Author Topic: Moon gradient removal  (Read 3505 times)

Offline Angelos Makris

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Moon gradient removal
« on: 2012 November 27 12:14:25 »
Hello to all,

i am new to Pixinsight (and in image processing in general) and i am trying to process a narrowband version of the Pacman nebula.
I managed to capture several hours with the Ha,Oiii and Sii filters but unfortunately during the Sii capturing,
the moon was bright and near the target.

That resulted in a severe gradient in the frames.
I took flat frames but they did not completely solve the problem.

I preprocessed all the frames, assigned the colors in Photoshop with color mapping
and there appeared the Sii gradient which is ruining the image.

I tried to use the Background Neutralization module with "target background" working mode
and it worked pretty well, but it has clipped the black point of the image.

Which is the right way to address this problem?
Should i use the DBE module on the b&w image first and later apply the Background Neutralization?
How do i avoid the clipped black point?

Thanks in advance for your time,
Angelos


PS. I hope tomorrow i will be able to upload the images with the gradient (both color and b&w versions)
In Science we trust


TS APO65Q
NEQ6
Atik 460EXM
SX USB FW 7x1,25''
Baader L,R,G,B,Ha,Oiii,Sii
QHY 5
TS OAG9mm

Offline IanL

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Re: Moon gradient removal
« Reply #1 on: 2012 November 28 03:48:32 »
Assuming they are lightbox/EL panel (or similar) flats, they would not do anything to solve a gradient caused by an external source such as light pollution (whether natural, i.e. moon, or artificial).  They will only deal with uneven illumination caused by the imaging set-up, i.e. vignetting, dust shadows and differing sensitivities between sensor elements.  Not that you shouldn't use flats of course, but they aren't going to deal with this problem.

Background neutralisation is not going to deal properly with the gradient either as you have found, and should be applied after you have eliminated the gradient, not before.

You're on the right track with DBE.  You could apply it after you have assembled the final stack of images, but since the problem is isolated to the Siii images you may find you get better results if you apply it to the stacked Siii before final assembly with the other filter bands.  I don't know if each of the individual Siii frames has a different gradient if the moon or your framing has changed significantly as the session progressed, and if so there might even be merit in applying DBE to the individual subs before they are stacked, but given the interactive nature of DBE it might be too much effort to justify unless the object framing is consistent between frames.

I guess you might find that you get an odd 'colour' cast by applying DBE to only one of the filter bands, but since the choice of colour balance in a non-RGB image is arbitrary it isn't a major issue.  You can of course use Background Neutralisation (or any other method you prefer) to get rid of unwanted colour casts in the background.
« Last Edit: 2012 November 28 03:58:46 by IanL »

Offline Angelos Makris

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  • Posts: 3
Re: Moon gradient removal
« Reply #2 on: 2012 November 28 05:27:06 »
Hello Ian and thanks for your answer!

I will try to solve the problem with DBE and post the results.

The framing did not change during Sii capturing, so i will apply the DBE to the combined Sii
image and later combine the filter bands.

Angelos
In Science we trust


TS APO65Q
NEQ6
Atik 460EXM
SX USB FW 7x1,25''
Baader L,R,G,B,Ha,Oiii,Sii
QHY 5
TS OAG9mm