Deer Lick Group, Stephans Quintet and some IFN (LRGB) (Linda)

Deer Lick Group, Stephans Quintet and some IFN (LRGB)

Revision title: This time with color!

Link: https://lindasastronomyadventures.space/?p=11123

I was trying for IFN in the M81 image I did a while ago and ended up opting not to try to bring it out. In this image I wasn't even thinking about it but when I processed it it kind of jumped out at me so I decided to see what I could do to bring it out without making too large a compromise on the rest of the image. The latest version of StarXterminator really helped here. It did leave some residue behind on a few of the larger stars (though that would not have been visible without the massive stretch needed for the IFN) and I had to do some stuff to mitigate that but overall it made a big difference in allowing me to get the best of the galaxies along with the IFN.

Here's how I processed it:

Lum:
dynamic crop
ABE
StarXterminator (extracting unscreened stars)
NoiseXterminator
GHS script (3 iterations: GHS, linear, GHS)
HDRMT
LHE (2 scales)
MLT sharpening

each R, G and B
dynamic crop

RGB
channel combination
ABE
PCC
StarXterminator (extracting unscreened stars)
NoiseXterminator
GHS script (3 iterations: GHS, linear, GHS)
LRGB Combination to add in lum
Pixel Math in stars
Curves (contrast and color)
Four iterations of GAME and HT to subdue star halos as best as I could

l_stars
deconvolution (very light touch)

RGB stars
Channel Combination in l_stars as lum
GHS script

The big new thing for me on this image was delaying deconvolution until after star extraction and noise reduction. Normally I'd do it right after cropping. This might not be the appropriate spot but it really made applying deconvolution easier. It may not be scientifically accurate but it seemed to give a good result visually.

And in the past I've never had good results with the GAME/HT combo to reduce star halos. The time it worked well for me. Not sure why but I'm glad it did!

Original
Final
B

B

Title: This time with color!

Description: I backed up to the GHS stretches and did the first stretch with color rather than RGB which made a big difference in how much color was retained.

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	BUK1VICWGM7Z0P153OP2BA1Q0URP4DOC
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	22h36m31s.219
RA (top/left)	22h38m02s.773
RA (top/right)	22h38m07s.962
RA (bottom/right)	22h35m00s.575
RA (bottom/left)	22h34m53s.588

Dec (center)	+34°14′01″.82
Dec (top/left)	+34°37′48″.63
Dec (top/right)	+33°51′12″.77
Dec (bottom/right)	+33°50′10″.35
Dec (bottom/left)	+34°36′45″.46

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