Workflow for SHO with RGB data for stars

Hi Arenda @arenda79,

You can combine narrowband with RGB data without any issues in APP.

THe actual workflow is something I will show in a video tutorial after 2.0 stable is released. But... in short, I can explain what it would entail:

• make a RGB of the broadband data and make sure that it is calibrated with the Star Color Calibration Tool.
• Make the Narrowband HaO3 composite.
• make sure the RGB and the HaO3 composite are registered to each other
• optionally, reduce or remove the stars in the HaO3 composite
• Combine the star color calibrated image with the HaO3 composite with the RGB combine Tool where you make sure that normalization is turned off in the RGB Combine Tool. And only alter the Multipliers for the two composites, meaning the R,G,B of the RGB image must keep the same mulitiplier.
• In that way, the star colors stay intact, and also the narrowband nebulosity colors

Mabula

@mabula-admin Hi Mabula,

Thank you for the update and the short workflow. With the information found on this forum and your worklfow, I have tried to do the following. Can you please check whether this workflow is in the right direction or am I overdoing things or not yet correctly?

RGB Integration

1. Make a RGB of the broadband data and make sure that it is calibrated with the Star Color Calibration Tool.
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 the composite color image into 3 RGB images that have all been preprocessed. These are the three files you will combining with the HaOIII files



Ha and OIII Integration

1. Make the Narrowband HaO3 composite. Clear everything out of APP and on Tab 0 (Raw/Fits), click on your correct debayer pattern (mine is RGGB). For the algorithm, select Ha-OIII extract Ha.
2. Click on Load (tab 2) and enter your lights, etc. for your L-eNhance frames and appropriate calibration frames.
3. Click on Register (tab 4) and select Use Dynamic Distortion Correction.
4. Click on Integrate (tab 6) use the automatic parameters. Click on Integrate.
5. 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.
6. Reload the same data, but now for the OIII signal.
7. Click integrate in tab 6 and this will integrate your OIII data.
8. When the OIII is complete you now have 5 files: R, G, B, Ha, and OIII.


R, G, B, Ha, OIII Registration/Normalization

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



Combining R, G, B, Ha and OIII

1. Combine the star color calibrated image with the HaOIII composite with the RGB combine Tool where you make sure that normalization is turned off in the RGB Combine Tool. Formula RGBSHO
2. Add each file, one at a time. R for Red, G for Green, B for Blue, Ha for Ha, OIII for OIII and OIII again for SII
3. And only alter the Multipliers for the two composites, meaning the R,G,B of the RGB image must keep the same mulitiplier. In that way, the star colors stay intact, and also the narrowband nebulosity colors

I used these settings, are they okay?

HSL selective color
1) boost yellow, select yellow, background - 50% of data range (check with show color selection which pixels are selected), set R(ed)<-->CY(an) slider to -0,75 to add RED to yellow pixels and set B(lue)<-->YE(llow) to 0,75 to add more yellow to the selected yellow pixels. Set saturation to 050 to boost saturation of those pixels. Notice that I disabled the auto DDP stretch to keep my preview filter tweaks intact going forward with processing. Check the adjustment with calculate current adjustments, keep the adjustment with keep current adjustments  to start work on other pixels:
2) boost blue, select blue, background -25% data range, set B -YE to -0,8 to add Blue and set G(reen)-MA(genta) to -0,4. This makes the blue pixels more blue and prevents a magenta cast since those pixels also still have weak red parts as well. Also more saturation 050. HIGH slider lowered to only 0.03
3) Kill background color noise, select ALL pixels from 0-background + 1*noise and check the selected pixels with the show color selection button. Set saturation to -100 which kills the color noise on the selected pixels.
4) Boost red, select red, background - 50% of data range, R-CY -0,90 and B-YE +0,70 and SAT 050:

Star Reducer Tool
correction radius 1.2
correct star halo 1.2
star size 65%
peak intensity 65%
noise threshold K=001

Kind Regards,

Arenda

Posted by: @arenda79

@mabula-admin Hi Mabula,

Thank you for the update and the short workflow. With the information found on this forum and your worklfow, I have tried to do the following. Can you please check whether this workflow is in the right direction or am I overdoing things or not yet correctly?

@arenda79 Sure, I will add comments below 😉

 

RGB Integration

1. Make a RGB of the broadband data and make sure that it is calibrated with the Star Color Calibration Tool.
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 the composite color image into 3 RGB images that have all been preprocessed. These are the three files you will combining with the HaOIII files



2. Simply click on clear in 1) Load, you do not need to restart APP.

3) No need to split the channels at all. RGB Combine will split the RGB image for you when you load it into the tool.

Ha and OIII Integration

1. Make the Narrowband HaO3 composite. Clear everything out of APP and on Tab 0 (Raw/Fits), click on your correct debayer pattern (mine is RGGB). For the algorithm, select Ha-OIII extract Ha.
2. Click on Load (tab 2) and enter your lights, etc. for your L-eNhance frames and appropriate calibration frames.
3. Click on Register (tab 4) and select Use Dynamic Distortion Correction.
4. Click on Integrate (tab 6) use the automatic parameters. Click on Integrate.
5. 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.
6. Reload the same data, but now for the OIII signal.
7. Click integrate in tab 6 and this will integrate your OIII data.
8. When the OIII is complete you now have 5 files: R, G, B, Ha, and OIII.


