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A New Approach to Narrowband Processing of NGC 3293

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In this webinar, Nik Szymanek demonstrated a comprehensive post-processing workflow using the NGC 3293 Observation Bundle from Telescope Live. Leveraging the capabilities of multiple tools, including PixInsight, Affinity Photo, and the suite of XTerminator plugins (Blur, Star, and Noise XTerminator by RC Astro) Nik showed participants a unique glimpse into his process that frequently yields remarkable results.

The journey begins in PixInsight, where an RGB FITS image is created and subsequently scaled alongside the H-alpha integration. Deconvolution is run using the BlurXTerminator plugin, and after some histogram transformations, the mono and RGB frames are combined into a pseudo 'LRGB' image, an Ha-SHO format that takes advantage of the high signal-to-noise ratio of the H-alpha data, utilizing it as a luminance frame.

The stars are then extracted using StarXTerminator in PixInsight, creating a starless and a star-only version of the image. These are then further enhanced in Affinity Photo, using the Tone Mapping tool on the starless layer and color manipulation via Selective Colour. After noise reduction with NoiseXTerminator, the image is further refined with adjustments such as sharpening and scaling.
SPECIFICATIONS
Tutor .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Nik Szymanek
Parts .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 video
Duration .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1h 07m
Image type .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Deep Sky Imaging
Difficulty level .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Intermediate
Category .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Post-processing Webinars
Tier .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Premium
Software used .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Affinity Photo PixInsight RC Astro Plugins
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PART 1
A New Approach to Narrowband Processing of NGC 3293
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PART 1

A New Approach to Narrowband Processing of NGC 3293

Comments

Hi John.
Very sorry that the background music spoiled your enjoyment of the Webinar video. I've passed on your comments to the Telescope Live team. Hopefully, they will publish a version of the video without the background music.
Unfortunately, the music was added at a later date and I wasn't aware of it until I read Florent's message.
Thanks very much for the kind comments! 👍
Regards,
Nik

hi , if i can suggest, you shouldnt add music on video , make it difficult to follow the speech

Reply: 2

Hi. Thanks for the feedback.
The music was added after the webinar was recorded so I didn't have any input on that. I think a bit of background music can be quite nice providing it's kept to a level that doesn't interfere with the speech.
Regards,
Nik

Sorry I agree with Florent. Am profoundly deaf and have special software to boost the sound, with the music? makes it a bit like trying to hear someone whispering through a waterfall...
My wife says you have a fantastic speaking voice and would be better without the music....
Btw your tutorials are fantastic, it's slow going for me but I'm getting there.
Regards, John.

Hi Nik, thanks for the tutorial. I did find it a bit confusing,,, for example, doing noise reduction in Affinity when there is the excellent NoiseXterminator tool in PixInsight (which you have in your PixInsight system). You love the Selective Color adjustment in Affinity, but there is even more power using the PixInsight Color Mask (mod) script, and Curves. You can recombine the stars and the nebula in PixInsight using a simple PixelMath expression. I believe you can achieve just as good a result using PixInsight alone as you can going back and forth between two programs.

Reply: 2

Hi Edwin.
Thanks for the feedback.
I agree with your comments but the idea of the tutorial was to try and help people who aren't conversant with PixInsight. This is the case for a lot of the Telescope Live users, many who are quite new to astrophotography and may not even have PixInsight.
Of course, the remarkable Blur Xterminator is only available in PI, but both Noise Xterminator and Star Xterminator work very well in Affinity and Photoshop. These were the people we were trying to help and by switching between Affinity and PI I was able to take advantage of the graphic acceleration for PI to vastly reduce the processing time to make it viable to show the effects in real-time. Other than the application of Blur Xterminator, all other processes could have been done in Affinity.

Also, Affinity's Selective Colour tool is intuitive and easy to use and its Noise Reduction tool is extremely good for anyone who hasn't got the Noise Xterminator plug-in.

Hope this clarifies the tutorial. Thanks again for the feedback.
Regards,
Nik

Ahhh...sorry to hear that. I'll let the TL guys know and hopefully they will recode the video. Thanks for letting us know.