Elephant's Trunk Nebula - 3 Images

So as Albert White will tell you, I have been getting to grips with PixInsight for Image Processing, so I decided to re-process some of my previous images, the first one I tackled was the Elephant's Trunk Nebula

Here's the LRGB Version

IC1396 - Elephant's Trunk Nebula in LRGB

Here's the LRGB+HA Version

IC1396 - Elephants Trunk Nebula

And here is the SHO (Hubble Palette) Version

IC1396 - Elephants Trunk Nebula - Narrowband Hubble Palette

Enjoy

Hi Simon,

You are getting to grips with PixInsight quite fast. Well done on that.

I see a problem when I look close in (which I always do by the way........hence I cringe sometimes at my own images)...

I think you have a similar problem to me in that I have great trouble making good star masks. When you protect the stars to much and work on the background you end up with a ring around the star and mottled background. At full resolution it shows up quite clearly. I spend hours sometimes just trying to get good star masks as I work on an image. I need to figure out how it is done more simply and it will be number one on my list of things to learn this year.

You can see what I mean here:


I have noted that some people that always get OOHHs & AAHHs about their images on the internet never show them at highest resolution......I guess that would be an easier trick to learn rather than the learning how to do the proper masks. But no.... we should keep trying to improve. If I learn the right trick (other than spending hours at it)....I'll be sure to pass it on

Brendan.

Brendan

Yes I know exactly what you mean, and it all stems from the Deconvolution Process, have not yet figured out a way to get rid of them, I am going to try using the "StarMask" script later today to see what happens

in my LRGB and LRGBHA Images it's no where near as bad, I think I Need to apply a StarMask to my SII Layer before applying a Deconv....It's annoying

I only use deconvolution if I really have to. It is somewhat complicated .....but as usual there are some good you-tube videos out there.
For star masks, I always end up with too much protection around the stars and this leads to the ring around the star when you look close in. Another reason for that halo (not exactly the right word) in my NB images is the fact that when I reduce the magenta around the star it leaves that ring or border. What I have started doing of late is reducing the size of the stars in SII to try bring them down to same size as the Ha before bringing the different masters together.
It's all a lot of work......but then again that's what it is all about. I have not done any processing in over a month and with the sieve that I have for a brain....I'll have to re-learn most of what was coming easy last year....

Have fun!

I think if you create a star mask for specific brightness stars / size you can only apply the HDR and Deconv to the region excluding the stars, it is definitely the Deconv process causing it in my images, HDR doesn't, and even with Deconv, I have the "Dering" specified