[Sticky] Combining R, G, B with Ha & OIII data using an Optolong L-eNhance filter

Randy solamente se pueden apilar hasta 5 trabajos en multi sesiones en APP  

Dear Leandro, would you mind asking in English? Thank you!

@ahbok Thank you for sharing this integration workflow. I just used it for an image of the M1 taken with my C8 and OSC ZAO ASI533MC. 

https://astrob.in/dpu2kw/B/

I am amazed at the result. 

Nice work!

Hi, I have a clarification question in case of a mosaic.  I am trying to put together a 2-panel mosaic of the Rosette nebula, shot using the L-extreme filter (end goal is an image similar to Matthew Hilton's wonderful picture on the post of Jan 27 2021).  Each panel is 30 subs. 

My question is, do I do the mosaic integration before or after the RGB combine?  I think the flow should be:

Panel 1: extract Ha, integrate

Panel 1: extract O3, integrate

Panel 1: register the above images and integrate, combine RGB with desired weights. Save.

Panel 2: extract Ha, integrate

Panel 2: extract O3, integrate

Panel 2: register the above images and integrate, combine RGB with desired weights. Save.

Integrate the 2 saved mosaic panel images with appropriate settings for MBB and LNC.  

Perform any desired HSL selective color on the integrated mosaic. 

The alternative  would be to not do the RGB combine until the final integration of the mosaic?  

Or should I be doing something else entirely? 

Thanks!  

@rkmvca Your workflow is good. You could also choose to not integrate the Ha and OIII images of panels 1 and 2 and create separate Ha and OIII mosaics. Then use Combine RGB to create RGB images out of them. That would give you a bit more flexibility for how much contribution of Ha and OIII you want in each R, G and B channel. But the way you do it now gives perfectly usable RGB images as well.

Thanks.  I like your idea of making separate Ha and O3 mosaics, then RGB combining them.  I'll try that, and then post results.

- Rich

I know I must be doing something stupid (big learning curve for me) but in following the basic workflow I get the 5 files for R, G,B, Ha, and OIII but when I load them up and try to Analyze stars (step 12) I get the message:  No lights available, nothing to do.  Do the 5 fits files loaded look correct?  I must have missed something or have loaded the wrong files.  I will try and load a screen shot.  Thanks, Lonnie

Did you load the R, G, B, etc as Lights or as Other/Processed?  I found the same error when I loaded them as Other/Processed; when loaded as Lights it worked. 

- Rich

Edit:  there is something flaky about the BB software here.  I seemingly couldn't get it to accept my simply reply, and of course when I reloaded the page I found 3 copies of the same thing.   

@rkmvca I did it as other/processed. No go.  I will try to load as lights.  Thanks, Rich.

Hey Rich, it worked.  Now I can start working on getting the head dents out of the wall.  Thanks again for the quick response.

Happy to help!  

Will this process work for SHO palate using L-enhance?

@kevin-lewis This is not correct, although the moderators also state this too at several places in the forum. After "Extract Ha", and registering everything, you better clear APP and reload the frames again before you extract OIII. Imagine you just begin, and you load the L-eNhance frames. APP asks you for which filter these frames are. Then I select H-alpha. I go on loading my flats (not yet masters, but plain flats!) and darks and bias frames. Then APP asks for which filter the flats are, and again I say "for H-alpha". Now, during the process, APP creates the integration AND the masterflat-for-H-alpha. (And of course the masterdark and masterbias). I f you now go back to the Raw/Fits-tab and select "Extract OIII" without reloading the frames, APP will again create a masterflat, but with a name referring to "H-alpha".

So this is why I start again from scratch when I want to "Extract OIII" (after extracting H-alpha)

@jan-monsuur It is not necessary to reload your frames to be able to extract Ha and OIII from L-eNhance and L-eXtreme images.

In tab 0, select "Ha-OIII extract Ha" or "Ha-OIII extract OIII". It doesn't matter which one you start with as long as you later return and select the other. Then in tab 1 load the lights and calibration frames and simply leave the default apply "FILTER" header tag or assign RGB/MONO enabled. APP will then load the images as RGB, which they actually are! Then you can go straight to tab6 and hit the integrate button.

When done, return to tab 0 and select the other algorithm. Then return to tab 6 and hit the integrate button again. This will repeat a part of the initial integration steps but it skips star detection and registration since this was already done on the RGB data.

This way, the Ha and OIII integrated results will be nicely registered to each other.

@nsblifer I am asking Mabula about this. I'll let you know the answer as soon as possible.

Hi

I have QHY268C and a QHY183M camera. They have different FOVs, with 183 being a bit narrow.

I am planning on a long imaging session of M81 and M82 together. 

I have these

1. 6 hours with QHY268C APC- camera at 700mm FL

2. 4 hours qhy268C at 700mm and then 2 hours Ha with QHY183M 

What do you recommend. Should I go with QHY, use 4 hours for RGB and split 2h of Ha, or go with my option 2? What would give me better results. I want to bring out the reds and also capture some IFN

You can always combine data from different scopes/sensors, so I would use both. So I'd opt for 2 where the Ha will have a very clean signal. The only thing I'm wondering about is if that will help you with the IFn. The Ha signal will be primarily in the galaxies and not very hard to capture. So maybe 5 hours color data and 1 hour Ha?

@vincent-mod 

Thanks! yes I need the red from galaxies. So I will just do OSC + 1 hour Ha for getting reds

@wvreeven thank you! You’d think there would be a step by step YT video from start to finish on APP narrowband processing by now but there isn’t.  

