Author Topic: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders  (Read 5222 times)

Offline jkmorse

  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 931
  • Two questions, Mitch . .
    • Jim Morse Astronomy
Niall,

You recently helped an imager with some great techniques to achieve the Hubble Palette, all within PI.  I imaged NGC281 in NB this past weekend (12.5 hours of images made up of 25 10 minute exposures in each of Ha, OIII and SII) and here is the result of my work applying your techniques re color balancing in CurvesTransformation and SCNR:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByrTommGQM20TDhKRS05OUtycEk/edit?usp=sharing

Image still needs work, but as to the colors in the nebula itself, I couldn't be happier with the result.  Thanks so much for your great tutorial!!

Anyone looking for Niall's guidance can find it here: http://www.pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=2346.0;topicseen

Best,

Jim
« Last Edit: 2014 August 29 18:08:17 by jkmorse »
Really, are clear skies, low wind and no moon that much to ask for? 

New Mexico Skies Observatory
Apogee Aspen 16803
Planewave CDK17 - Paramount MEII
Planewave IFR90 - Astrodon LRGB & NB filters
SkyX - MaximDL - ACP

http://www.jimmorse-astronomy.com
http://www.astrobin.com/users/JimMorse

Offline jkmorse

  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 931
  • Two questions, Mitch . .
    • Jim Morse Astronomy
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #1 on: 2014 August 31 13:26:01 »
Cleaned it up a bit and tweaked the colors a bit more.  No need to go outside PI for anything as far as I can tell:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByrTommGQM20NlNta2JIYng3UU0/edit?usp=sharing

Best,

Jim
Really, are clear skies, low wind and no moon that much to ask for? 

New Mexico Skies Observatory
Apogee Aspen 16803
Planewave CDK17 - Paramount MEII
Planewave IFR90 - Astrodon LRGB & NB filters
SkyX - MaximDL - ACP

http://www.jimmorse-astronomy.com
http://www.astrobin.com/users/JimMorse

Offline jerryyyyy

  • PixInsight Old Hand
  • ****
  • Posts: 425
    • Astrobin Images
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #2 on: 2014 September 01 11:45:03 »
Thanks very much for this thread.  There is an alternative in Photoshop that does similar processes but is a pain to move back and forth.  Unfortunately I cannot see to get the process icons to show up for me.  I download the file and it says it load, but I do not see the icons?  Version issue? 
Takahashi 180ED
Astrophysics Mach1
SBIG STT-8300M and Nikon D800
PixInsight Maxim DL 6 CCDComander TheSkyX FocusMax

Offline pfile

  • PTeam Member
  • PixInsight Jedi Grand Master
  • ********
  • Posts: 4729
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #3 on: 2014 September 01 11:54:31 »
the icons appear on the workspace they were saved on... so if jim saved them on workspace 3 and you are in workspace 1, you won't see them. click thru all your workspaces until you see the icons...

rob

Offline jkmorse

  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 931
  • Two questions, Mitch . .
    • Jim Morse Astronomy
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #4 on: 2014 September 01 12:58:07 »
Jerry,

I am not an expert, but to access Niall's processes, here's what I did.  First, I opened the link from Niall, then copied the whole process.  I then opened the PI ScriptEditor, selected new script (making sure it was a file with an .xpsm extension), deleted the stuff that loads automatically, then copied Niall's text into the editor.  Next, I saved that script to a folder on my system (just be sure to remember where).  Then, right clicked in an empty workspace area and selected "Process Icons" then "Load Process Icons".  I then simply opened the folder where I saved the script, highlighted it, and hit open.  That drops a little process icon onto the workspace.  Double click it to access the details.

That should open it right up.  Hope that helps.

If anyone has an easier way, jump right in.

Best,

Jim

« Last Edit: 2014 September 01 14:32:52 by jkmorse »
Really, are clear skies, low wind and no moon that much to ask for? 

New Mexico Skies Observatory
Apogee Aspen 16803
Planewave CDK17 - Paramount MEII
Planewave IFR90 - Astrodon LRGB & NB filters
SkyX - MaximDL - ACP

http://www.jimmorse-astronomy.com
http://www.astrobin.com/users/JimMorse

Offline jerryyyyy

  • PixInsight Old Hand
  • ****
  • Posts: 425
    • Astrobin Images
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #5 on: 2014 September 01 19:00:57 »
I found it.  Thanks for all the help this is just a black box to me at times. 

This is with PS processing:  "laborious"



This is the original PI:



You can see I am after a better way....
Takahashi 180ED
Astrophysics Mach1
SBIG STT-8300M and Nikon D800
PixInsight Maxim DL 6 CCDComander TheSkyX FocusMax

Offline jkmorse

  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 931
  • Two questions, Mitch . .
    • Jim Morse Astronomy
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #6 on: 2014 September 02 07:13:19 »
Just for reference, my image of NGC281 started out just like yours.  Love to see what you end up with using PI instead of the evil PS.

