Astro Pixel Processor - Star Color Calibration not working as intended

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DBxnn avatar
Hey guys!
I am using APP as my stacking and pre-calibration software. A few days ago, I wanted to process data I got from a friend. The object is the Pelican Nebula. I did my normal routine in APP - stretching > LP removal and star color calibration. When I hit the star color calibration, the nebula color went from a nice, glowing red, into an orange-yellow-ish color. Why does this happen? This is not the first time this has happened with nebulae that are mainly red in color. Does someone know how to fix that and know what is causing this problem?

PS: My theory is that the stars were all blown out by too long exposures / too high gain / iso settings, therefore losing their color and causing problems with the color calibration. Can this be it?

Thank you very much in advance!
Best regards, and cs
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Björn Arnold avatar
Hi,

I bet the „problem“ is that the nebula is shot in narrowband. Especially if you have the SHO palette, you won’t achieve a natural star color. Narrowband is inherently false color. If the star colors are important, many people substitute the stars with natural RGB data.

CS!
Björn
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DBxnn avatar
Hello!
Ah, that makes total sense. I am yet a beginner, so please excuse my most small minded questions. If I were to shoot the same object with a DSLR and for instance with an Optolong L-Pro or L-eXtreme filter, would I also encounter the "narrowband problem", or would I get true color images? 
My guess is that you won't encounter the "problem" with the l-pro because it is a broadband filter, but with the l-extreme you will encounter it, because it is a narrowband filter. Am I correct?


Thanks!
Best regards and CS
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Björn Arnold avatar
I am yet a beginner, so please excuse my most small minded questions.

No need to apologize! Intelligent people ask because they want answers.
A DSLR is designed by the manufacturer to produce true colors under normal conditions. Any filter modifying the spectrum will alter the color and as you're correctly stating an L-Pro which is rather a narrowband blocker is less extreme then an L-eXtreme  which cuts even more of the spectrum of the stars (emission nebula data is narrowband data). But here ends my wisdom about these filters as I don't use light pollution filters. I'm certain someone will provide you some good advice if and how colors can/could be recovered.
For the LeXtreme, it’s similar to creating an HOO image with a mono camera, where the Halpha goes into the R channel and the OIII data into the G and B. With this, it should be possible to calibrate the star colors to some extend but I haven’t tried to full extend.

Best,
Björn
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Tayson avatar
Whah is Yours telescope?
Bob Rucker avatar
I found star colors to be true when using the L-Pro with my old ASI533MC color camera. The L-Extreme did exhibit some characteristics that you see when shooting narrowb with a color camera but L-Extreme star color calibration seemed manageable.

I've recently upgraded to the ASI294MM Mono camera and star color calibration is a real challenge with APP when shooting in narrowband. I've started experimenting with shooting my star field in RGB and nebula in narrowband. Still learning the ins and outs of mono processing but this approach seems to give the best of both worlds.
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