[RCC]M45

Request for feedback M45 Messier Objects Open Cluster Deep Sky
6 replies•269 views
Jeramie avatar
Jeramie avatar
Greetings! 

I've been practicing astronomy for a little over 3 years now and imaging for about 2 of those years seriously. I'm a fairly new user of PixInsight and am learning as much as I can, and there is still a ton to know. I'm also very new to Astrobin and am excited to learn from some talented imagers.

I've recently moved from the inner city to a dark(er) site and am getting more imaging time. I would love to get some feedback from this community and start thinking about changes to my process moving forward. A ton of processing is subjective, but there are most certainly technical things that will impact overall quality. 

Here is my latest M45 from Bortle 5, 180x60s: https://astrob.in/9wflog/0/

Looking forward to the conversation!

Jeramie
Well written Respectful Engaging
Aastro123 avatar
Aastro123 avatar
not bad data! I think you stretched the data farther than you should. Theres lots of dust in the background, but you dont really have the integration time to stretch this much without exaggerating the noise. Look into Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch. Adam Block has a great video on it. Its worth watching the entire thing as it isnt as easy as STF and Histogram Transformation. BUT you can be more selective what part of your data you are stretching, as in greatly reducing star  bloating as seen with STF, and noise. 

I recently finished my M45 for 2023 using GHS. You can see how the stars arent blown out on my profile
Helpful
Quinn Groessl avatar
Quinn Groessl avatar
I agree. More time so you can stretch it the same and not have as much noise, and it’d be really great. Still pretty good as it sits, just noisy.
Stefan Pfleger avatar
Stefan Pfleger avatar
Hi Jeramie,
i just had a brief look at your image…

I noticed a few things you can improve:
1. Gather more data, its worth it! If you want to howcase the dust properly, there is no way around spending several nights.
2. You seem to have a gradient issue, could be from flat issues. I‘m curious how your raw stack looks.
3. Not sure which methods you use for sharpening and denoising, but the image looks quite soft. Could be due to lack of data though. I recommend using tools like noisexterminator or deep snr for denoising, as well as blurxterminator for sharpening. If the prices for the „X“ suite is too expensive for you, you will need to learn how to use devonvolution. Deconvolution is less powerful than blurX though.
4. I would probably crop this image in until I get enough data to make the dust look appealing. M45 itself can be a stunning target, though admittedly it falls apart with less focal length. I‘d really just urge you to get more data on it tbh, the dust can look stunning!

greetings,
Stefan
Helpful
Jeramie avatar
Jeramie avatar
Look into Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch. Adam Block has a great video on it.

I have a subscription on Adam's site and will definitely look into it.

Quinn Groessl:
Still pretty good as it sits, just noisy.


Thanks!

@Stefan Pfleger : I do own all of the "X" tools and love them, although I'm trying to learn decon as well. It seems that decon has some usefulness if you know how to use it and can be complimentary to StarX. I've only recently started to process stars/starless images separately. 

Another thing I'm still fine-tuning are my flats. I use the ASIAir/light board method and maybe there is room for improvement there. I've tried to use PI to measure flats in the past, but the process was lost on me somewhat and seemed to take too much time. 

It sounds like the best place to start is collecting more data. I'll throw another night or two at this one and see how it improves. I recently moved from a B9 zone to B5 and I'm blown away at the difference in data quality. For this target in the past, it would easily take two weeks of data to get to my current output. Maybe it doesn't take two weeks anymore, but maybe 3 hours is still too short. 


Many thanks for the feedback, I sincerely appreciate the help and support.
Respectful Supportive
Stefan Pfleger avatar
Stefan Pfleger avatar
Jeramie:
@Stefan Pfleger : I do own all of the "X" tools and love them, although I'm trying to learn decon as well. It seems that decon has some usefulness if you know how to use it and can be complimentary to StarX. I've only recently started to process stars/starless images separately.

https://youtu.be/6Maq-UkeqG8?si=FX71WN7o3LYaOC-D
great deconvolution guide imo,  those settings work quite well and can result in similar sharpness to blurx. But Blurx also fixes the stars, so that is just superior to me.
Stefan Pfleger avatar
Stefan Pfleger avatar
Jeramie:
Another thing I'm still fine-tuning are my flats. I use the ASIAir/light board method and maybe there is room for improvement there. I've tried to use PI to measure flats in the past, but the process was lost on me somewhat and seemed to take too much time.

If the flats don‘t correct as well as you wish, it could also be due to a lightleak somewhere in the system. 
Idk if your flats correct well or not. I only saw the leftover gradient in the final process and figured, that looks like a flat issue.
Related discussions
Planetary Imaging Setup and Prep
Finally finding some time to get back to imaging and have been focusing on getting my planetary routine set. I've ran into some frustrating challenges along the way and wanted to see how others have overcome these things and maybe learn something...
Author learning PixInsight and seeking community feedback on imaging techniques.
Apr 24, 2025
[RCC] Improving detail & image quality
Hello. Looking for community wisdom on how to improve my image of NGC7000. I've looked at images from similar equipment and feel my image still lacks in some areas. The areas that I've identified are: Resolution/sharpness Color (color deficie...
Similar equipment user sharing M45 imaging experience and techniques.
Jun 30, 2022
[RCC] Would love some constructive critique on this processing!
This is my first time posting here and I would love to see some feedbacks and tips. I took the data from the Hubble Space Telescope archive. I mostly tinkered with levels, curves, saturation and hue in photoshop. Did some noise reduction and sharpeni...
Experienced imager sharing processing techniques and astronomy imaging practices.
May 13, 2022
Pacman Nebula
Hi - I'd love some feedback on my Pacman. I started imaging a little less than 2 years ago and dove into PI after taking several tutoring sessions with Ron Brecher last summer. I started processing by myself in late August/early September and fin...
RCC thread showing processing work from someone with comparable imaging experience.
Jan 8, 2022
Hi everyone
I'm delighted to join astrobin and should have done this earlier. My journey with astrophotography started during the pandemic when I was confined to my backyard and wanted something serious to do. Interest and grew quickly and I've recently ...
Author new to Astrobin seeking to learn from talented imagers like them.
Apr 23, 2025