Theatre Hipparchus

MX7C Imagers have a special affinity. Here's why:

Unlike our counterparts who use filter wheels, the MX7C imager has a special set of circumstances to  present a reasonable final colour image. Recently one of my colleagues, Dave Trapani posted a interesting FITS image to convert using Maxim. This was an indoor one-shot of one of his children's crayon boxes.

My first approach was to do a straight Convert MX from the drop down Colour menu using Maxim 4.07  The image was discernable through the preview window but for me, even astro images come out in monotone blue. It was quite blue all the way through and could just be my settings.

The Convert RGB from the same menu wielded a much better result:

I think Maxim's interfaces are phenomenal - love the preview windows. Here the background levels came up automatically. I left the X and Y offsets unchecked. I adjusted the histogram and checked the preview. Then OK.

This is the straight result of the Convert RGB with the histogram set to catch all the data. Quite workable in my opinion. Now we can go on to use Maxim's beefed up tools. Doug George has never made a big deal about it but Maxim's curves and the histogram stretching routines are really solid. I do use Photoshop - but these work equally well without leaving the platform.

Next Try:

I have had reasonable luck splitting the original raw fit in Astroart using Steve Hills plug-in. I use Steve's default settings for LRBG conversion. Convert then Save as fits. Then over to Maxim for a LRGB combine. In this case we have a single set LRGB but you can batch using the Astroart plug as well.

Here we see the colour is a little more responsive without any tampering. I use the default settings for colour 1,1,1 and Luminance setting at 100 for this result. 

Side note:  

I like this method for my astro images because much of the data I capture is well, not so good. I can go in and usually repair my green. Of the RGB the green is usually poorest - guessing but I believe it is light pollution because I am using an I/R filter. 

Once you have your splits, it opens up a nice series of options. Here is the Astroart version:

Again - just straight colour with no tweaking. Astroart has a nice plugin series from Chris Icough that I use quite often. The star bloat filter when used with very mild settings has rescued a good portion of my work. For some reason Astroart images are flipped vertically so I have to be mindful especially if I am working in two or three different programs. I have often put a lum upside down on a rgb in Photoshop with my usual result. 

Here is AIP4WIN with the same set of raws.

I think AIP is a wonderful program. Many top flight imagers use it, but it beats me up. I simply struggle the whole time trying to get my data to work.

Conclusion:

My workflow goes all over the place but I think the most flexible method is to split the raw in Astroart or like program and then calibrate and combine in Maxim. This kind of extra effort inspires one-shot imagers to press on. Or could it be that we just love our MX7C's. Likely a bit of both.  

If you would like to add any ideas, suggestions or comments please feel free to enter your considerations below.

Best,

David