Best

Jim
Really, are clear skies, low wind and no moon that much to ask for? 

New Mexico Skies Observatory
Apogee Aspen 16803
Planewave CDK17 - Paramount MEII
Planewave IFR90 - Astrodon LRGB & NB filters
SkyX - MaximDL - ACP

http://www.jimmorse-astronomy.com
http://www.astrobin.com/users/JimMorse

Offline jerryyyyy

  • PixInsight Old Hand
  • ****
  • Posts: 425
    • Astrobin Images
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #7 on: 2014 September 02 07:15:56 »
Just for reference, my image of NGC281 started out just like yours.  Love to see what you end up with using PI instead of the evil PS.

Best

Jim

Your wish is my command :)



I followed the script.  I did it on the unstretched image, not sure if it should be stretched. 

I think this is in the right direction, but could be tweeked to further enhance the color separation.
Takahashi 180ED
Astrophysics Mach1
SBIG STT-8300M and Nikon D800
PixInsight Maxim DL 6 CCDComander TheSkyX FocusMax

Offline jkmorse

  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 931
  • Two questions, Mitch . .
    • Jim Morse Astronomy
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #8 on: 2014 September 02 07:17:37 »
Take a look at what Niall did with SCNR.  I think that May help.

Really, are clear skies, low wind and no moon that much to ask for? 

New Mexico Skies Observatory
Apogee Aspen 16803
Planewave CDK17 - Paramount MEII
Planewave IFR90 - Astrodon LRGB & NB filters
SkyX - MaximDL - ACP

http://www.jimmorse-astronomy.com
http://www.astrobin.com/users/JimMorse

Offline jerryyyyy

  • PixInsight Old Hand
  • ****
  • Posts: 425
    • Astrobin Images
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #9 on: 2014 September 02 07:26:41 »
Take a look at what Niall did with SCNR.  I think that May help.

Yes, now I see what he did.  It will have to be customized for my image but I probably can get to a similar result.  There are 4 "Selective Color" transformations in PS.  They are fixed parameters, though in PS.  Looks like the PI version required some careful eyeballing, but if I can do it all in PI, will do so.

This is my source for the PS methods:

*** LINK REMOVED ***

If anyone if interested in this, you will see the color manipulations are very similar. 

With my newly collimated Tak i have to learn how to do this since I am definitely now in the narrow band wide field world. 

Thanks for the help.

NOTE FROM THE FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
This forum is exclusively for discussion of issues and image processing topics related to PixInsight. Please don't describe procedures implemented with other applications. In particular, please avoid posting links to information, tutorials or techniques implemented with competing applications.
« Last Edit: 2014 September 03 08:51:45 by Pleiades »
Takahashi 180ED
Astrophysics Mach1
SBIG STT-8300M and Nikon D800
PixInsight Maxim DL 6 CCDComander TheSkyX FocusMax

Offline jkmorse

  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 931
  • Two questions, Mitch . .
    • Jim Morse Astronomy
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #10 on: 2014 September 02 08:31:15 »
Yeah, just plugging in his curves did not work for me.  I had to tweak them to fit my own image and took lots of little steps to get there.  You asked about linear vs stretched.  For info I did almost all of my adjustments in linear and only did final tweaks after stretching.

Best,

Jim
Really, are clear skies, low wind and no moon that much to ask for? 

New Mexico Skies Observatory
Apogee Aspen 16803
Planewave CDK17 - Paramount MEII
Planewave IFR90 - Astrodon LRGB & NB filters
SkyX - MaximDL - ACP

http://www.jimmorse-astronomy.com
http://www.astrobin.com/users/JimMorse

Offline jerryyyyy

  • PixInsight Old Hand
  • ****
  • Posts: 425
    • Astrobin Images
Re: NGC281 NB in Hubble Palette; Huge shout out to Niall Saunders
« Reply #11 on: 2014 September 03 07:17:43 »
Yeah, just plugging in his curves did not work for me.  I had to tweak them to fit my own image and took lots of little steps to get there.  You asked about linear vs stretched.  For info I did almost all of my adjustments in linear and only did final tweaks after stretching.

Best,

Jim
Yes, looks like you can do all the adjusting in PI.  After a while it is just a question of taste for the types of colors.  This is the latest processed all in PI:



Latest Version:



« Last Edit: 2014 September 03 16:03:13 by jerryyyyy »
Takahashi 180ED
Astrophysics Mach1
SBIG STT-8300M and Nikon D800
PixInsight Maxim DL 6 CCDComander TheSkyX FocusMax