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The Elephant Trunk Nebula in the Hubble palette

Glenn D
 

Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn
Eric Dreher <ericpdreher@...>
 

Beautiful work, Glenn.  Your processing is amazing as well.
Glenn D
 

Thank you, Eric!
Brian Valente
 

Really nice Glenn.

I like the color treatment, it often gets overprocessed but you did it beautifully

On Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 11:13 AM Glenn <public@...> wrote:
Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn



--
Brian 



Brian Valente
Jeff B
 

Just a beautiful image and work.  You guys are skilled!

Jeff

On Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 3:11 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:
Really nice Glenn.

I like the color treatment, it often gets overprocessed but you did it beautifully

On Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 11:13 AM Glenn <public@...> wrote:
Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn



--
Brian 



Brian Valente
Eric Weiner
 

Beautiful
Jay Otts
 

I totally agree with Jeff.



Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device


-------- Original message --------
From: Jeff B <mnebula946@...>
Date: 7/24/21 2:21 PM (GMT-06:00)
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] The Elephant Trunk Nebula in the Hubble palette

Just a beautiful image and work.  You guys are skilled!

Jeff

On Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 3:11 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:
Really nice Glenn.

I like the color treatment, it often gets overprocessed but you did it beautifully

On Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 11:13 AM Glenn <public@...> wrote:
Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn



--
Brian 



Brian Valente
Don Anderson
 

Very well done Glenn! The Mach1 shoulders the 10" nicely.

Don Anderson


On Saturday, July 24, 2021, 12:13:51 p.m. MDT, Glenn <public@...> wrote:


Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn

M Hambrick
 

Great image Glenn

It would be great if you could share some of your processing techniques. I consider myself still in the learning phase and any tips are appreciated.

Mike
Glenn D
 

Thank you all very much for the kind words.
 
Best,
 
Glenn
Glenn D
 

Hi Mike,
 
I am happy to share any and all of my techniques but it’s hard to give advice without knowing where you are on the learning curve. I’ll give it a shot, though.

I do all of my pre-processing and most of my processing in PixInsight. After stacking, I usually process each master image (i.e. Ha, OIII, and SII) with DynamicBackgroundExtraction. Then I will stretch the histogram with HistogramTransformation, MaskedStretch or some combination of the two. This is usually followed by a round of noise reduction with TGVDenoise and sometimes MultiscaleMedianTransformation. Then I use Starnet+ to make starless versions of each master. With the stars removed, I generally stretch the images further and enhance details with tools like LocalHistogramEqualization and HDRMultiscale Transformation. I then combine the tweaked starless masters to make an RGB image. This is refined with color saturation and color balance adjustments. When I am happy with it, I will add the stars back in using PixelMath.

is that the kind of advice you were looking for? I’m happy to talk to you about it privately, if you prefer.
 
Kind regards,
 
Glenn
M Hambrick
 

Thanks for sharing your techniques Glen.

I wouldn't describe myself as a beginner, but my processing techniques are nowhere near as sophisticated as yours. I have been doing all of my processing using MaxIm DL Pro, but your comments along with tips I have gotten from others have me convinced that I need to investigate some of the other processing software.

Of course having the software is only the beginning. Then I have to learn how to use it. Even with MaxIm DL I have not come close to exploiting all of the capabilities that it has. It would really be great if I could find an image processing course or seminar to attend at NEAF or one of the other astronomy conferences.

Mike
Steve Reilly
 

Mike you may want to look at Adam Block’s series on image processing. It’s extensive and covers a vast majority of processes and is a subscription based service backed with an active forum.

 

-Steve

 

From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of M Hambrick
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2021 8:57 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] The Elephant Trunk Nebula in the Hubble palette

 

Thanks for sharing your techniques Glen.

I wouldn't describe myself as a beginner, but my processing techniques are nowhere near as sophisticated as yours. I have been doing all of my processing using MaxIm DL Pro, but your comments along with tips I have gotten from others have me convinced that I need to investigate some of the other processing software.

Of course having the software is only the beginning. Then I have to learn how to use it. Even with MaxIm DL I have not come close to exploiting all of the capabilities that it has. It would really be great if I could find an image processing course or seminar to attend at NEAF or one of the other astronomy conferences.

Mike

Glenn D
 

Steve beat me to it. Adam has two outstanding video series: the Fundamentals series for beginner/intermediate and Horizons for more advanced users. I subscribe to both and consider my subscriptions to be some of the best money I've spent in this hobby. When you consider how much an in-person course costs, the price of his videos is a bargain. He must have more than a hundred hours of video in his two offerings. What I love about his instruction is that he does not only teach the how but the why. He does not give the cookbook approach to processing. Check it out!

https://adamblockstudios.com/categories/PixInsight

Best, 

Glenn
M Hambrick
 

Thanks Glenn and Steve. I will definitely check those out.

Mike
Karen Christen
 

That’s a really pleasing image, Glenn.  Thanks for sharing it with us.

Karen

AP

 

From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Glenn
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2021 1:14 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: [ap-gto] The Elephant Trunk Nebula in the Hubble palette

 

Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn


--
Karen Christen
Astro-Physics
Robert Chozick <rchozick@...>
 

Great image Glenn. 

You now have peaked my interest in this star removal process. I will have to play with it.   

Does it place the stars into a separate Image. I am wondering if I can move that star image into Photoshop.  I use Pixinsight for a few processes but do most of my processing in Photoshop.   I usually only use dynamic background extraction and Photometric Color Calibration. For images at my new dark sky site I found I don’t even need DBE anymore. 

Robert 


On Jul 24, 2021, at 1:13 PM, Glenn <public@...> wrote:

Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn
<IC1396 elephant final 2.jpeg>
Robert Chozick <rchozick@...>
 

Great image Glenn. 

You now have peaked my interest in this star removal process. I will have to play with it.   

Does it place the stars into a separate Image. I am wondering if I can move that star image into Photoshop.  I use Pixinsight for a few processes but do most of my processing in Photoshop.   I usually only use dynamic background extraction and Photometric Color Calibration. For images at my new dark sky site I found I don’t even need DBE anymore. 

Robert 


On Jul 24, 2021, at 1:13 PM, Glenn <public@...> wrote:

Hi gang,

I had a stretch of good weather recently and was able to capture the elephant trunk with narrowband filters over several nights. This is one of three images I was able to do during the first outing with my new 10-inch Newtonian scope. I was not sure if my Mach1 would be able to handle such a heavy and long scope, but it hardly seemed to notice. It is a testament to A-P mount design. 

For higher resolution and details, please check my AstroBin page. Thanks for looking!

Glenn
<IC1396 elephant final 2.jpeg>
Alex
 

Hello Glenn,

Thanks for sharing! Very nice image.

I too, just recently started to capture the Elephant Trunk Nebula but still need to process the images. I use a quad narrowband filter with a ZWO ASI2600 color camera on a 130GTX. Did stacks at 240, 360, and 720 seconds. Here in California, even with a nearly full moon I got decent results with the filter in place. Now I need to start processing in PixInSight. 

Having your image as a reference is helpful. 

Best,
Alex
Glenn D
 

Thank you, Robert. 

The process called Starnet+, which is also integrated into PixInsight, does not automatically produce a separate image with the stars that were just removed. However, doing so is easy and only requires checking the "make star mask" button in the process window. I have been doing it on stretched images but I think the process may be been updated to work on linear ones—you would have to verify. You could make a starless image either in PixInsight or by running Starnet+ as a separate application. The program is available on one of the more popular open-source repositories (can't remember which). 

Best,

Glenn
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