Markarian's chain

[alis80b]

I am treating this as an 'Astro Processing' lesson and would welcome any tips/advice 😊

 

I imaged this for the first time on 18th April and was about to delete all of the data (due to some massive light pollution from my fire pit which I didn't realise would affect it 🙈). 

 

This is my second attempt at processing it and I have spent hours and hours messing around with it over the past few days!! 😫

With the help of a free 30 day trial of APP and Gradient Xterminator I have managed to save almost the whole image, including the little guys on the far left and right. I'm not sure who they are but I like them, and didn't want to crop them out to 'post' frame it better 😊

 

124 lights (70 second exposures ISO 800)

41 darks

62 flats

62 bias

 

Processed in Photoshop (after using the 'light pollution' removal tool and 'star colour calibration' tool in APP). 

 

I tried not to darken the background too much but think it looks a bit grainy? Maybe more noise reduction needed?

 

SW 80ED, Canon Ra. Unbalanced, not guiding, tripod sinking into the grass (I've got a plan for that 😊), Using APT just for shutter release. 

 

 

 

[Peter Shah]

Thats beautiful....so much going on....I know there isnt much colour in this chain of galaxies  but I think the LP tool may have removed some of the colour in the galaxies....even so a lovely shot

[alis80b]

2 hours ago, Peter Shah said:

Thats beautiful....so much going on....I know there isnt much colour in this chain of galaxies  but I think the LP tool may have removed some of the colour in the galaxies....even so a lovely shot

Thank you 😊

Yes I did notice when I did the 'calibrate star colours' thing that it seemed to remove all the colour but I seemed to get a more balanced background? I'm not sure what is better... lack of colour or a better background. Hopefully when I'm a bit more experienced I'll work out how to to both.

I did try saturating it a bit but I'm still struggling with the whole colour balance thing. I'll keep practising! 😊

[BAZ]

You are really getting going with this imaging lark. That's not an easy target either so I think you have done well, I guess the fire didn't help you , but there is time to go back to this and have another go and then I think you'll do it justice.

[Peter Shah]

13 hours ago, alis80b said:

Thank you 😊

Yes I did notice when I did the 'calibrate star colours' thing that it seemed to remove all the colour but I seemed to get a more balanced background? I'm not sure what is better... lack of colour or a better background. Hopefully when I'm a bit more experienced I'll work out how to to both.

I did try saturating it a bit but I'm still struggling with the whole colour balance thing. I'll keep practising! 😊

Colour balance is tricky....there are two elements to colour balancing. There is the colour Bias which is controlled by the black point in the channel then Balance which is based around the actual signal. Understanding this will make it much easier.

[alis80b]

20 hours ago, BAZ said:

You are really getting going with this imaging lark. That's not an easy target either so I think you have done well, I guess the fire didn't help you , but there is time to go back to this and have another go and then I think you'll do it justice.

Thank you. I will definitely go back to it and give it another go (and the other ones I’ve tried).. if the clouds ever clear 😩

 

[alis80b]

15 hours ago, Peter Shah said:

Colour balance is tricky....there are two elements to colour balancing. There is the colour Bias which is controlled by the black point in the channel then Balance which is based around the actual signal. Understanding this will make it much easier.

I have a lot to learn. 😩

I didn’t realise how complicated everything was but I am so interested in it, and really want to understand and improve. Thank you for your feedback/help. I appreciate it 😊

[Clive]

10 hours ago, alis80b said:

I have a lot to learn. 😩

I didn’t realise how complicated everything was but I am so interested in it, and really want to understand and improve. Thank you for your feedback/help. I appreciate it 😊

As I understand it,  you first need to set the background (the 'black point', normally the peak of the histogram) of each colour layer to the same value by using an additive process (+ or -) to all 3 colour layers  Then you need to set the required colour balance by a multiplicative process (greater, less or equal to 1) to 2 of the 3 colour layers.  The difficulty occurs because the background would not normally be set exactly to zero so that when you adjust the colour balance it will also effect the background of each colour layer (and visa-versa), but any astro software should account for the non-zero background when adjusting the colour balance.

[alis80b]

6 hours ago, Clive said:

As I understand it,  you first need to set the background (the 'black point', normally the peak of the histogram) of each colour layer to the same value by using an additive process (+ or -) to all 3 colour layers  Then you need to set the required colour balance by a multiplicative process (greater, less or equal to 1) to 2 of the 3 colour layers.  The difficulty occurs because the background would not normally be set exactly to zero so that when you adjust the colour balance it will also effect the background of each colour layer (and visa-versa), but any astro software should account for the non-zero background when adjusting the colour balance.

Thanks for the help. I've been following some tutorials on Youtube but often the 'natural' colour I come out with looks nothing like the colour I see in other photos 🙈 

I don't know whether you should change the colour to what you like or stick with the 'default'. I have read it's down to personal preference but I don't know what I like or what looks good yet 😊

Edited May 15, 2021 by alis80b