Rian-Pascal Bergen

Psalm 111:1-10

LDN 1622, or the Boogeyman Nebula, Processed 20220331

This is my submission to the Boogeyman Master Processor Competition hosted by the Astrobisquit Discord Channel. The challenge was to take the data provided by the Big Amateur Telescope, BAT for short, and process it myself. Winners would get the Master Processor Role. The BAT is a collection of amateur astro-photographers who collectively decide on a target and then pool all of their data together. This allows you to collect massive amounts of data on a single target from people around the world. It also allows you to bypass more localized weather events. For this image, I decided to go a little bit more cropped in and show a bit more of the Hydrogen-Alpha. I ignored the Oxygen III Data completely. Total Integration Time is at least 28 Hours, however, this is a bit hard to calculate as not all contributors mentioned how much integration time they put in.

Processing Steps

PixInsight
- ChannelExtraction
  - 2021-12-17-RGB-jahwillprovide-4hr-LDN1622
  - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1
  - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1_S3_combined
  - LDN1622_RGB_scoot714_2021_12_11_8h
- StarAlignment
  - Reference Image: LDN1622_Ha_astrobiscuit_2022_01_18_3_7h
- ImageIntegration
  - HA Stacked:
    - LDN1622_Ha_astrobiscuit_2022_01_18_3_7h
    - LDN1622_Ha_bonamy7193_2022_01_17_2h
    - LDN1622_Ha_MrCrazyPhysicist_2022_02_11_106min
    - LDN1622_Ha_MrCrazyPhysicist_2022_03_04_64min
    - LDN1622_Ha_S2_S4_S5_discokrueger
  - RED Stacked:
    - 2020-01-30_Red_bonamy7193_1h_LDN1622
    - _2021_12_17_RGB_jahwillprovide_4hr_LDN1622_R
    - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1_R
    - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1_S3_combined_R
    - LDN1622_RGB_scoot714_2021_12_11_8h_R
  - GREEN Stacked:
    - 2020-01-30_Green_bonamy7193_1h_LDN1622
    - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1_G
    - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1_S3_combined_G
    - LDN1622_RGB_scoot714_2021_12_11_8h_G
  - BLUE Stacked:
    - 2020-01-30_Blue_bonamy7193_1h_LDN1622
    - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1_B
    - LDN1622_RGB_discokrueger_S1_S3_combined_B
    - LDN1622_RGB_scoot714_2021_12_11_8h_B
SiriL-1.0.0-rc2
- RGB Compositing
  - Combined RGB Integrations
- Photometric Color Calibration
- Remove Green Noise
- Saved RGB Integration
- Auto Stretch
- Saved RGB Integration Stretched
Adobe Photoshop 2022
- HA Integration
  - Several Iterations of Curves and Levels
  - Saved as HA Process 1
  - 1 More Iteration of Levels and Curves
  - RC-Astro GradientXTerminate MediumXMedium
  - Topaz Labs Topaz Denoise AI
  - Saved as HA Process 2
- RGB Integration
- 2 Curves Adjustments
- Level Adjustment
- Curves Adjustment
- Created Starless Image Using StarNet++
- Curves Adjustment to Starless Image
- Add Stars Back In
- Add Ha Process 1 as Luminosity Layer at 75%
- 1 Levels and Curves Adjustment
- RC-Astro GradientXTerminate MediumXHigh Balance Background Color
- DeepSkyColors HVLG Strong
- Selective Vibrance and Hue/Saturation Adjustments
- Several Iterations of Curves and Levels Adjustments to bring out RED Layer
- Add Ha Process 2 as Luminosity Layer
- Minimum Filter to Minimize Stars, Layer at 33%
- 1 Layer and Curves Adjustment to Increase Contrast
- 2 Iterations of Camera Raw Filter Color Noise Reduction
  - This was recommended by @Hermit (Dylan) on Discord after posting my first image.
- Created Starless Image Using StarNet++
- Levels Adjustment
- Topaz Labs Topaz Denoise AI Sharpening, Layer set to 50%
- Created Star Only of an earlier "true color" version, using StarNet++
- Star Reduction using Minimum Filter
- Vibrancy and Saturation Increase
- Blended together with HARGB version of Stars to create a cleaner merge between the two
- Add Stars Back In to HARGB Image