Georgette is a national treasure!
what equipment did you use?
He’s just like me fr
NB = narrowband (the Ha and Oiii filters) and BB = broadband (the RGB filters). Because I’ve got a lot of light pollution I use a lower gain for the broadband filters since they let a lot more light through.
I only count exposures post-rejection. The morning after imaging I’ll look through the pics and delete them if it was cloudy, out of focus, not centered, or if the stars trailed. The rest go on to get calibrated and stacked for the final image.
The Little Dumbbell Nebula gets its name because it kinda looks like a tinier version of the Dumbbell Nebla M27 (yes, a different palette was used for this pic). It's really tiny compared to the uncropped FOV. I'm a lot happier with this attempt at it, compared to my 2019 pic of M76 with the same equipment. I know It's a bit out of season rn but I needed something to shoot at the start of the night. The nebulosity itself is false color, but the stars are true color RGB. Captured over 10 nights in Feb/Mar 2024 from a bortle 9 zone (I could only get a couple hours max per night on it.
Places where I host my other images:
-
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: 21 hours 6 minutes (Camera at -15°C), NB exposures at unity gain and BB at half unity
-
Ha - 99x360"
-
Oiii - 83x360"
-
R - 101x60"
-
G - 100x60"
-
B - 99x60"
-
Darks- 30
-
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
PixInsight Preprocessing:
-
BatchPreProcessing
-
StarAlignment
-
Blink
-
ImageIntegration per channel
-
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
-
Dynamic Crop
-
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)
$T * med(model) / model
Narrowband Linear:
-
Blur and NoiseXTerminator
-
StarXterminator to completely remove stars (to be later replaced by the RGB ones)
-
ArcsinhStretch to slightly stretch nonlinear
-
iHDR 2.0 script to stretch each channel the rest of the way.
This is a great new pixinsight script from Sketch on the discord. here's the link to the repo if you want to add it to your own PI install.
RGB Linear:
-
ChannelCombination to combine monochrome R G and B frame into color image
-
SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration
-
BlurXTerminator for star sharpening
-
HSV Repair
-
StarXterminator to generate a stars-only image
-
ArcsinhStretch + HT to stretch nonlinear (to be combined with starless narrowband image later)
Nonlinear:
- PixelMath to combine stretched Ha and Oiii images into color image (/u/dreamsplease's palette)
R = iif(Ha > .15, Ha, (Ha*.8)+(Oiii*.2))
G = iif(Ha > 0.5, 1-(1-Oiii)*(1-(Ha-0.5)), Oiii *(Ha+0.5))
B = iif(Oiii > .1, Oiii, (Ha*.3)+(Oiii*.2))
-
NoiseX again
-
Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc
-
LocalHistogramEqualization
-
UnsharpMask
-
More curves
-
ColorSaturation to slightly desaturate the purples
-
even more curves
-
Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier
This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before
(again, credit to Jimmy independent starless processing stuff)
mtf(.005,
mtf(.995,Stars)+
mtf(.995,Starless))
-
Couple final curves
-
DynamicCrop waaaay in on the nebula
-
Annotation
The Little Dumbbell Nebula gets its name because it kinda looks like a tinier version of the Dumbbell Nebla M27 (yes, a different palette was used for this pic). It's really tiny compared to the uncropped FOV. I'm a lot happier with this attempt at it, compared to my 2019 pic of M76 with the same equipment. I know It's a bit out of season rn but I needed something to shoot at the start of the night. The nebulosity itself is false color, but the stars are true color RGB. Captured over 10 nights in Feb/Mar 2024 from a bortle 9 zone (I could only get a couple hours max per night on it.
Places where I host my other images:
-
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: 21 hours 6 minutes (Camera at -15°C), NB exposures at unity gain and BB at half unity
-
Ha - 99x360"
-
Oiii - 83x360"
-
R - 101x60"
-
G - 100x60"
-
B - 99x60"
-
Darks- 30
-
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
- Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
PixInsight Preprocessing:
-
BatchPreProcessing
-
StarAlignment
-
ImageIntegration per channel
-
DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)
-
Dynamic Crop
-
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)
$T * med(model) / model
Narrowband Linear:
-
Blur and NoiseXTerminator
-
StarXterminator to completely remove stars (to be later replaced by the RGB ones)
-
ArcsinhStretch to slightly stretch nonlinear
-
iHDR 2.0 script to stretch each channel the rest of the way.
This is a great new pixinsight script from Sketch on the discord. here's the link to the repo if you want to add it to your own PI install.
RGB Linear:
-
ChannelCombination to combine monochrome R G and B frame into color image
-
SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration
-
BlurXTerminator for star sharpening
-
HSV Repair
-
StarXterminator to generate a stars-only image
-
ArcsinhStretch + HT to stretch nonlinear (to be combined with starless narrowband image later)
Nonlinear:
- PixelMath to combine stretched Ha and Oiii images into color image (/u/dreamsplease's palette)
R = iif(Ha > .15, Ha, (Ha*.8)+(Oiii*.2))
G = iif(Ha > 0.5, 1-(1-Oiii)*(1-(Ha-0.5)), Oiii *(Ha+0.5))
B = iif(Oiii > .1, Oiii, (Ha*.3)+(Oiii*.2))
-
NoiseX again
-
Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc
-
LocalHistogramEqualization
-
UnsharpMask
-
More curves
-
ColorSaturation to slightly desaturate the purples
-
even more curves
-
Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier
This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before
(again, credit to Jimmy independent starless processing stuff)
mtf(.005,
mtf(.995,Stars)+
mtf(.995,Starless))
-
Couple final curves
-
DynamicCrop waaaay in on the nebula
-
Annotation
I'm still kinda upset that it clouded over at the last minute during the 2017 eclipse. I had my camera set up to take a bunch of exposures for HDR throughout totality, and this was really the only one that turned out. Hopefully it'll be clear this time and I can get a proper HDR image, but I'm not looking forward to driving 6+ hours back home (not including eclipse traffic).
Also for anyone else who saw the last eclipse, did the dumb lizard part of your brain freak out a little when you saw stars out at 2pm or was it just me?
Kinda as a joke I designed a house for astrophotography in sweethome 3D. You can also export the whole 3D house model into unity and upload it to VRChat to actually walk around inside it
It’s basically a giant particle beam made by the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy.
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2000/20/968-Image.html
I ended up getting their PM. I’m not touching their stock with a 20ft pole.
It's taken me several years to get to this point, and honestly I'm still continuing to learn new techniques and improve my processing to this day. I've never actually added up how much all my equipment costs, because then I'd have to give an honest answer when my family asks. I did buy a lot of it on the used market, and I haven't really upgraded anything since covid and astronomy gear prices shot up. Most of my images I take from my apartment balcony, which has horrific light pollution. A couple times a year I'll head out to a dark site like the Deerlick Astronomy Village for a weekend. If there are any astonomy clubs in your town they'll tell you what dark sites are best near you.
I'm not sure how much of a 'guide' I could be, but I can help give advice and constructive criticism if you need it! If you use discord there's also a ton of beginner info and people able to help out in ours (link in the sidebar).
Yes, this is an actual Messier object. These two stars are by far the most awe-inspiring, and sexy objects in space.
Captured on April 25th, 2021 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-120MC for guiding
Moonlite Autofocuser
Acquisition: 2 hours 44 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
Lum - 128x120"
Red - 18x120"
Green - 18x120"
Blue - 18x120"
Darks- 30
Flats- 30 per filter
Capture Software:
PixInsight Processing:
BatchPreProcessing
StarAlignment
Blink
ImageIntegration
DynamicCrop
AutomaticBackgroundExtraction
Luminance:
EZ Denoise
ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear
RGB:
ChannelCombinaiton to combine monochrome R, G, B stacks into color image
PhotometricColorCalibration
Slight SCNR
HSV Repair
ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear
Nonlinear:
LRGBCombination with stretched L as luminance
Several CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, colors, saturation, etc.
ACDNR
EZ StarReduction
NoiseGenerator to add noise back into star reduced areas
Final Curves
Annotation