Marco Rocchetto Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 Dear Telescope Live Community, As you already know, since last December we started working on Telescope Live 4 (TL4) and the whole team is fully dedicated to what will be a groundbreaking improvement of our platform. While we focus our energies on this colossal project, we find it necessary to streamline our operations forcing us to temporarily pause one of our cherished traditions: our monthly contests. This means that the March contest will be the last one until the grand unveiling of TL4. But fret not, for we're not bidding this temporary farewell quietly. The greatest contest that Telescope Live has ever made! Instead, we're going out with a bang, hosting what is undeniably our most grandiose contest to date, in partnership with none other than Practical Astrophotography magazine. This magazine has swiftly become a cornerstone in the astrophotography community, offering insights, tips, and showcases that inspire both the novice and the seasoned astrophotographer. A Spotlight Like No Other This contest offers an unprecedented opportunity, a prize that extends beyond our usual offerings, into the realms of glory and global recognition: The Cover Feature: The winner's image will appear on the cover of the May issue of Practical Astrophotography magazine, offering unparalleled exposure. Astrophotographer Spotlight: Beyond the cover, the winner will have the chance to showcase more of their work and share their journey in the magazine's "Astrophotographer Spotlight" section, accompanied by a brief bio. A Physical Testament to Your Skill: Receive a complimentary physical copy of the magazine featuring your work, a keepsake to proudly display and cherish. The Ultimate Prize - an extraordinary bounty of TL credits Beyond the glory of having your winning image featured on the cover of Practical Astrophotography's May issue, this contest introduces the most substantial prize in TL credits we've ever offered! 250 TL Credits (valued at $375) With 250 TL credits up for grabs, valued at $375, we're consolidating the total prize pool typically awarded across the 4 categories in our regular monthly contests into a single, monumental award. “So, there’s going to be only one winner?” If you fear being cut out from the competition because you are not an expert astrophotographer, then we have good news for you too! In addition to our grand prize, we're excited to introduce an Honorable Mention category in this contest. As you know, we strongly believe in celebrating the diverse talents of our community, and this category opens the door for both seasoned astrophotographers and beginners alike to receive acclaim for their dedication to the craft. The winning picture of the Honorable Mention will be featured inside the pages of Practical Astrophotography magazine, offering another avenue for exposure. Why You Should Enter This contest not only offers the winner unparalleled exposure and recognition but also provides an extraordinary bounty of TL credits, unlocking limitless potential for exploration, capture, and creation within the Telescope Live platform. That’s why we urge every member of our community - from seasoned veterans to budding enthusiasts - to seize this unprecedented opportunity! How to Participate You can find all the info about the target and on how to enter the competition by clicking here below, where you will be redirected to the official Event page. Take me to the Rules! Entering and Closing Dates Mark your calendars! The gateway to this unparalleled opportunity opens today, the 1st March, and will welcome your submissions until the closing date on 7th April. This gives you ample time to prepare and submit your best work to not just participate, but to potentially secure your place in Telescope Live and Practical Astrophotography history. Take me to the Rules! Best of luck to all entrants! The race to the cover of Practical Astrophotography magazine begins now! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hatfield Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 If the data were RGB I would participate. Narrowband is not for me! George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Curry Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 6 hours ago, George Hatfield said: If the data were RGB I would participate. Narrowband is not for me! George Just out of curiosity, why do you prefer RGB over narrowband? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sauro gaudenzi Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 I personally prefer the narrow band because much of the material that makes up emission nebulae is ionized hydrogen, which emits its light on a wavelength of 656 nanometers, theoretically visible to the human eye, but not in the case of nebulae where it is not intense enough to allow us to perceive its color. When in astrophotography an image of a nebula is made using a camera or reflex modified for astrophotography, or a dedicated camera, this frequency is clearly within the reach of the sensor and will be represented on the final result, thus making the photograph not exactly plausible compared to what we would hypothetically see with our eyes if we were there. In astrophotography, however, you don't always choose to photograph the entire spectrum available. With emission nebulae where the main composition is given by a limited number of gases, it is often chosen to photograph with narrowband selective filters, therefore suitable for collecting specific emissions excluding a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is a fundamental principle of narrowband imaging and is based on spectrometry. Spectrometry is the ability to determine the composition of certain elements with respect to the light they emit. This is of particular use for astronomy as it allows for the study of many objects in the universe. This choice is also increasingly dictated by the increase in light pollution, especially for amateur astrophotographers. Selective techniques and filters allow you to obtain good results even from very polluted skies 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Bishop Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 On 3/14/2024 at 11:18 PM, George Hatfield said: If the data were RGB I would participate. Narrowband is not for me! George Hi George, if you were to give APP a try it makes combining mono easy mode. They do have a free trial of it. I plan on going through and showing how to use it end to end after 2.0 is out of beta, but basically just dump all of the files into it on tab 1 load as lights when using the calibrated files and just check through the 2 popups without selecting anything, then on tab 2 check hot pixel and leave it at default, on tab 3 just leave it at default unless you are doing a mosaic, on tab 4 check the boxes for dynamic distortion correction and same camera and optics, on tab 5 leave it as is unless doing a mosaic, and on tab 6 set MBB to 10 or 15% and LNC to 2nd degree 3 iterations and click integrate. It will spit out master lights, and then on tab labeled as Tools click on RBG combine, and for your standard LRGB stuff just pick LRGB 1 to combine it. After that use the various articles I have here to do other functions with APP. Once you do that I imagine you will start to really like those mono images! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hatfield Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 It is not that NB is too difficult to the contrary. I just finished this image of the Pencil Nebula in HOO (https://www.astrobin.com/nv8mxh/). I like RGB-based images because I try for a "natural look" to whatever object I am processing. That isn't possible with most narrowband data sets. That is why I always push for more RGB data sets from Telescope.live. