Another round of LHE, smaller kernel radius this time
- Even more curves
- DynamicCrop to 16:9 aspect ratio
- Resample to 60%
- Annotation
Refreshing the ublock caches work most of the time however if it doesn’t, clicking the share button and then ‘embed’ just brings up a regular non-blocked video player
With tomorrow's annular eclipse I figured I'd share my shot of the last solar eclipse over the America (please use eclipse glasses if you're looking at tomorrow's eclipse. There's no totality period where it is safe to look directly at the sun.)
I had my camera set up to take about 200 photos of totality, but it got cloudy about 15 minutes before totality, and this was the best photo from the bunch. If you look close you can see spme solar prominences at the 12 and 2 o'clock positions. Captured on August 21st 2017.
Equipment:
- TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
- Orion Sirius EQ-G
- Canon Rebel T3 (Full Spectrum modified)
- High Point Scientific 2" coma corrector
Acquisition:
- Lights- 1/8" at ISO 200
Capture Software:
- AstroPhotography Tool
Photoshop Processing:
- Auto Color
- Export as .png
Sure!
This is a photo from a lunar transit of the space station a few years ago. I had another telescope setup to take a video of the pass, and here's a composite of the frames it took (the whole thing lasted less than a second).
I really enjoy the scale of this image, with the ISS being 540km away, and the moon some 380,000km in the background. more detailed info on the ISS Transit ISS transit can be found here courtesy of transit-finder. Captured on the morning of June 24, 2019 about 30 minutes after sunrise.
- Meade ETX125-EC
- AW 71" Camera Tripod
- Canon Rebel T3i (astro-modified)
- Meade #64 adapter
Acquisition:
- 1/800" at ISO 800 single exposure
Capture:
- I just held down the shutter button a second before the ISS pass occurred, and got 3 frames containing the ISS
Processing:
- AutoColor and Levels adjustments in Photoshop
- MLT noise reduction and annotation in PixInsight
They actually just got rid of the stars, now you just tip people
https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/16ryhv9/celebrating_great_content_is_as_good_as_gold/
I shot the Owl Nebula (M97) a few months ago, and barely had the Surfboard galaxy (M108) in frame. Since I shot it in narrowband, I decided to combine it with some old data I shot back back in 2021 as there's very little narrowband signal in the galaxy. So while M108 and the stars are true color, M98 in this pic is technically false color (although kinda close if you compare it to the 2021 pic. I think this does a great job of showing how much my processing has improved in the last 2 years, as the datasets for the galaxy and stars are identical. There's also a number of faint background galaxies in the pic.
Narrowband images were shot from a bortle Bortle 9 zone in July 2023, and the boradband was from Bortle 6 in March 2021.
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: 15 hours 38 minutes (Camera at -15°C, unity gain)
- Ha - 43x360
- L - 91x120"
- R - 29x120"
- G - 29x120"
- B - 29x120"
- Darks- 30
- Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
PixInsight Preprocessing:
- BatchPreProcessing
- StarAlignment
- Blink
- ImageIntegration per channel per panel
- DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
- StarAlign to new Ha and Oiii stacks
- Dynamic Crop
- DynamicBackgroundExtraction 2x
Luminance Linear:
- BlurXterminator
- NoiseXterminator
- ArcsinhStretch + HistogramTransformation to stretch to nonlinear
Narrowband:
- ArcsinhStretch + HistogramTransformation to stretch to nonlinear
- PixelMath to combine Ha and Oiii images into bicolor pic (used /u/DreamsPlease's formula)
R = iif(Ha > .15, Ha, (Ha*.8)+(Oiii*.2))
G = iif(Ha > 0.5, 1-(1-Oiii)*(1-(Ha-0.5)), Oiii *(Ha+0.5))
B = iif(Oiii > .1, Oiii, (Ha*.3)+(Oiii*.2))
- StarXterminator to completely remove stars
- BackgroundNeutralization
- Small stretches with HT
- NoiseXterminator
- Curve adjustments
RGB Linear:
- SpectrophotometricColorCalibration
- Slight SCNR Green
- HSV repair
- ArcsinhStretch + HistogramTransformation to stretch to nonlinear
- LRGBCombination with stretched luminance as L
- Various curve adjustments for lightness, contrast, hue, saturation, etc (with varying lum/star masks)
- PixelMath to add narrowband (this really only affected/overlaid the Owl nebula on top, not touching the stars, galaxy, or background)
Max(RGB , Bicolor)
- NoiseXterminator
- More curves
- invert > SCNR > invert to remove magentas from the background
- LocalHistogramEqualization (2 round of this at kernel 16 and 74 to affect different sized structures)
- MLT/SCNR for chrominance noise reduction in the galaxy
- DarkStructureEnhance
- BlurXterminator for star sharpening
- ColorSaturation
- final curves
- Resample to 70%
- FastRotation
- Annotation
Shot this back in the spring and forgot it was sitting unprocessed on my computer until now. This photo has had the saturation increased to highlight the differences in the lunar soil, which are barely noticeable to the eye when viewed through larger telescopes (usually in Mare Serenitatis or Mare Imbrium for me, at least). Tan/orange indicates iron rich minerals, and blue indicates titanium rich minerals. Captured at early in the morning on March 29th, 2023.
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: (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
- R - 1000 x 2.5ms
- G - 1000 x 2.2ms
- B - 1000 x 3.6ms
Capture Software:
- Captured using Sharpcap and N.I.N.A. for mount/filterwheel control
Stacking:
- Stacked the best 15% of frames in Autostakkert (autosharpened, 3X Drizzle)
PixInsight Processing:
- DynamicCrop
- ChannelCombination to combine monochrome images into RGB image
- ChannelMatch to align G and B colorchannels to red
- ColorCalibration
- HistogramTransformation (slight stretch, also applied to red stack)
- LRGBCombination using red stack as luminance
- CurvesTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, colors, saturation, etc.
- SCNR green (a little)> invert > SCNR (a lot) > invert
- ColorSaturation to desaturatered color fringing around some of the craters
- UnsharpMask for additional sharpening
- LocalHistogramTransformation
- MLT noise reduction
- more curves
- 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:
Flickr | Instagram
Equipment:
Acquisition: 110 hours 15 minutes (Camera at -15°C)
Capture Software:
PixInsight Preprocessing:
**Narrowband Linear:
Oiii advaned narrowband combination:
RGB Linear:
Nonlinear processing: