15th Feb 2024: Astro Pixel Processor 2.0.0-beta29 released - macOS native File Chooser, macOS CMD-Q fixed, read-only Fits on network fixed and other bug fixes
7th December 2023: added payment option Alipay to purchase Astro Pixel Processor from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other countries where Alipay is used.
The last two nights have been remarkably clear in New England, and I am getting used to my new-to-me Astrotech ADT115 refractor and ZWO imaging gear. I decided to image M33, and on the first night, I used:
L, R, G and B all at 180s x 10.
On the second night, I didn't really have a plan and just quickly through together:
B, R and G for 300s x 5
L for 180s x 5
R, G and B for 300s x 5
and finally H for 600s x 5
All images taken with same gain and cooling (using ASI1600MM Pro camera).
I still don't have enough experience to know whether I may have over-exposed anything, but the peak and main spread of my histograms look reasonable (below 50%).
So my two main questions for this group:
How would you go about processing the RGB data where some of the lights use 180s exposure and some use 300s?
Second, I threw in the H for good measure, but some quick reading indicated that some galaxies, including M33, benefit from some H data. What recommendations do you all have for integrating that data into a final image?
Thank you!
@tbar23 Hi Trevor,
You can load all lights, including Ha, in one session and make sure that they are assigned to the correct filter. APP will prompt you for them so it should be a matter of verifying and clicking OK. Then you will get 5 integration results: one for L, R, G, B and Ha each. You can then use the Combine RGB tool (or an external tool if you prefer) to combine them into a color image.
It is possible to process the lights with different exposure time separately. APP doesn't have an HDR mode (yet) so if you want to use an external tool for that then you should load the lights for one exposure time in one session and for the other in a second session. APP will then create tow integration results: one for each exposure time.
Note that after loading the raw data, you can go straight to tab 6 and hit the integrate button. No need to perform all intermediate steps separately. APP will execute all of them for you automatically.
HTH, Wouter
Thanks, Wouter. I’ll need to go research some HDR techniques.
