May 2012 Contest Images

[Javio]

The May edition of the 2012 PixInsight Monthly Astrophotography Contest is open. Send your images until May 20th. Please use this post ONLY to submit your images.

Good luck!

[Nigel Ball]

My submission for May is my image of IC434 and M42 using data collected over a couple of years. Neighbours tree ruined the colour channels - long story 

Equipment
Takahashi FSQ-106 at f/3.6, SBIG STL-11000, Astrodon Gen 2 LRGB filters, EQ6 mount

Data
Lum
15s, 60s, 300s and 600s subs

RGB
6 x 600s per channel

Processing details as follows

RGB :

• DBE on each channel stack
• Colour combine
• Background neutralisation
• Colour calibration
• SCNR - green
• HT

Lum:

• HDR composition
• DBE
• HT
• HDRWavelets

LRGB

• LRGB combination with Saturation=0.3
• Dynamic crop
• ACDNR - two passes for small scale and then medium scale noise
• PixelMath - to add some noise 'back in'
• Curves
• Histogram Transformation
• Curves - Colour Saturation
• Unsharp Mask
• Morpohological Transformation to reduce stars

[Oleg Bryzgalov]

M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy and supernova SN 2011fe

This picture was photographed during March-May, 2012 in Khlepcha observatory, Ukraine.
Equipment: reflector S&D 254 mm. f/4.7
Mount WhiteSwan-180, camera QSI-583wsg, Tevevue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera Orion SSAG.
HaLRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.
L=30*4500 sec. bin.1, RGB: 18*450 sec. bin2, Ha: 8*900 sec. bin.2
Processed Pixinsight 1.7 and Photoshop CS5.
About supernova SN 2011fe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_2011fe

More information about  processing.
The image in each filter:
Routine procedures (calibrate, cosmetic correction, star alignment, Image Integration)

L channel:
Dynamic crop
DBE
HistogramTransformation
HDRMT with star mask

RGB:
Dynamic crop
DBE
RGB combine
BackgroundNeutralisation
ColorCalibration (reference - galaxy)
HistogramTransformation
CurvesTransformation - star color boost with mask
LRGB combine
HistogramTransformation

Further processed in Photoshop:
noise reduction, adding Ha (blending lighten) to R:100%, G and B:10% with mask.
levels.

Full size picture: http://olegbr.astroclub.kiev.ua/files/astrofoto/M101/M101_FULL_Oleg_Bryzgalov.jpg

Sincerely, Oleg.

[jeffweiss9]

I submit this 7.6 hour LRGB of m51:

http://www.astrophotogallery.org/member-galleries/p9549-m51-lrgb-reprocessed.html

Scope used and reducer: APM 130/780 f/6 LW CNC II  (W.O. 110/132 FF)
Mount Used: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2
Camera Used: SBIG ST-2000XM Astrodon Gen2
Exposure: L: 33x8min (4.4hr), RGB:16x4min 2x2binned (3.2hrs)
Location: Mercy Hot Springs, CA
Seeing 1-10: 6 on 4/14/12, 8 on 4/20/12

PreProcessing:
Calibration in PI 1.7, with Cosmetic Correction script
StarAlignment, ImageIntegration

L:
Deconvolution with extracted PSF from DynamicPSF
DBE
MMT linear noise reduction with Lum mask

RGB:
RGB combination in LRGB
DBE
ColorCalibration
MMT linear noise reduction with Lum mask

LRGB:
STF transfer to Histogram Transformation
LRGB combination with saturation 0.2 (no chromatic noise reduction)
HDRMMT 4 layers
Histogram Transform
ACDNR
Curves Transform
MorphTransform star reduction with Dilated Lum mask
ColorSaturation

Clear skies,
-Jeff