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Super Luminance Creation

Edward Smith
in PixInsight
I just watched one of the videos that had you create a SuperLuminance image (the M83 Process Flow) and the logic made sense.  So, a related question (and I think the answer is going to be yes, but I'm asking to make sure I'm understanding the logic here).

I'm collecting a bunch of data on the Eta Carina Nebula through iTelescope.  I have a whole bunch of data (LRGB) and I've started collecting SII, Ha, and OIII data during periods where there is a lot of moon (because heck, I get an hour a night for free so why not?).  Now, say I'm going to create an image using just part of the data, say just the LRGB.  When I make my SuperLuminance image, should I include all of the narrow band data as well?  I'm guessing "yes" because more data is almost always better and I gathered the photons so I should go ahead and use them.  That being said, I'd be including photons in bands that I'm not actually going to be using in the image.

Thank you.

Comments

  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    Hmm... I think there is another component to your logic you might want to consider.
    Narrowband data lets through (is much less) light right?
    The issue is, when you create a "super luminance" you are also weighting the images.
    If you weight the NB data...the contribution will be very small... and likely not worth adding it in.

    So... something to think about.
    Don't believe me? You should of course do the simple experiment and try a stacked image with and without the NB data.

    Of course you can assign arbitrary weights- but this is not the intent of a superlum

    -the Blockhead
  • Edward Smith
    Hmmm...OK, then how about the reverse.  Say I'm creating a L+Narrow Band image.  Should I use the RGB data in the Super Luminance?  Or do you not bother with a Super Luminance at all when doing Narrow Band?
  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    Yeah, I think it doesn't add much value to do superlum with NB. 
    Even if you were doing NB alone... the bands are likely seeing different structures...so unlike a continuum source... the coadding of the data really doesn't do much. 

    This is different than using one of the NB bands as a luminance. This is not the same as coadding all of the channels.

    -the Blockhead
  • Edward Smith
    Thanks.  I have even less experience with NB than I do with other forms of image processing.  I may experiment a bit when I actually get around to processing the data.
  • Scott Badger
    FWIW, I tried something of the reverse with the Bubble nebula. The Ha integration had far more detail than the luminance, but i thought maybe I could give it a boost by creating a superlum of all channels (I was also a little desperate to use the luminance data I had spent valuable imaging time on ….). Anyhow, the result looked good but when I applied BlurX to it, even at very conservative settings, I got strange effects….a highlighted edge on some of the structures.

    Cheers,
    Scott
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