Acquisition
For 2024, I made the switch to a mono camera for galaxies. The Edge HD 11" SCT and will continue to be my galaxy hawk and I have added a focal reducer to speed up acquisition. I am still tweaking the imaging train, but early results are quite good. Modern cameras are so much better than they were 10 years ago.
For nebula, I will continue to use the TS Optics 130mm APO. This air-spaced triplet is remarkably easy to use and produces images that are clean from edge to edge. Everything just seems easier with this scope. The one thing I have yet to test is the backfocus with the new camera. I may need to remove some spacers connect the TS Optics reducer. More to come.
My imaging spot is a short drive from my house, so both systems need to be mobile. I wish I could sleep while the computer does all the work, but the light pollution near my house has increased to the point where the driveway is really only useful for testing. The plus side is that I don't need to be fully automated in the field. The down side is that I still need to tear down and drive home in the middle of the night.
My guiding improved last year with major effort in balancing. But, I'm still losing contrast due to poor sky conditions. The switch to a better quality mono camera should give me better contrast against the light dome. Three hours of open shutter is about what I can achieve in a single night, so I need to make the most of it.
Image Processing
Alignment/Stacking - I preprocess darks and flats in Nebulosity, which allows me to process RGB, Ha and OIII simultaneously. I use ImagesPlus for grading and IP's HDR algorithm for stacking. I tested a number of different stacking routines during covid and IP HDR is by far the best.
Post processing - The initial histogram stretch is done in ImagesPlus. This seems to reduce noise and doesn't saturate any stars. From that point, the majority of my processing steps are done in Photoshop.
Color - The biggest challenge in my processing is getting the colors to look right. Early on, my efforts were focused on contrast and balancing detail and noise. Today, I spend a lot more time on color correction than contrast.
I separate out the color data from the luminance data so that I can really hone in on hue and color noise. Lab mode is key to producing colors that look best to my eye.
Sharpening - This has been an area that I have worked on recently. I have been experimenting with a few standalone AI tools and also Photoshop obviously has several sharpening tools. None of these seem to work for me. The best results so far involve a combination of steps using vivid light in Photoshop, which I have simplified with some homemade actions.
The one lesson I have learned is to not try to do too much with each step. Each layer is a tiny incremental improvement. When I try to do too much with any step, it ends up looking more like a painting than a photo. Baby steps.