Since I know at least one person will ask: I use an equatorial mount that tracks the stars as they move across the sky. This way I can do long exposures without having the star trailing. My image also isn't one single long exposure, but a stack of 180 6 minute long exposures totalling ~18 hours. I also use narrowband filters to cut through the light pollution, which means my image (and Hubble's since it's the same filters) are both false color.
I've been planning on shooting M16 in SHO for over a year now. I decided to wait until I could acquire a Sii filter, which wasn't until early April. I also wanted to total 20+ hours on this before moving home and graduating college, which I got fairly close to thanks to online classes and no sleep schedule. In order to maximize the amount of time I could get on it, I began shooting from once it hit 20 degrees altitude until the end of nautical dark (average of 2.5 hours per night). Also here are the full-size versions of my image as well as Hubble's. Captured on the nights of March 31, and April 2, 5, 15, 20, 21, and 24 from my apartment roof in Athens, GA (Bortle 7 zone).
If you want to see more of my photos check out my:
ChannelCombination (SHO mapped to RGB, respectively)
SHO Processing:
Unlinked STF applied via HistogramTransformation
LRGBCombination with nonlinear Lum (chrominance noise reduction enabled)
Invert > SCNR > Invert (repeated twice)
This removes a magenta cast common on Hubble palette images
SCNR
Removes some of the overwhelming green. Ha has the strongest signal and was initially mapped to the green channel.
Several CurveTransformations for lightness, saturation and color adjustments (mostly red and green channels)
Star mask
HDRMultiscaleTransform
Helps bring out the pillars in the brighter core region
More curves for color tweaking nebula and stars
Invert > SCNR > Invert with a star mask
This was to reduce the magenta stars common in Hubble palette images. I opted to preserve some of the magenta stars in the core to better match the look of the 2014 HST image of the pillars
HistogramTransformation to slightly boost red channel
DarkStructureEnchance
Invert > SCNR > Invert again to tweak overall magenta color
ACDNR
Nonlinear noise reduction
LocalHistogramTransformation
Boosts contrast, especially in the core region
More curves with range mask
tweaking core region colors
MorphologicalTransformation to reduce star sizes
More curves for more color tweaks
ACDNR
Final noise reduction tweaks
One last curve transformation to tweak green channel
I ended up doing a lot of my nonlinear processing with the green channel adjusted via STF, and didn't realize until the very end. Forgot to save the original STF process, so I tried to replicate it as best I could using curves
It was seeing the Pillars of Creation as a kindergartener that hooked me on space for life. Your picture is better than I thought would ever be possible from an earth-based telescope.
azzkicker7283 on May 17th, 2020 at 00:00 UTC »
Since I know at least one person will ask: I use an equatorial mount that tracks the stars as they move across the sky. This way I can do long exposures without having the star trailing. My image also isn't one single long exposure, but a stack of 180 6 minute long exposures totalling ~18 hours. I also use narrowband filters to cut through the light pollution, which means my image (and Hubble's since it's the same filters) are both false color.
I've been planning on shooting M16 in SHO for over a year now. I decided to wait until I could acquire a Sii filter, which wasn't until early April. I also wanted to total 20+ hours on this before moving home and graduating college, which I got fairly close to thanks to online classes and no sleep schedule. In order to maximize the amount of time I could get on it, I began shooting from once it hit 20 degrees altitude until the end of nautical dark (average of 2.5 hours per night). Also here are the full-size versions of my image as well as Hubble's. Captured on the nights of March 31, and April 2, 5, 15, 20, 21, and 24 from my apartment roof in Athens, GA (Bortle 7 zone).
If you want to see more of my photos check out my:
Instagram | Flickr | Astrobin
Equipment:
Acquisition: 18 hours 12 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -20°C)
Capture Software:
PixInsight Processing:
Luminance Processing:
Decon+star restoration method similar to the one outlined in OkeWoke's tutorial Jon Rista noise reduction tutorialIndividual Sii, Ha, and Oiii channel Processing:
SHO Processing:
This removes a magenta cast common on Hubble palette images Removes some of the overwhelming green. Ha has the strongest signal and was initially mapped to the green channel. Star mask Helps bring out the pillars in the brighter core region This was to reduce the magenta stars common in Hubble palette images. I opted to preserve some of the magenta stars in the core to better match the look of the 2014 HST image of the pillars Nonlinear noise reduction Boosts contrast, especially in the core region tweaking core region colors Final noise reduction tweaks I ended up doing a lot of my nonlinear processing with the green channel adjusted via STF, and didn't realize until the very end. Forgot to save the original STF process, so I tried to replicate it as best I could using curvesDanielJStein on May 17th, 2020 at 00:04 UTC »
Stunning dude. The colors look great and the detail is exceptional!
RSwordsman on May 17th, 2020 at 00:07 UTC »
It was seeing the Pillars of Creation as a kindergartener that hooked me on space for life. Your picture is better than I thought would ever be possible from an earth-based telescope.