RCC Free Data 17hrs Pacman data in NB please show me what you ve got!

I took a quick run at this using my normal SHO workflow.  Nice dataset to work with.  I might go for a bit more data to clean up the noise but certainly on the right track.  Thanks for sharing the data.

Hi Richard:

I didn't spend a ton of time on this, but I wanted to give you some feedback.  First, I personally feel that narrow band stars should be white.  The color is never going to be accurate with NB, so my opinion is, remove it.  

I use a tonemap technique where the color data from the 3 channels is separated from the stars and the detail.  Colors are processed then the detail and stars are added back by applying a synthetic L layer (which is primarily from the Ha).  My result is shown below.  Again, I did this quickly (30 minutes or so), so the results could be improved if you wanted to spend more time on it.  I just wanted to give you an idea of the direction that I take.

I have saved the entire PI project.  If you are interested in it (or anyone else) please let me know and I'll gladly share it.

Thanks for sharing the data.  I'm happy to give you as much information about how I approach this as you want, if you are interested.

Tim.

Awesome! keep them coming! There are certainly some sharpening tips I could @Tim Hutchison 

Love the different approaches to color too!

I ve just uploaded a more traditional version of my picture today with a bit more work on stars, although they kind of turned out diamonds...more practice needed!



NGC 281 Pacman

Here is my attempt! Warning! This is my first narrowband image EVER ! IMHO the only problem with your data is the framing. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with your data set. I should probably put some more work and care to achieve more variation in colors. What do you narrowband guys think?

Clear skies!

Richard:
would love to know your technique there!

Hi Richard:

Happy to share.

I use a Tone Mapping technique to process my narrow band images.  As I briefly said above, the technique involves separating the nebula from the stars so that you can process the colors in the nebula without damaging the stars.  When processing the tonemap you are concerned with COLOR and not so much with detail.  The important thing to do with the colors is balance them so that you have a contribution from each of the three channels impacting the image.  That is where the "reddish" tones in the center of my image come from...having a balanced tone map.

One thing you SHOULD NOT DO is make the mistake that I see SOOOOO many imagers (including the so called "experts" on YouTube) make.  That mistake is using the SCNR tool to rip out all of the green in the image, then inverting and applying SCNR again to yank out all of the magenta.  You absolutely KILL all of the color that is possible in a three channel image.  If you want a bi-color image, just shoot 2 channels.  If you're shooting 3 channels, WHY kill it???  That never made any sense to me.

Eric Coles and I did a presentation on The Astro Imaging Channel that details the entire process.  Here is a link to our video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECavLqDKs0E&t=4243s

To summarize, start in PixInsight and do your typical things to stack your channels.  Then combine using ChannelCombination and stretch using an UNLINKED ScreenTransferFunction applied using the HistogramTransformation tool.  Remove the stars using StarNet. 

(Alternately...you could stretch each channel independently, remove the stars from each, then combine all 3 stretched images.  And a third approach would be to use StarXTerminator to remove the stars from the linear images, then combine and stretch the starless SHO image.  All three are variations on the same theme.)

Save the resulting SHO starless image as a TIF and open it in PhotoShop.  Use the techniques that Eric demonstrates to balance the colors across the different areas of the nebula (I use his technique, modified slightly for my own style...). When done, save the edited SHO image and return to PixInsight.

Use a copy of the Original Ha image and go through the steps that I show for Deconvolution, Stretching, HDRMultiscaleTransform, LocalHistogramEqualization, and Sharpening on the Original Ha image.  Extract the luminance from the SHO image and combine with the Original Ha as I show in the video to form your final synthetic luminance layer.  Add the luminance to the SHO image and do any final color adjustments (color saturation, contrast, etc.) to finish off the image.

Eric's presentation starts around the 9 minute mark and runs for 20 minutes or so.  He covers the PhotoShop color balancing part.  My presentation starts immediately after his and I cover all of the "detail" stuff.

I also have the PixInsight and PhotoShop project files for this image.  If you would like to have those, let me know and I'll find a way to post them on Google Drive or something so that you can download them.

Please let me know if you find the video helpful.  Also, if you have ANY questions I am happy to answer them directly.  Contact me either through this post or via a direct message.  We can even start a google meeting and chat live if you think that would be helpful.

Best.
Tim.

Dear Richard,
Thanks for sharing your data.
Here is my take on your Pacman
https://www.astrobin.com/full/aihcjv/0/

CS
Axel

I have used the Data to push my RGB-Data. Hope you like it. 

CS Marcus



NGC281 Pacman
only RGB

thanks for sharing your data 
thats my first  try working  with narrowband proccesing 

A quicky.


Processed with PI

Its a fine photo, there is good signal in there!!!

Here's my spin using your data set. I used Seti Astro's NB to RGB stars tool using just your H and O channels. That seemed to provide a much better result than using the SHO. The SHO data was combined using a dynamic SHO combination in Pixel Math. Thanks for the fun data set - all my scopes are packed up since I might be moving so it was fun to have something to process.

CS
Bob

My take on this fantastic data,processed in Pixinsight and finished in Adobe Lightroom.