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Large Magellanic Cloud – HaLRGB

Posted by AstroTanja on 28 Mar 2016 / 1 Comment

LMC from January 2016 #EveryNewMoon

This LMC was shot from dark skies, in the start on our #EveryNewMoon 2016 adventure in Sutherland, South Africa. The primary target for the trip was Barnard’s Loop, and this was a bonus as all the imaging conditions turned out perfect!

Data:

B: 13×300 Sec

R: 20x 300 Sec

G:15 x 300sec

L: 13x 300 sec

Ha: 8x 600 sec

Temp: -25C

Calibration files: 30xDarks / No Flats

Imaging setup:

Canon 24-70mm LII F/2,8. @70mm

QSI 683wsg

Astrodon Tru-Balance Generation 2

Celestron Advance VX

PHD Guiding

Acquisition: SGP

LMC_final_upload2

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Processing workflow in PixInsight

1. Calibration of L R G B Ha data with darks

2. Alignment of all channels to L

3. STF to all channels.

4. Dynamic crop. With all the channels opened (and now aligned) I identify which should be used for the cropping reference. I apply the same Dynamic crop to all channels, this preserves the alignment.

I do a DBE on L due to it being the brightest, then apply the same instance of the function on all the other layers

Switch to working with R G B

5. Channel Combination into RGB image

6. Background neutralisation

7. Colour calibration

8. Enhance red with Ha .

Make a starless Ha with Pixel Math

Extract the Red channel and combine it with the new Ha

Use Pixel Math to incorporate this new Red+Ha channel to the RGB page

– Have a new RGB with the additional Red. (note – no colour calibration is needed again after this point)

This is a tutorial that has helped greatly with Ha and RGB blending: http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-combining-lrgb-with-narrowband.html

9. Working with L

MMT of L – noise reduction

Use the same starless Ha and combine it with L.

Histogram stretch

(In future I think doing a MT on the stars would be advantageous prior to combining)

10. Histogram stretch of RGB

11. LRGB combination.

12. Finish off the editing with these functions: SCNR / Curves transformation / TGVDenoise / Morphological transformation / Local Contrast / Histogram

Comment for Large Magellanic Cloud – HaLRGB


Scott Stirling
7 yearss ago


Awesome image. Cannot see that from North America where I am. Thank you.

(Reply)



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All images Copyright 2016 Tanja Schmitz