6) no need to reload/clear the data, once yoo have created the Ha integration, change the demosaic algorithm to Ha-O3 extract O3. APP will ask to re-normalize, say yes, and click again on integrate. The O3 integration will be made and is still registered correctly to the Ha integration.

R, G, B, Ha, OIII Registration/Normalization

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



Load the RGB star color calibrated integration and the Narrowbannd Integrations. Then register and normalize and save normalized frames indeed. APP 2.0.0-beta4 can do this now. Previously, APP could not normalize Multi-channel with single channel data but it is now possible.

Now 1 step is missing, you want to create the Ha-O3 bicolor RGB composite first now..

And optionally, perform star reducing on this Ha-O3 composite.

Combining R, G, B, Ha and OIII

1. Combine the star color calibrated image with the HaOIII composite with the RGB combine Tool where you make sure that normalization is turned off in the RGB Combine Tool. Formula RGBSHO
2. Add each file, one at a time. R for Red, G for Green, B for Blue, Ha for Ha, OIII for OIII and OIII again for SII
3. And only alter the Multipliers for the two composites, meaning the R,G,B of the RGB image must keep the same mulitiplier. In that way, the star colors stay intact, and also the narrowband nebulosity colors

I used these settings, are they okay?

Indeed, turn of normalization in the tool because we want complete control over the channels now to preserve the star colors and nebulosity. Load the Ha-O3 bicolor and the RGB integrations into the tool. Both images will be split into their R,G,B components by the tool. So the tool with have 6 channels.

The channels of the Broadbanc data need same multipliers and the channels of the Narrowband composite need the same multipliers. In that way, the star colors can stay intact and the nebulosity details as well.

The formula and info in your screenshot is not entirely okay. Choose the RGBHOO this is RGB + HaO3. You assigned a SII channel and the file name indicates RM for rejection map which you really do not want to use here.

 

HSL selective color
1) boost yellow, select yellow, background - 50% of data range (check with show color selection which pixels are selected), set R(ed)<-->CY(an) slider to -0,75 to add RED to yellow pixels and set B(lue)<-->YE(llow) to 0,75 to add more yellow to the selected yellow pixels. Set saturation to 050 to boost saturation of those pixels. Notice that I disabled the auto DDP stretch to keep my preview filter tweaks intact going forward with processing. Check the adjustment with calculate current adjustments, keep the adjustment with keep current adjustments  to start work on other pixels:
2) boost blue, select blue, background -25% data range, set B -YE to -0,8 to add Blue and set G(reen)-MA(genta) to -0,4. This makes the blue pixels more blue and prevents a magenta cast since those pixels also still have weak red parts as well. Also more saturation 050. HIGH slider lowered to only 0.03
3) Kill background color noise, select ALL pixels from 0-background + 1*noise and check the selected pixels with the show color selection button. Set saturation to -100 which kills the color noise on the selected pixels.
4) Boost red, select red, background - 50% of data range, R-CY -0,90 and B-YE +0,70 and SAT 050:

Think this is very good 🙂 Great !

Star Reducer Tool
correction radius 1.2
correct star halo 1.2
star size 65%
peak intensity 65%
noise threshold K=001

 

Kind Regards,

Arenda

 

Absolutely, finish the final result with same star reducing 🙂

Let me know if my comments help !

Mabula

This is good. And timely for me.

Is there anything that you would do differently if, with the same filters, you wanted to do an RGB image with the Ha and OIII used to strengthen the nebulosity? Anyhting different if you were going to do this multiple times as part of a mosaic? I'm doing a Milky Way mosaic (so the other recent post on mosaics is quite timely too).

@mabula-admin Hi Mabula,

Thank you for checking the workflow and adjusting where needed. There is one thing I am not sure about, what to do, can you provide some more details how to do the following step?

Posted by: @mabula-admin

Now 1 step is missing, you want to create the Ha-O3 bicolor RGB composite first now..

Kind Regards,

Arenda

@arenda79 Hi Arenda,

You can load the RGB, Ha and OIII images in the Combine RGB Tool and use the RGBHOO formula to do that.

HTH, Wouter

@wvreeven Hi Wouter,

So I followed these steps in short:
1- Create RGB image, create Ha image and create OIII image
2- Star calibration on RGB image
3- Combined Ha and OIII image in RGB combining tool according HOO formula
4- Normalized and Registered star calibrated RGB image and combined HaOIII image
5- Reduced stars from normalized combined HaOIII image
6- Combined RGB and HaOIII according the RGBHOO formula (no normalisation and without adjusting the multipliers)
7- finalization by HSL color adaptation and star reduction

Does this sound about right?

Kind Regards,
Arenda

@arenda79 Hi Arenda,

That sounds perfectly fine to me. Is the result what you hoped it would be? Care to share it here?

Wouter

I'm looking to do the same (add RGB stars to SHO data) but I'm using a mono camera (294mm).  Are the steps the same for me?  I will have 6 integrations:  R,G,B,Ha,Oii, and Sii and will use RGBSHO in the combine tool.

@markabbott Hi Mark,

Yes, the procedure will be the same. As a matter of fact, the Combine RGB Tool splits an RGB image into its separate R, G and B components so using the already separated R, G and B images will save APP from having to do that.

HTH, Wouter

@wvreeven

Hi Wouter,

Sure, the final version from APP and further processed in PS2022

 Groetjes,
Arenda