My first ACP Image - NGC 2903

[Jim Gianoulakis]

I have a lot to learn about processing images but now that I get to sleep while accumulating photons, I should be able to spend the time to learn.
This was my first unattended image.

NGC-2903-RGB-MASTER-temp1.jpg

[Jim McMillan]

Hi Jim,

Isn't it such a great thing when you get ACP working well enough that imaging no longer requires giving up sleeping!!! A very good first image!

From a processing perspective, my suggestion is to concentrate on Luminance images for a while. Doing color is hard work - particularly when you're dealing with light pollution and/or the moon. For color, the flats need to be good, gradients are almost always present, and it requires lots and lots of exposure time to get good color. Working with Luminance only is a little more forgiving and easier to get good results even with a pretty bright moon. The last couple of my images were posted specifically to show what can be done during a bright moon.

Just a thought.

Jim

[Bob Denny]

How nice!! Thank you for posting it You're well on your way to developing your astronomical artist's side.

[Jim Gianoulakis]

Thanks Jim, good advice. I'm transitioning from a OSC to a mono camera and you're right, color is hard. I'm reading and will undoubtedly get better at it, I'd almost have to. My skies are nothing special as I live in Las Vegas and it's probably one of the brighter places on Earth but it's what I've got and am determined to make the best of it. I'm still getting my head around the work flow required for multi filter images. When using the OSC camera I used a Hutec light suppression filter but removed it for the images I'm taking with filters. I think I'm going to go back and shoot this same target with the same parameters with the LP filter to see the results. Anyway thanks for the encouragement.
Jim