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[RCC] First try on the double cluster

Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight One-Shot Color Request for feedback Open Cluster
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Konrad Krebs avatar
Konrad Krebs avatar
Hello everyone, 
as I often follow posts here, I wanted to take the opportunity to start a post myself. 

This is my very first time for an open star cluster. Taken with OSC and UV/IR cut filter.

Pixinsight:
Stack & align with WBPP (1x drizzle, seperate channels)
Crop
DBE
BlurrX correct only
Image solver
SPCC
NoiseX
GHS
Curves
Color saturation
Bill Blanshan's Star Reduction script (Transfer method, stretch 0.45)
Export as Tiff

Photoshop:
Remove green cast
Minor color adjustment
Minor brightness adjustment
Export to JPEG

Personally, I'm still a little bothered by the color of the stars and that some of the stars have a slight magenta edge. I also think that the stars don't really pop yet.

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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
How long are your subs?
Konrad Krebs avatar
Konrad Krebs avatar
Tony Gondola:
How long are your subs?

I usually take 30s each, living under bortle 6.
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Ok, that's pretty short which is want you want. That said, you could go even shorter like 15 or 10 sec.

I think my main take on it as an image is that the double cluster, which is the main subject is being obscured by the wide field and vast numbers of faint stars. If it where me, I'd crop in and see if I could find a way to reduce the number of fainter stars so that the cluster has more of an identity if that makes sense. You might also try a more aggressive uv/ir filter that cuts a little bit deeper in the blue. Something like a fringe killer type filter might help with the bright star halos.
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bigCatAstro avatar
bigCatAstro avatar
Konrad Krebs:
Hello everyone, 
as I often follow posts here, I wanted to take the opportunity to start a post myself. 

This is my very first time for an open star cluster. Taken with OSC and UV/IR cut filter.

Pixinsight:
Stack & align with WBPP (1x drizzle, seperate channels)
Crop
DBE
BlurrX correct only
Image solver
SPCC
NoiseX
GHS
Curves
Color saturation
Bill Blanshan's Star Reduction script (Transfer method, stretch 0.45)
Export as Tiff

Photoshop:
Remove green cast
Minor color adjustment
Minor brightness adjustment
Export to JPEG

Personally, I'm still a little bothered by the color of the stars and that some of the stars have a slight magenta edge. I also think that the stars don't really pop yet.


I don’t know much about the OTA you’re using, however; you could substitute the SVBONY UV/IR cut filter with a fringe reducer filter. That should help with reducing chromatic aberration.

There are several options, including one from SVBONY (marketed as a color corrector). I think it works fairly well, but I’ve since moved over to the Baader version of the filter.
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