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astro Newbie Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Hello George, No need to reply to this as it seems that you've made your mind up not to participate. Just wondering though if by using any of the pixel math formulae available online to simulate RGB, or, one of your own creation, you might consider entering something that resembles something you prefer. < Now it's possible that this data set was chosen since narrowband data does allow a multitude of colour variations, whereas broadband would most likely be quite similar. All those variations certainly help when it comes to judging what looks to be a popular contest, but might give the judges a headache trying to select a couple of them. The judges might go for something a bit different as long as it has been well processed, which you can do. CS, Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hatfield Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Ray, that's an interesting point about using pixel math to create a look that is similar to RGB. I'll check it out. Another point is about the contest. I was surprised at the price of the data set for entry. I've done NGC7000 images in the past and have no desire to do another if I have to pay for it. If the data were free, I'd probably give it a try. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Bishop Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 23 minutes ago, George Hatfield said: Ray, that's an interesting point about using pixel math to create a look that is similar to RGB. I'll check it out. Another point is about the contest. I was surprised at the price of the data set for entry. I've done NGC7000 images in the past and have no desire to do another if I have to pay for it. If the data were free, I'd probably give it a try. George Hi George, I am not sure how it would be done in PI, but with APP you can create false color RGB stars very easily by doing a regular HOO with Ha at a 100% red weighting and Oiii at 100% blue and 100% green weighting simply by adding the Sii channel at a 50% green weighting. You get your nice reds and blues along with stars in your regular colors. I am working on one set with that right now, but here is an example of what I mean. Look at some of the star colors. https://www.astrobin.com/ta1t7n/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astro Newbie Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Love that colour rendition Scotty. Just for future reference George and assuming you don't have APP as Scotty suggested you could try, there are a couple of Pixel math expressions within a discussion on the Cloudy Nights forum. I'm afraid that I don't know how to post a link to that post (discussion), but in a browser type in, "Narrowband imaging : what is the closest to realistic RGB". It's likely to find the post without having to type that entire mouthful in. That discussion was created on November 16th 2017. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hatfield Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 "A picture is worth a thousand words." Here is a natural image vs a narrowband simulation of the same scene. Do you see why I like RBG and stay away from NB? Sure, making a NB image look "sort of" like an RGB of the same object is possible, but I still like working with the real thing. That is not to say that I don't use NB data to augment RGB, such as Ha emissions in a galaxy, but it is rarely needed if the RGB data is deep enough in the first place. For Telescope.live, NB data is cheaper since the moon is not a factor, and I get that. However, I still think more thought should be given to optimizing targets during the dark periods of the month. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hatfield Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 The recent RGB images of Centaurus A are a good example of what is wrong with target selection. First, the scale is all wrong for a galaxy of this size. Second, close to 40 images of Centaurus A already exist in the Telescope's live collection. Why shoot more? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Bishop Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 You can give suggestions for targets if you would like to see some more of a certain type! The full details are here: How do I suggest a new One-Click Observation or Bundle? – Telescope Live Help Center It looks like when you said you prefer RGB images I and some of the rest misunderstood you, thinking you preferred images from a one shot color camera over a monochrome camera through filters. I can see that you actually prefer the LRGB stuff over the SHO stuff. I know I do and have suggested multiple targets that have been selected. I also have every single One Click Observation on the site which is 6499 of them to date, and have contributed quite a bit of my own Advanced Requests to be used as One Clicks. I've also done around 100 Advanced Requests over the years as well. That is why I have posted so much in the gallery here and of course plenty on Astrobin. As far as the recent wide angle set of Centaurus A and another object near it, Omega Centauri, I think they did that because there are a lot of galaxies scattered around and also plenty of dust in there too. They also completed a set of Centaurus A with CHI-1-CMOS and that one turned out pretty nicely and got me a top pick nomination. The Omega Centauri wide angle one got me the AAPOD January 20th. Definitely dig into those archives of One Clicks and see what you can find. You can browse through them and look at the various objects using the jpeg preview, and if one catches your eye go ahead and give it a shot. You may be selected for the Telescope Live Image of the Day with your image featured as the main one on the gallery and it also shows up in the weekly newsletter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hatfield Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 Scotty, thanks for the advice on finding more LRGB targets. I'm not a big OSC fan, but I will process interesting images from those cameras if that is the only choice. As noted, my preference is LRGB or NB plus LRGB. I must admit that I have not looked at all 6000+ available images, but I have looked at all the bundles. Despite my complaints about target selection, I usually find a couple of targets every month to process. Overall, I really like Telescope.live, especially now that BlurXterminator can quickly solve many of the optical star problems in some images from their wide field telescopes (e.g., FSQ106). George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Bishop Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 Hi George, the only stuff that has any OSC data in it is the planetary stuff, so there is no worries on that part. I just looked at the bundles and there are a lot of objects you would be missing just by looking at those. Try using the filters on the One Click Observation page to find what you want. You can do it by a number of different things, including by what filters used. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hatfield Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) Thanks again. I downloaded 8 of the one click observations of NGC3576. Nice image and fun to play with. The new RGB stars techniques are amazing. I frequently search the image data using object names if I see something elsewhere that I might be interested in processing. George Edited March 25 by George Hatfield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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