Here is part of my ongoing image processing. The cleaned images from the prior processing step can be viewed at Utah Astro Gallery album: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2892 (You can use the "View Slideshow" and "View Slideshow fullscreen") option in Utah Astro Gallery to scroll through the images. These images will be assemble as colored layers into a final. Processing notes are attached. The next step will be to decide on a color scheme. What colors will be assigned to which layers? Clear Skies - Kurt ================================= This sub-album contains images from album ProcessedOriginal and cleans up defects in each image. Processing notes explain what cleaning was done to each image. These cleaned images are assembled as layers into the final layer. I. Cleaning images overview Seven images from the prior processing step were edited in GIMP and cleaned for artifacts. Cleaned output files were: Green Channel: 201000115_origgreen_bit8.bmp -> 201000115_cleanedgreen_bit8.bmp Red Channel: 201000115_origred_bit8.bmp -> 201000115_cleanedred_bit8.bmp OIII Channel: 20100115_origOIII_bit8.bmp -> 20100115_cleanedOIII_bit8.bmp Ha Channel: 20100115_origHa_bit8.bmp -> 20100115_cleanedHa_bit8.bmp OIII-Ha Difference Channel: 20100115_origOIIIHaDiff_bit8.bmp -> 20100115_cleanedOIIIHaDiff_bit8.bmp Blue Channel: 201000115_origblue_bit8.bmp -> 201000115_cleanedblue_bit8.bmp Stars Only Channel: 201000115_origstarsonly_bit8.bmp -> 201000115_cleanedstarsonly_bit8.bmp All images were exported to native GIMP xcf format and to jpg. From the OIII-Ha Difference Channel, a small transparent layer containing on the highlight detail was created: 20100115_cleanedOIIIHaDiffHighlightLayer_bit8.bmp II. Specific cleaning on each image was: Green Channel: 201000115_origgreen_bit8.bmp Heal tool used to remove visually intrusive bloated stars and dust particles. Round stars will be added back in using 201000115_origstarsonly_bit8.bmp. For image purists, note the 10-25-2009 APOD of a Hubble M1 where the foreground stars have mysteriously disappeared. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091025.html Clone and smudge tools used on five stars with large amounts of bloat that were beyond the Heal Tools capabilities. Three of these stars are at the edges and might be cropped off in future versions. Red Channel: 201000115_origred_bit8.bmp Heal tool used to remove visually intrusive bloated stars and dust particles. Clone and smudge tools used on five stars with large amounts of bloat that were beyond the Heal Tools capabilities. Three of these stars are at the edges and might be cropped off in future versions. Blue Channel: 201000115_origblue_bit8.bmp Only very minor edits. Most of the stars are slightly oval - probably from a registration error. Only four stars were removed - the two central stars of the nebula and on the edge. Star bloat in the blue channel is probably too minor for an unsophisticated eye, but an experienced amateur will notice it. Two minor dust particles were removed with the Heal tool. OIII Channel: 20100115_origOIII_bit8.bmp Heal tool used to remove visually intrusive bloated stars, dust particles and apparently an NEO or satellite trace right at the visual center of the image. Many small CCD hot pixels were removed. Clone and smudge tools used on a few stars with large amounts of bloat that were beyond the Heal Tools capabilities. This channel had to be heavily worked on - mostly due to hot pixels. Part of the central nebulosity ring is overexposed. May try to use the "OIII-Ha Difference Channel" to fix this later. Ha Channel: 20100115_origHa_bit8.bmp Serious "L"-shaped star bloat in image such that image may not be useable in final. Virtually every size - even faint magnitudes - have "L" shape bloat. Heal tool used to remove heavy star bloat where visually instrusive. Dust particles, NEOs and hot pixels were present. Part of the central nebulosity ring is overexposed. OIII-Ha Difference Channel: Only a small masked area of this image will be used to provide luminuous details to part of the central nebulous ring. First, the Heal and Clone tools were sued to remove many small hot pixels and NEO streaks around the nebulousity region of interest. Created "20100115_cleanedOIIIHaDiffHighlightLayer_bit8.bmp" - a small layer box with a transparent background. Stars Only Channel: 201000115_origstarsonly_bit8.bmp Image was gamma stretched to make the stars brighter. Anything not a star was removed. Then the stars where cut to a new alpha channel (transparent) layer, where they can be floated over the top of the final image. The stars alpha layer created "201000115_cleanedstarsonlyLayerAlpha_bit8.bmp".