This is a great help - THANK YOU very much.  I wonder if you can help me understand what I would need to do differently if I was combining RGB from my OSC with OIII filter data?  I tried using this workflow with applying the OIII data to OIII=Blue and OIII-Green and the R-G-B split channels (on SH2-129 Flying Bat) and I'm not seeing the OU-4 Squid (the blue that I purchased the OIII filter to capture) coming through (like it is in the OIII Fits).  Can anyone tell me the adjustments I need to make to this workflow for that combined data set??  Thank you!  

@ahbok nice tutorial. 👍 

I have  36 subs of the L pro filter for the RGB and 40 of the L enhance. 

For the L pro, do I have to follow your steps for the RGB with calibration frames and integrate. And than restart APP, load the 1 integrated light Lpro file and do split the rgb channels, correct? And after that the L enhance but for that I already have some skills with that.

Posted by: @ahbok

↑

I've had several requests for my basic workflow for splitting R, G, B frames from my OSC and combining them with the Ha and OIII extracts from the L-eNhance filter. I'm sure there are other and some better ways to do this, but this workflow is what I gleaned from other posts here and combined with my own experience with the filter. If you can make improvements to this workflow or have a better workflow, please share it.

Extracting Ha & OIII files and combing with R, G, B files using an OSC and Optolong L-eNhance filter. 

RGB Integration
1. Stack and integrate the color files as you normally would but do no post processing on it yet.
2. Clear the input files out of APP (or close and restart it) and load in the stacked integrated color file as a light file.
3. Click on the Calibrate tab (tab 2) and scroll to near the bottom and check the "Split Channels" and click on Save Calibrated Frames. This will then split your composite color image into 3 RGB images that have all been preprocessed. These are the three files you will combining with the NB files

Ha and OIII Integration
4. Now for the narrowband images. Clear everything out of APP and on Tab 0 (Raw/Fits), click on your correct debayer pattern (mine is RGGB).
5. For the algorithm, select Ha-OIII extract Ha.
6. Click on Load (tab 2) and enter your lights, etc. for your L-eNhance frames and appropriate calibration frames.
7. Click on Register (tab 4) and select Use Dynamic Distortion Correction.
8. Click on Integrate (tab 6) use the automatic parameters. Click on Integrate.
9. Once the integration is complete for the Ha file, clear the data once more, go to tab 0 and select the Ha-OIII extract OIII algorithm. Reload the same data, but now for the OIII signal. Click integrate in tab 6 and this will integrate your OIII data.
10. When the OIII is complete you now have 5 files: R, G, B, Ha, and OIII. Now the files must be registered and normalized together so that you can combine them.

R, G, B, Ha, OIII Registration/Normalization
11. Restart APP and in the Load tab (tab 1) load in the R, G, B, Ha, and OIII files.
12. Click on Analyze stars (tab 3) and click on the Analyze Stars button.
13. When Analyze stars is complete, Click on Register (tab 4) and then click on Start Registration.
14. When registration is complete, click on Normalize (tab 5), click on Normalize lights. When complete, click on Save Normalized Frames.

Combining R, G, B, Ha and OIII
15. Click on Tools (tab 9) and select Combine RGB.
16. Add each file, one at a time. R for Red, G for Green, B for Blue, Ha for Red, OIII for Green and OIII again for Blue. At this point you have 6 files designated.
17. Go ahead and click on Calculate and get a starting image.
18. Tune the top slider for each frame as desired. I usually start with something like Ha slider 2.0, OIII Green 1.0, OIII Blue 1.5, Red 2.5, Green 1.0, Blue 1.5 and then go from there. Keep in mind, you do not want to overpower your image with Ha and OIII or you will destroy your natural star color.
19 When you have finished tweaking your color, click create and then cancel. This takes you out of the Combine tool.

Final Tweaks
20. Select the combined fits file you just saved. Now you are ready for your initial crop, light pollution reduction, Star Color and HSL Color. Then you can adjust your saturation, contrast and sharpening.
21. Do any final cropping and/or rotating and save your Tiffs and JPEGs as desired.

Randy Roy

I'm stuck at step 16.  Note I used a ZWO Duoband filter but but for this it shouldn't matter.

I'm using beta 26 and when I run the Combine RGB step.  First, I assume I need to change the formula to RGBSOO (you didn't address that part)?.  Second, when I "Add Channel" I'm not asked what color to map it to but rather what filter I shot it with.  RGBHO seems obvious (red, blue, green, HA, OII respectively) but what filter do I select when I add the second OII channel, the one you said map to green above?

We need a tutorial video for general DSLR narrowband filter processing in SHO, HOO, etc. 

This was a HUGELY helpful workflow for me as a newbie...THANK YOU!

I'm still stuck.  I took an image with a duoband filter (Ha and OIII) and previously with a UV/IR filter.  I split them per the instructions here to get R,G,B,HA, and OII.  Step 16 doesn't seem to work.  It doesn't ask how to map them (which is what I'm assuming is being described) it's asking for what filter.  When I assigned them to the filter (R for Red, G for Green, B for Blue, Ha for Red, OIII for Green and OIII again for Blue) it did not appear to work correctly.

Somebody?

Hi Lonnie @roscoed,

That instruction 16 is actually not correct I think, why not assign Ha to Ha and OIII to OIII ? Then you can make the proper composite for sure.