M101 in HaRGB
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 9:45 am
I wanted to add at least twice at much data but the clouds here of the last weeks (and coming weeks) are restricting me to the 7:20 hours I have now of M101.
It to low now here above the city and in a light polluted spot. So all saved and continue in around a year to capture more data
But for now I have this and I am really content with it. This object would really come forward in darker skies, so for my Bortle 7 this is not bad at all I think. But to get this, longer exposure times of 300 and 600 seconds were needed. I tried shorter but that just wouldn't work.
First time also that I used Ha data in a different way for me. Normally I would blend Ha and RGB in Photoshop. This time I isolated the red channels of RGB and Ha, did blend those together and then pasted that blend back into the red channel of RGB. Way more detail now and less noise too in comparison to the previous methode.
Noise is still there but that will be better with more data.
Bortle 7/6
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter
Optolong L-eXtreme filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro @ -10 degrees Celsius / White balance R50 B50
Neodymium Skyglow filter: 40 x 300 sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
L-eXtreme filter: 24 x 600 sec / Gain 200 / Offset 10
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker
RGB + Ha stacked separately
Processed with Siril and Photoshop
Siril: for both stacks Background Extraction and Histogram
Photoshop: blended the red channels of Ha and RGB and then pasted that into the RGB red channel. Curves, Levels, Astronomy Tools actions (Local Contrast Enhancement), Camera Raw Filter (blacks, color saturation, clarity, noise reduction), reduced to 2000px
It to low now here above the city and in a light polluted spot. So all saved and continue in around a year to capture more data
But for now I have this and I am really content with it. This object would really come forward in darker skies, so for my Bortle 7 this is not bad at all I think. But to get this, longer exposure times of 300 and 600 seconds were needed. I tried shorter but that just wouldn't work.
First time also that I used Ha data in a different way for me. Normally I would blend Ha and RGB in Photoshop. This time I isolated the red channels of RGB and Ha, did blend those together and then pasted that blend back into the red channel of RGB. Way more detail now and less noise too in comparison to the previous methode.
Noise is still there but that will be better with more data.
Bortle 7/6
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter
Optolong L-eXtreme filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro @ -10 degrees Celsius / White balance R50 B50
Neodymium Skyglow filter: 40 x 300 sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
L-eXtreme filter: 24 x 600 sec / Gain 200 / Offset 10
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker
RGB + Ha stacked separately
Processed with Siril and Photoshop
Siril: for both stacks Background Extraction and Histogram
Photoshop: blended the red channels of Ha and RGB and then pasted that into the RGB red channel. Curves, Levels, Astronomy Tools actions (Local Contrast Enhancement), Camera Raw Filter (blacks, color saturation, clarity, noise reduction), reduced to 2000px