Submitted by azzkicker7283 t3_z6fz94 in space
Comments
dailytour30 t1_iy2vwo1 wrote
>TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian Orion Sirius EQ-G ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding Moonlite Autofocuser
Casual r/space visitor here, I have absolutely no clue what any of that is but it sounds like at least $20.000.
mrjohanvds t1_iy2y6ne wrote
Astrophotography is an expensive hobby but it does not have to be as expensive. You can start with just your DSLR and a lot of patience. Then you can buy a equatorial mount, then a better lens. Things are beginning to become crazy when you start to buy a scope, you'll need another mount (your first one is likely be deprecated for your setup). And then you are entering in expense vortex due to passion and perfectionism.
Xaqv t1_iy3ffx5 wrote
Or just take a picture of it with your mind (and without interfacing profanity to explain it to yourself).
azzkicker7283 OP t1_iy447ai wrote
My gear costs somewhere in the 4 figure area. Never added it all up because then I’d have to give an honest answer when asked by my family.
I bought a lot of it on the used market which helped a lot with the total price. I started with just the sirius mount, 6” newtonian, and my moms DSLR, but I’ve been slowly upgrading it over the last 5 years.
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azzkicker7283 OP t1_iy14l6q wrote
So despite doing astrophotography for over 5 years I've never gotten an image of M31 that I've completely liked until now. My last real attempt at it was in 2019, and looking back has some obvious noise reduction and color gradient issues (tbf I shot it from downtown Athens, GA). I recently visited my future in laws, who happen to live in the middle of nowhere, so I brought along my telescope to take some deep space pics. I also incorporated some hydrogen-alpha data from a while ago to help boost the Hii regions (the red splotches) in the galaxies a bit. At first I wasn't sure about the addition of the Ha data, so I ended up processing this image twice from scratch, one with Ha and one without. There were parts of each that I liked and disliked, so I blended the two finished pics together, and was very pleased with the results, which is the final image you see above. also here's a starless version for the hell of it. Captured on November 17th, 2022, from a Bortle 4 zone (Ha data was captured in October 2020 from a Bortle 6 zone)
Places where I host my other images:
Instagram | Flickr
Equipment:
TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
Orion Sirius EQ-G
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 11 hours 14 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain(Ha) and half unity (LRGB), -15°C)
L- 46x120"
R- 20x120"
G- 18x120"
B- 18x120"
Ha -47x300" x 2 panels
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Processing:
BatchPreProcessing
SubframeSelector
StarAlignment
Blink
ImageIntegration
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
Linear:
DynamicCrop
automaticBackgroundExtraction
EZ Decon
NoiseXTerminator
ArcsinhStrecth + HistogramTransformation to bring nonlinear
RGB Linear:
Channelcombination to combine monochrome images into RGB image
PhotometricColorCalibration
SCNR green
HSV Repair
Adding Ha:
> I followed this tutorial which had great results on some prior HaLRGB galaxy pics:
> http://www.arciereceleste.it/tutorial-pixinsight/cat-tutorial-eng/85-enhance-galaxy-ha-eng
> Ha-Q * (Red-med (Red))
> Q=0.15
PixelMath to combine Clean Ha
PixelMath to add Ha to RGB image ($T)
> R= $T+B*(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))
> G= $T
> B= $T+B*0.2*(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))
> B=1
Nonlinear Processing:
PixelMath to add original RGB image into the gaps from the old Ha data
Slight SCNR
ArcsinhStretch + HistogramTransformations to stretch nonlinear
> The RGB image without Ha was processed almost identically as above, minus the Ha addition steps. while nonlinear they were processed pretty similarly, so I'm just going to list out the general steps as they broadly apply to both images:
Nonlinear:
LRGBCombination with stretched luminance
Shitloads of CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, saturation, contrast, hues, etc.
Extract L --> LRGBCombination for chrominance noise reduction
color saturation to slightly desaturate the Ha regions
More curves
SCNR > Invert > SCNR > invert to remove some greens and magentas
LocalHistogramEqualization
> Two rounds of this. one at size 16 for the finer 'feathery' details and one at size 500 for large scale structures
even more curves
NoiseXTerminator
EZ Star Reduction
noise generator to add noise back into star reduced areas
guess what baby more curves
PixelMath to combine the two fully processed images 50:50
Another round of EZ star reduction, NoiseXTerminator, and LRGBCombination chrominance noise reduction
HEY DID YOU KNOW I LIKE USING THE CURVESTRANSFORMATION PROCESS?
Resample to 60%
Annotation