AstroTanja
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!
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
Canon 24-70mm LII F/2,8. @70mm
QSI 683wsg
Astrodon Tru-Balance Generation 2
Celestron Advance VX
PHD Guiding
Acquisition: SGP
Instagram | Twitter | Flickr | FaceBook | AstroBin
Or read my articles on PhotographingSpace.com
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
Awesome image. Cannot see that from North America where I am. Thank you.