Processing Workflow Challenge - Can anyone bring out more details?

[athornton]

I recently lost ALL my processing notes for doing images in Pixinsight (yay for cleaning the desk). Beyond simple processing for the Batch Pre-Processing script to combine the Lights into master images, nothing has been done with the files linked below. I did manage to process the image using what little I remember from my old notes, but really curious if someone else can bring out more details in the nebula and get a "better" image out of these files. I posted my current finalized image on Astrobin (https://www.astrobin.com/full/376206/0/). The Master files (LRGB + Ha) were done in BPP and only included Darks and Bias (no Flats).

The master files are located here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sscn9nkoywy68vd/AADCvlocq2uoKc1VzYYNlYima?dl=0

Hopefully someone can manage to draw out some more of the Ha data to get more details in the image. I have a feeling that there is a lot more there than I'm getting, but just not sure HOW to go about it. If you do get more out, I'd LOVE to hear how you went about it.

Thanks!

[pfile]

just looking at the Ha master i feel that the calibration was not done properly. there appears to be diagonal walking noise which is usually the result of bad calibration coupled with incorrect pixel rejection settings. plus the images maybe have not been flattened?

i think if you sort out the calibration you'll be in a better place to start with.

rob

[athornton]

The Ha (as well as the others) definitely haven't been flattened. I was using new Astrodon filters I recently got and haven't had time to run Flats for the filters as yet, so it was all processed with only Darks & Bias I had done for the camera. I'll give a shot at reprocessing the Ha data though to see if I can clear up the walking noise you mention. Only had about 10 frames (at 2 minutes each) for each filter (Ha included), so not a HUGE sampling to draw from overall. 100 minutes total for everything.

Edit: I ran the BPP for the Ha at Averaged Sigma Clipping (since there were only 10 frames) and tried again with Winsored. The new one might be a little better, but hard to really tell.  Would another method really help better given the limited number of subs? Or just need to change some of the Image Integration parameters in BPP? Overall it seems like I definitely have more there than I can use, just a matter of figuring out how to get it all together and then processed. Gonna hunt over the holiday and hopefully I can find all my notes again. Hate having to start from scratch. Heh.

[pfile]

well i think that for whatever reason there must be a lot of hot pixels left in the calibrated frames. with so few frames it might be better to get rid of them prior to stacking. you might try CosmeticCorrection to see if you can get rid of them. it's worth looking at the _c files to see if they seem OK or not.

rob

[athornton]

Looked over the _c files this morning - at least for the Ha images, but didn't see any obvious hot pixels there from the individual frames. Might have been from the integration itself then. Will give CosmeticCorrection a try this afternoon after work though and see how it works out.